Man Eating Tigers, Massive Rivers and the Bay of Bengal: NE India, Walking Into Bangladesh and the Amazing Sunderbans.

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The town Khohora, Assam, India had a nice, relaxed feel to it, one of those places where people from all over the world are walking around. We made plans to change to another room for the next night, met a cool father and daughter from California in internet place. Arrangements made to go on safari all day the next day, first on an elephant and then in a jeep. We chilled out in our room for some time in the afternoon, had a hearty dinner with a few beers and then off to sleep.

The knock came early on our door this morning at 4:30AM to rouse us for safari. I had one of those moments coming out of REM sleep where I had no idea where I was for a second. We woozily walked out to a jeep in the morning darkness, Ollie and Sophia feeling a little better. It was downright cold on the ride over to Kaziranga Park. We stopped for permits, then blazed through the park gate with a truly stunning sunrise coming up to our east. We got out to a little platform with a couple work elephants milling about. Todd and I got on one elephant with our mahout (elephant driver), Ollie and Sophia on the other. It was a misty beautiful morning.

We saw deer, water buffalo and then our first rhino. We saw probably about 20 rhinos this day, being on the elephant allowed us to get very close to them, about 20 feet away I would guess. They have to be the most prehistoric animal I have ever seen, have been around for millions of years. They are constantly under terrible threat of poachers and suffered during the floods of the past summer. To see those magnificent creatures up close in their habitat is amazing. Our
elephants ambled peacefully and quietly in the morning light. We walked through mud, up hills.

After about an hour, we switched to the jeep and headed out roads. We saw more water buffaloes, plenty of wild elephants, lots more rhinos, birds of all shapes and sizes including the
stunning looking hornbill bird. We were out at this huge tower overlooking a lake, wildlife was everywhere, vistas to the Himalayas in the north. We were visiting with some India tourists and a jeep pulled up near us. Amazing, it was our Liverpool and London friends from the Wangala Festival, Catherine, David and Hayley. It is always great to reconnect on a trip with people you have seen earlier. Hugs all around, caught up with them a bit, made plans to have dinner later.

Nice lunch break, we caught a ride with our bags over to the Villa Santi and our sweet little $10 room. WE had a favorite little local restaurant called the Pelican, food today was a tasty platter (thali) with fish curry, chai, potato salad, fresh onion with salt, chilis, roti and dahl. Another go at finding the elusive Bengal Tiger in the afternoon, to no avail. We did run across loads of monkeys, many more rhinos and elephants. At the end of the day around sunset, we stopped at a lookout tower for an incredible vista over a huge lake, elephants, water buffalo and rhinos everywhere. The sun was setting, air fresh, views of snowcapped Himalayas in the background.
Slow ride with Ollie and Sophia back to Khohora, Sophia wasn't feeling well but rallied bravely.

After resting our safari beaten bones, we met our Liverpool and London friends and Ollie out at the Pelican for a farewell supper of chicken curry, dahl and fresh onions. We were all going in different directions the next day, Catherine, David and Hayley off to Nagaland, Ollie and Sophia overland on a train. Todd and I sorted a ride the next day into Guwahati, no small feat because the main separatist group in Assam had called a general strike so hardly any cars would be on the road. After searching here and there all over town, we finally found a guy willing to go. Good times, good chat, home to bed.

Oh, amazing news too. Our Garo friends just kept on showing up in our lives. Tomorrow we were going to go to Guwahati and had plans to stay in a room before our flight to Calcutta the next day. We reached Alva Sangma and Gunn Marak by cel and found out they were going to be at their apartment in Guwahati and we could stay there again the night before our flight, excellent.

We woke early the next morning at 6AM, excited for the next part of the journey. We grabbed an early morning milk tea at a little stall with some local guys and watched the town wake up. Our ride came along, we hoisted our heave packs in and hit the road. Goodbye Kaziranga!
Because of the general strike, the roads were almost clear. It was so strange to zip along almost unimpeded. This whole trip up to this point had been one of many people on the road, rickshaws, cows, trucks, horns everywhere. About 1/3 of the way to Guwahati, we merged onto a real highway, after passing a construction zone zipped very quickly toward our destination.

This highway construction project seems massive, clearly government funded. As many tourists visit, I think the goal was to have a really nice road eventually out from the main gateway city of Guwahati to Kaziranga Park. What I see that saddens me is that the highway takes the road away from little towns that have had traffic and associated commerce for many years.

We rolled in Guwahati super early. Todd had a crazy idea to get his teeth cleaned this day. Gunn met us on the outskirts of town, found a very professional dentist and Todd had a great cleaning for about $20. We got back to the apartment and joined Alva, they had a great meal ready for us of dahl, tea, mutton, spinach, cauliflower, rice and a delicacy from Garo country, cooked snails. I just couldn't stop eating the snails, they were garlicky and delicious.

We had a nice mellow afternoon just hanging out, catching up on our journals, prepping our bags for the next part of our journey, sharing our tales of the road with Alva and Gunn. We took Alva and Gunn out for dinner to thank them for their amazing hospitality to a place that specialized in Tandoori cooking and Punjabi food. It was really good but funny because that is exactly the kind of food we get back in the states. We went home, had lots of laughs while using a home karaoke machine they had on their TV. So nice to have a good bed, a shower and good meals. Sleep time, big travel day tomorrow.

The next morning Alva and Gunn ran us over to the Guwahati Airport, time to say farewell to the amazing Northeast of India. One more cup of overpriced airport tea and we boarded our Jet Airways plane for Calcutta. This would have been a 20 hour train ride, we would be there by plane for $70 in less than one hour. We took off, nice ride with brilliant Himalayan views on the way. We originally thought about exploring crazy Calcutta for a couple days but opted in favor of getting in and out as quickly as we could and preserving more time in Bangladesh.

The airport was 20 miles outside of Calcutta proper, as we came down to land we could see the sprawling metropolis in the distance. Let the next chapter begin! We landed and had a surprisingly easy transition into the airport, getting our bags and through the airport. We imagined it would be crazy when we exited the airport, bracing ourselves for an onslaught. Funny, the reality was anything but that. People were wonderful, we walked outside calmly, made our way over to where we thought we could get a ride to the Bangladesh border.

The Calcutta airport is known for these old 1950s era Ambassador cars. We went over to a little stand, made a deal with the guy who seemed to control the booking of these vehicles. For $25, the driver would take us 2 hours to the Bangladesh border. I probably could have bargained harder but sometimes you just want to be on your way. We were trying to cover some serious distance this day. We hopped in with our friendly driver who spoke very little English.

Leaving Calcutta was for sure congested, the air a bit polluted. We headed for the border, nice ride into areas that were more rural. We kicked back and enjoyed it. The terrain was flat, large banyan trees provided a sun blocking canopy as we passed though towns and villages. People waved and smiles, foreigners pass this way sometimes but are quite rare. We saw lots of commercial vehicles, this border we were heading to being the main entry point from India to Bangladesh.

We rounded a few more bends, pulled up to an area where there were many huge trucks and commercial activity. Our driver motioned to us and told us we had arrived at the border. We grabbed our packs, feeling strong and ready to roll. We walked about 1/2 a mile, were again bracing ourselves for chaos that never came. The people were great, we tipped a young guy a small amount to help us get to the right place. Unlike our earlier pass at the remote border, this one was fairly easy. The Indian border guys weren't happy that I was taking Indian rupees into Bangladesh but they let me slide. We had one last tea in India.

My heart was thumping. I have told you I love walking through borders. I have done it a number of places in the world, this was one of the most exciting. We were sent from the India side through a gate, we could see crowds waiting on the Bangladesh side. Our packs were strapped on, we had big smiles on our faces. Very rarely do foreigners pass through here, I know I keep saying that but it was true.

We walked through, raising our hands in the air and chanting "Bangladesh, Bangladesh, Bangladesh" and "A Salam Aliekum", a Bangaldesh greeting that means "I see the God in you". As you might imagine, that elicited smiles, gleeful laughter and many handshakes and hugs from the Bangladeshis gathered at the border. Not that the people on the India side weren't great but there is just something about the genuine warmth of the Bangladeshi people.
30 or so people gathered around us like we were visiting dignitaries, they all proudly marched us over to the office where we needed to check in at immigration.

The forms here were pretty simple. To their delight, we shared some of our bouncing super balls with the kids in the room. The guys working at immigration saw them and all wanted some too. I think we went through much of our stock there, originally we had brought about 100. We were getting close to the final checkpoint, I didn't understand but it seemed like a head guy was asking us for some money on the side. It is funny how the brain and fears can play tricks on you. I thought he was asking for a bribe, took out a little money to give to him. I cracked up when I found out that what he really wanted was an US dollar bill for his collection.

We told the guys at immigration that we were looking for a ride quite a ways into Bangladesh right then. One of the dudes took us over, protecting us from hawkers, and introduced us to a buddy of his who had a vehicle. After a cup of tea and some negotiating, we reached agreement for him to take us all the way to Mongla. His car was old and dirty, we didn't care. We threw our bags in and zoomed away from the border.

We felt great, had done so well this day so far. This area was quite rural as well, lots of tractors and farm fields. The colors in Bangladesh are riotous, brilliant paint jobs on the side of trucks, stunning colors on the women's outfits as we passed by. We ate snacks that we had with us and made great progress on the road. After a tea stop in Jessore, we rolled through Khulna and made it into Mongla just about dusk. What a day!

We had come to Mongla to self arrange a boat ride to the magnificent Sunderbans, the largest mangrove area in the world and the home of incomparable nature, man-eating tigers and languid rivers to the sea. We could have arranged a tour in advance leaving from Khulna but wanted the excitement and serendipity of free flowing and figuring out our own way. We got a little room with a fan for $9 in a government run place on the outskirts of Mongla, threw down our bags and went out for a walk. This town had an interesting edge to it, found out that it is the second biggest port in the country. It was a little seedy, very interesting, all kinds of people around.

Todd and I walked over to where all the buses were parked, this was the end of the line for most of them. All kinds of tiny boats were coming in and out of this little area. We sat down and had a hearty meal of chicken, roti, dahl, tea, some curry. People were once again flocking over and all around us. Some people spoke a little English, but not many. We had put together a basic knowledge of a number of Bengali words and they were coming in hand now.

Bhat-rice, Dudh Cha- Milk Tea, Lal Cha-Red tea, Sobji-Vegetables, Allobhaji-Fried Potatoes, Deam-Eggs, Pani-Water, Khub Moja-Delicious, Amar Nam-My Name is, Donobat-Thanks.

So, while we were eating a guy named Sobhan came up, asked if he could sit down next to us. We were a little wary at first, his English was pretty good. It turned out he was a guy who could arrange almost anything in this town. He slowly gained our trust with his smile and easy manner. He seemed to know everyone in this town. In the dark, we hopped on little ferry boats, went over to the other side where the main Mongla town was.

This was real adventure, we hopped on and off little boats that might be available for a 3 day journey . There were a few hustlers in town but Sobhan seemed to be taking good care of us. As it reached maybe 9PM, we saw one boat we really liked, amazingly a comfortable little boat that could sleep up to 10 people. If there had been other travelers, it would have been very affordable but it looked like it would be only the two of us.

The boat had bathrooms, comfortable sleeping rooms, a dining area, a place to sit up top and lots of character. We came up with a plan, made them an offer which was less than what they had quoted. We figured that they might not have much business around right now, told them we would sleep at our room and they knew where to find us in the morning. Finally, we told them that if they couldn't accept our offer, we were prepared to move on.

We were tired, had a great meal near our room of prawns, fish, lobster, tea, rice, dahl, cucumbers. This was going to be seafood paradise. The boat owner stewed on our offer, they passed by us one more time while we were eating and tried to get us to up our offer. We held firm, exhausted headed to our little room with paddle fan and mosquito nets. 10 hours of hard sleep, up feeling optimistic about boat possibilities. We also thought we would look around some more.

We had an early morning walk, sat down to a delicious breakfast of roti, fresh local honey, eggs, potatoes and milk tea. We were cornered pretty quickly by Sobhan, he wasn't going to let us get away, even if he had to find another boat. He has a small mention in a Bangladesh guide book and he told us that his reputation among the very few travelers that come here is very important to him. He said that his biggest goal is to make a living, make people happy, get good recommendations in his review book and care for his family. I could see in his eyes that he meant it, he wanted to give his kids the chance to go to a good school.

So, after breakfast we hopped on a little boat with lots of people and Sobhan, he wanted to take us to the main town to show us around and presumably continue negotiations. There were little boats everywhere, colors as good as ever. He walked us through markets that seemed to have a good selection of vegetables and of course huge amounts of seafood. Most of the lobster tails are shipped abroad so generally you just see lobster heads in the market, actually a surprising amount of meat in them though. We hung out by the port on this side, watched this little place wake up and get quite bustling quickly. There were no foreigners around that we could see.

We did some negotiating in a dark back room of a store, had two teas. This process was old school and fun. We budged a little bit, the boat owner did too. We were getting closer, both sizing each other up. The thought of having a boat and crew to ourselves was pretty cool, we had to get the price down some more though, we would be patient. Sobhan headed off to change a bunch of our Indian Rupees into Bangladesh taka. We trusted him, knew he would take his cut but that was fine. He came back, proudly delivered the money as if to say "see, you can trust me".

Okay, we just struck a deal. We will leave this evening. We negotiated the final details in the back of a small industrial metal shop, owned by the boat owner. We write all the details on a napkin, all parties involved signed it. Although this was a tough process, everyone emerged happy, having tea and slapping us on the backs. They said that they would give us a trip to remember, asked us what kind of food we wanted on the journey. They seemed thrilled when we said we wanted local food, promised we would eat very well. They sent away to the next town up for our permits to get into the Sunderbans, the permits would be back in a few hours because they were going to grease someone's palm.

We bounced back over to the other side to check out of our room, Sobhan seemed in a hurry to get us back over to his side, I think because he wanted to make sure we were committed and had quite a few things to sort out for our journey. We met a really, really nice guy from Dhaka named Rashel here in Mongla here in Khulna to do some business. He gave me his number and asked me to call him when I arrived back in Dhaka at the end of my trip. I filed the number, not knowing if our paths would cross again.

This had been a great travel day so far and it wasn't even noon. We took a little boat with Sobhan back over to main Mongla town, people were now starting to recognize us a bit. Sobhan took us by his little home, we got to meet his wife and kids. It looked like the permits were going to take longer than we thought so we dropped our bags and sat with a bunch of dudes at a little tea shop. Tea shops are like pubs in Bangladesh, a place of much socializing, sports watching, joking and eating. It is just the men who are there.

We sat with about 10 guys, more came around while we were there. There was a massive cricket match on TV (Bangladeshis love their cricket) between Bangladesh and West Indies. We alternated between that and a soccer match between Chelsea and Juventus. I think they were being nice to us to put the soccer on, they were most interested in their national cricket team. We had lots of tea and snacks, ended up sitting here a couple of hours.We gave out bouncing balls to little kids, many of them sat right next to us with huge grins on their faces.

We learned about Bangladesh: National flower: Water lily, National Bird: Magpie, National fruit: jackfruit, national Animal: Bengal Tiger, Call to Prayer: Ajan.

I wandered of to get a haircut and shave, very detailed cut and trim around my ears, these guys have so much pride in what they do. This was followed by what I thought was a quick lotion rub on my head, turned into a whole head, back, shoulder and arm massage, even a few chiropractic adjustments. He asked for $2 when I was done, I gave him $4 and he was thrilled.
The sun was starting to sink and we wanted to get on the river by sunset.

It was time to get on the boat, about 5PM. We were thrilled, walked out some skinny bamboo platforms to get there, delicately balancing on our way. We met the crew, Sobhan would come with us and then there was: Saroar: the master captain, Sohidul Islam: deck boy, Mizan: engine guy, Zakir: chief cook. We threw our bags into out little cabin, mattress rather thin but who cared. We were on the boat and up on the top deck at 6PM, just as we wanted with a magical sunset over Mongla Port and the river as we chugged away from the dock. The kids on the shore waved wildly, it had been great in this town but we were off.

The sun had gone down with brilliant hues, we chugged down the huge waterway with the moon coming up, the smell of our crew smoking cigarettes outside. Sobhan, always concerned with our happiness and satisfaction, kept checking to make sure we were happy. "Yes", we told him, chill out Sobhan! We explained to him that we were very easy going and would have a great trip.

Our mellow evening quickly turned to almost disaster. As we pulled out into the river, another much larger boat came by us, had moronically left a big rope dangling down into the water. As they passed close to us, it caught on our rudder and spun our boat sharply around. Our captain and crew were furious, this mistake by the other boat could have ripped our rudder off or severely damaged it. Fortunately, the other boat quickly realized their error, we quickly cut their rope, our deckhand dove down in the water and freed the rope from our rudder. Crisis averted, our rudder seemed to be okay.

Blissful, sublime. We were on the open river, chugging south many miles toward the sea. We were just called over to the table for our first meal by Zakir the cook and quickly determined this food would be some of the best of our trip. Spread before us was tea, rice, 2 kinds of fish, dahl, potatoes and onions, chicken curry, fresh cucumbers and carrots. We ate heartily, got to know the crew, they seemed very happy that we wanted to integrate with them. Apparently many of the Bangladeshi tourist and foreign visitors who come here don't treat the crew so well, being demanding and unappreciative. We told them we would be family for three days, they loved it.

The stars were out brilliantly, no city lights to obscure them. We took a snooze, at some point stopped at the East Sunderbans National Park Ranger Station. It was dark but looked like a sizable operation. I'm pretty sure we are getting some permit papers and picking up an armed guard for Bengal Tiger country. 200 people are killed by the tigers each year, mostly local fisherman and honey gatherers, and the guard is mandatory. We have been hearing first hand stories now from all of our crew of tigers killing people, Sobhan says he has seen their mauled bodies buried in a cemetery near his home in Mongla. The tigers are smart, the usually attack only solo people so we should be okay.

There are many thoughts about why these tigers have become man-eaters. There are about 1000 of them in this area it is believed. During colonial times and trophy-hunting, the massive mangrove forests protected the animals. There have been devastating cyclones in this area, tigers have certainly eaten some of the thousands of bodies that have washed up after the storm. One more thought is that the salt and brackish water they drink leaves them chronically irritated and that they actually make decisions that a normal tiger wouldn't because of that. Most of the people who are killed are encroaching on the tigers' habitats through fishing, agriculture or honey gathering, leading to more contact between tigers and man.

Okay, big, smiling armed forest guard Omar Farouq just got on our boat, instantly I liked him. He was about 28 years old, very stocky and carried a rifle. I felt protected. We saw the Orien constellation in the distance. Omar told us that a tiger had come very near to the ranger station this same night. They had driven it away by shooting guns near it, it was explained to me though that they are not allowed to shoot the tigers unless someone is under attack.

We dropped to sleep pretty hard this night after Omar got on, lulled by a humming motor and gentle cross breeze in our room. I guess we dropped anchor at midnight to take advantage of favorable tides, took off again at 5AM. We are up at 6AM the next day, to the east there is a stunning Sunderbans sunrise, orange and pink hues. It is quiet, we are cutting gently through calm channels, surrounded by mangroves and the sounds of nature. It was chilly last night, glad we had some heavier blankets. We are in tiger country, their territory is explained to us as 1 tiger every 4 kilometers. No doubt they see us even though we haven't seen them.

The tide is way out, exposing many mangrove roots. Mangroves for those of you who don't know are the most interesting tree, the put their roots out into the water. They are a very important buffer against incoming storms, in fact many devastating storms have been worse because of mangrove destruction, cleared in many parts of the world to make space for shrimp farming. W had a small breakfast of tea/coffee mix, toast, honey and a little egg/onion omelette. I think second breakfast might be coming a bit later.

We motored past a dock and ranger station on a place called Kotke, our river broadening noticeably as we approach the open ocean. We went over to a little tributary, hopped in a small canoe we had been pulling and went onshore, heading through trees and across grasslands with our armed guard and captain leading the way. We immediately started noticing huge tiger paw prints in the mud, we looked hard but never found one. We saw deer, monkey and lots of beautiful birds, hiked on a trail through a dense mangrove area.

We heard waves in the distance and then in front of us was Kotke Beach, open ocean, The Bay of Bengal. It was beautiful, nobody else around but us. Todd and I stripped down, dove in the water. The guys warned us not to get too far out because there were crocodiles nearby. We kicked plastic fishing buoys on the beach as a soccer ball. I found some clay near the water and when the guys weren't looking, covered myself in it. Todd followed suit, making our crew howl with laughter. We walked the long sandy beach, collected shells and just enjoyed the ocean. It was truly beautiful, so amazing in a country as densely populated as Bangladesh to have this place to ourselves for this moment in time.

We searched everywhere for those tigers, not to be found. We lazed on the beach, walked through the trees and found bee hives, interesting driftwood and lots of photo opportunities. It was hard to walk away from this beach, we headed back across the grasslands, hung out by a watering hole and went up on an observation tower. I'm glad we are on a small boat and got an early start, as we got back to our launch I could see that a larger tourist boat was coming up.

We were hungry and our lunch was overwhelming, I'm going to say the best meal of my trip. WE had curried crab that our guys had caught while we were gone, curried chicken, grilled fish that they had just bought from a fisherman nearby, dahl, greens, fresh cucumber with carrots, tea and a very tasty dessert floury milk balls soaked in honey syrup. We were stuffed and exhausted, I took a nap in the sun on the boat for a couple hours. I felt so relaxed. I guess today would just be a chill day around Kotke. Our guys suggested we go across the river and walk around by the ranger station.

We did, crossing the channel and surprisingly seeing three good sized boats anchored in the channel close to the dock. We got off, walked out a long boardwalk, saw lots of little crabs. This landscape was strange, broken trees everywhere. I couldn't help think that this area has taken the brunt of a number of storms. We wandered into the woods, saw hundreds of deer and many monkeys. We tried to sneak up on them by hiding behind branches but didn't get very far.

We walked down to the end of the beach on this side, explored some cool mangrove areas. As we were walking back, we saw the most bizarre out of context thing. On the beach in this remote part of Bangladesh was a Bollywood film crew, truly strange. That explained the three giant boats in the river, they were floating hotels for the cast. It turned out that this was a very significant production called "Roar of the Tiger of the Sunderbans", complete with a leading woman named Himarsha, Indian descent from South Africa. She is apparently very popular in India right now.

We heard that the leading man, who wasn't her this day, flies in and out of the set on helicopter. We met all the stars on a break, Ali Quli, a musician and rising star right now in Bollywood, playing the leader of a commando unit. There was also a 6 foot 4 massive bodybuilder who grunted when we met him, not speaking much English and having a bodybuilder attitude. This guy was the bad guy, no doubt about it. There was an African-American guy there directing cinematography, another two Americans with an aerial flying camera. It was almost too much to believe, we just took a deep breath and soaked it in. They brought us tea and snacks and we all chatted for awhile. We walked away shaking our heads and headed back to our little boat.

The guys had spicy chicken wings, tea and french fries ready when we returned, are you kidding? This was just the appetizer, dinner was rice, chicken, curried fish, cucumbers, dahl, carrots, tea and fantastic eggplant. We ate dinner on the top deck under the stars, paradise. Todd and I played 5 card stud poker after dinner with some cards I had brought. We did imaginary bets which doesn't make the decision making very realistic. Sobhan was interested in our game even though as a Muslim he isn't supposed to gamble. We told him he could play and not gamble, coached him through basic poker and war. He loved it, the guys gathered round.

We slept peacefully, have been waking up with sore backs as the mattresses are thin. Oh well, small price to pay. The next morning we woke at 5:30ish, we went back to the grasslands area, clambered on shore for one more look before we left. Amazing misty sunrise, more tiger tracks everywhere. We saw lots of birds and wild pigs. We walked around the grasslands and over to the water holle one more time, found some cool deer antlers that had been shed.

We trudged back to the boat for excellent breakfast of beef, chicken liver curry, roti, eggs, honey, cauliflower, bean curry and tea. Our deck boy serves us and then waited each meal by our table the whole time we were eating to see if we needed anything. We told him numerous times to relax but he would have none of it. He was completely programmed to stay exactly next to us and serve us as honored guests. Only once did we convince him to sit down and eat with us together.

We chugged off in our boat, heading north and then east on channels, not another person in sight. We got off our big boat and went on the canoe a number of times up tiny tributaries, I actually was very nervous because tigers could have been anywhere. We passed monkeys, deer, birds, we were heading for the eastern part of the Sunderbans and a place called Kotikali. We were sitting on the front bow watching the world go by. We saw some wriggling in the water in front of us, thought it was a fish but then a banded krait snake, about 8 feet long, swam across the river right in front of us. It was pretty amazing, it's head was out of the water.

We opened up into a wider eastern waterway, started to see more fishermen and some boat traffic. We pulled into Kotikali Ranger Station, this area also housing a coast guard station. I guess there is a fair amount of illicit activity on the water not far from here, even some hostage taking on the seas. We walked onto shore, met an intense 70 year old guy who was the station chief, along with his close friend, the imam leader of the mosque at the station. We toured the station, made a donation, headed off across the range nearby to see more tiger tracks, brilliant butterflies, deer, wild pigs, birds and huge bee hives.We cut through some woods to find an endless river beach that met the Bay of Bengal.

We swam, played in the sun while one of our boatmen threw his net out and caught lots of shrimp that I was pretty sure we would be munching on later. Rather than have to go back and talk with the intense station chief, I walked along the shore through calf depth mud and made it all the way back to the boat. The rest of the guys hopped a ride back in the little boat, we pulled away from shore and started the long chug back to Mongla.

We cruised back in the afternoon, seeing river dolphins jumping, wild pigs, many deer. We fought the outgoing tides part of the way back, and with an amazing sunset, sat on the deck and just had one more incredible meal, this time rice, fresh cucumbers and carrots, fish, shrimp the guys had caught today, coca-cola as a treat and amazingly, full lobsters that the guys had purchased today. Some time after this, we gave the guys some tips and little gifts, they seemed very thankful.

We went to sleep on the boat, I think we reached Mongla Port sometime around midnight, we slept on the boat until 5:30 AM, woke up to find most of the guys had gone back to their homes, the captain was still with us and woke soon after we did, bringing us cookies and tea. Finally, Sobhan came out to the boat about 7AM, we needed his help and were ready to hit the road. We took a little ferry over to where all the buses were, chaotic scene. We saw a body being taken for funeral wrapped in straw on a brightly covered wagon.

At the last minute, we learned that if we hopped a quick ride, we could make it to the bus we needed to get on. We hugged Sobhan and hopped in a car with this guy, sped madly to a little town near Bagharat to catch a long distance bus to the far south and Kuakata. We settled in, passed the famous 77 domes mosque of Bagherat, wished we had time to stop but didn't. Thank God we didn't try, we hopped on the bus with the last seats just as it was leaving, even though I had to pee like crazy. Oh, I forgot to mention our 60 cent breakfast this morning, eggs, dahl, roti, tea.

Our bus was reasonably comfortable, fellow bus riders always willing to help. The driver kindly stopped for me to pee when he saw I couldn't hold it any more. There was one guy on our bus begging and pestering us, really the first time this had happened. I had to raise my voice until he stopped bothering me, the other passengers seemed to almost cheer my effort. There were Muslims and Hindus of Bangladesh on our bus, the Hindu women chatted with us.

We were headed for the Deep South of Bangladesh, the "second" beach destination in the country called Kuakata. Cox Bazaar gets all the hype, somehow I thought this place would be calmer, more picturesque, cleaner. Also, we were on this side of the country. Traveling south in this part of Bangladesh is endless agriculture, deeply conservative, many women with full body coverings with only eye slits. I had heard that there were all kinds of people at the beach, good food, domestic holiday makers, clean sand and a very interesting Buddhist minority.

This was a long bus ride. We rolled up to the first of many water crossings, the ferry schedules seemed very orchestrated with the bus arrival, they probably just run all the time though. We packed on for a ten minute water crossing, many people riding on the roofs of buses. Todd and I bought some popcorn, milk tea and peanut brittle, climbed up to the roof of our bus and shared it with others. People jumped off of their buses to come sit and visit with us.

Long, fun day of laughter with fellow passengers, whizzed through many towns and maybe 7 ferry crossings. I had no idea there was so much water to cross. Amazing, the cost for our probably 6 hour bus was $3. It seemed like there were bridges under construction down here, they told us that Kuakata was lovely and targeted for development in the future.

There was music on our bus, in each town some people got on and some off. Often, little kids selling food would come through the bus. The mood on the bus was jovial, fellow passengers engaging us in conversation whenever they could. We rolled on for the last two hours into Kuakata, the southern most beach in this side of Bangladesh. Walked off the bus, crowds gathered around us as usual. It was the weekend, there were people here from Dhaka and different parts of Bangladesh, often in large groups. People zipped around on motorcycles, the place was filled with souvenir stands and food stalls. We walked down the main road to the beach, in the distance we could see umbrellas and the endless water of the Bay of Bengal.

The next couple days were a great way to wrap up a very good trip, good food, nice people, sandy beaches. We settled into a little place on the beach named Biswah Palace, walked by the sea and chilled out. That evening while walking back alleys being taken to find some local rice wine, I ran into Raza Lin and Ma Than, two Rakhine Buddhist women, a small minority in this area. The Buddhists in this area used to number 100,000, now they are only 10,000.

The government for years attempted to marginalize them by resettling people from other parts of Bangladesh and stoking tension between the Buddhists and Muslims when it didn't exist previously. The government these days seems interested in supporting and bolstering the Buddhist community, in part because they are pushing tourism and the existence of the Buddhists increases the interest of visiting people like me.

Raza Lin had a remarkable story, she had escaped over the high mountains and jungle years ago away from the dictatorship in Burma. She was working for Buddhist women's rights and rape counseling in Cox Bazaar when she met her husband, from this little Buddhist area near Kuakata. They are married now and live with their lovely family in Dhaka. They both run NGOs, she has testified for Burma womens' rights a few times at the United Nations. She has since gone back to Burma and will very much be involved, maybe even politically, with the changes that are happening there. Ma Than is her sister-in-law and owns a clothing shop in Kuakata. many times they bring young Buddhist women who have been raped in the Coz Bazaar area here to Kuakata for a fresh start.

The next morning, after having some delicious giant prawns, roti, dahl and tea, I ran into these same women Raza Lin and Ma Than on the street. I had no real plans this day, they invited me to their village to meet their family. I hopped on the back of motorbikes with them, Todd stayed in Kuakata. I thought I might be going for a couple hours fairly close by, guess I should have asked in advance. We crossed 6 ferries each direction, 1 1/2 hours each way. They finally drove back small paths and we arrived at their family village, Thun Sung.

I was introduced to probably 40 people, I had been invited to a family reunion and would be here all day. The welcome was sincere, I visited the family burial plot, went to a beautiful old Buddhist temple and heard the monk give a very long winded service. We ate, drank, laughed. They told me about the strengths and challenges within their community. As the sun got lower in the sky, we crossed many ferries back to town and rolled into Kuakata just about sunset, with the sun a ball of fire disappearing in the Bay of Bengal.

It was a great day. Todd had been riding motorcycles and playing soccer all day on the beach. He told me all about it, we visited with the Buddhist people back at their shop. The beach area was again very busy, this was the weekend and there were all kinds of groups here. People came around and talked, and talked. The air was fresh and people were in good spirits.

We had a nice meal of rotisserie chicken and greens and tea and then slept well. The next morning we had a long walk down the beach, saw gorgeous beaches and big fish drying operations. We said goodbye to the people we had met, hopped on a brightly colored bus (that had an even brighter disco like interior) at about noon and headed north across the many ferry crossings, destination Patuakhali and our overnight ferry back to Dhaka. Our bus had loud Bangla music playing, great atmosphere.

After some hours, our colorful bus pulled up to Patuakhali. People on our bus motioned strongly for us to get off, even when we didn't know where were, we were guided by drivers and fellow passengers. We jumped off the bus, waved goodbyes, hopped in a little rickshaw and headed through this little town. Often when I am confronted by a lot of drivers jostling for my ride, I choose the oldest and quietest man.

This town was surprisingly pretty. We went around four or five curves, through a bustling village and stopped just outside the ferry terminal. We got some snacks (bananas, oranges, a veggie/egg thing) on the street and went to look at the ferries. There were 4 to choose from, they were huge. We booked a spot on one that was leaving at 5:30 PM and would arrive Dhaka about 12 hours later. We splurged for an cabin on the boat, actually had a pretty cozy bed and room service.

The boat was a chaotic and fun scene. There were people all over the place, stretched out on the bottom deck floor or in cabins. The cabin next to us seemed to be filled with Muslim holy men, later we found out that one of them was a revered Sufi, the mystical form of Islam.
We had a long visit with him, he insisted that we come into his room for tea and cookies. Right after I left there, I was dragged into another room by a couple businessmen for more tea.
It was pretty on the front deck at night, cruising up the river with the wind on our faces. What a great way to travel back to Dhaka. We finally made our way back to our rooms, had some chicken curry, rice and veggies and slept fitfully I'm sure because of all the tea again.

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