Monday, November 13 Sunderbans Tiger Reserve

I woke up on the enchanting misty river, which was indistinguishable from the gentle morning sky. After tea and a simple breakfast of fruit and egg bread, we cast off the anchor and put-putted our way through the watery mangroves of the Sunderbans. We stopped at the museum again and picked up a guide, which is required for entry into the tourist zone of the reserve. The guide was friendly and could spot the tiniest animals. We cruised the snaking waterways, void of any human life or interference. It was incredibly tranquil and stunning at the same time. We floated deeper and deeper into the mangrove forests, the streams getting smaller and smaller. I saw a bunch of tiny mudskippers, which looked like half-fish, half-reptile, like it was in an evolutionary stage. A few water monitor lizards awkwardly crawled on the gray mud. Beautiful bright blue birds and striking white cranes flew from tree to tree as we passed. We saw some spotted deer and monkeys, too. After that we stopped at another watch tower at Sonakhali and saw some deer, but no tigers. It’s a rare occurrence to see tigers, and the guide said this whole year he’s seen a tiger only six times. We stopped on a muddy bank for Bengali fish curry and salad lunch. Then I relaxed as we motored three hours back to Basanti Village to catch the bus back to Kolkata. I peed on the roadside, and a bunch of Muslim boys were watching me, giggling, because I was standing up rather than squatting, as the Muslims do, so that supposedly Allah won’t see them. The ride was three hours long, and stopped every 15 minutes. I got really nauseas and my stomach began to feel the consequences of drinking a cup of local water. On the way, the bus stopped because there was another bus on the road with a bunch of water in front, which had just hit and killed someone. Besides that, the views of the sunset over the watery shrimp farms was spectacular. We got into Kolkata and had to take a city bus to Esplanade, the main center of town. We walked through the bustling lit markets, and I checked into a hotel and spent the night in pain. Luckily the hotel was really nice and cost only 300 Rs (cheap for central Kolkata), and they gave me soap, a towel, and they had HBO. I watched the Goonies and Ray, which were utterly satisfying.