You may have noticed that my incessant blogging has ceased for the past week or so. Don't worry, this is not due to either a) a lack of subject matter or b) laziness but actually as the title suggests (very subtly) I spent 3 days without Internet access on a boat in the Sundarbans. Sundarban means beautiful forest in Bengali, and it is considered to be the thing to see in Bangladesh.
After about a month of talking about going, the trip actually came together at the last minute. The group included: me, Charlie, Eshanthi, J.R., Ashish (recent UM Business School grad working as a consultant for GE), Karen (current UM Business School / Public Policy student working on same project as Ashish), Hayley (grad student from England working on her Masters in sustainable engineering and finishing up a 1 and a half month stint in Dhaka) and Arthur (Hayley's boyfriend who came to visit her here for the last few weeks of stay in Bangladesh). We booked the boat through a tour company called Guide Tours which caters to foreigners, and has a bunch of specialized Sundarbans tours. The initial problem was that the boat leaves from Khulna which is a city about 8 hours southwest of Dhaka, at 6AM. To minimize the amount of time we would miss work we decided to take an overnight train there. Unfortunately, as we found out the day before we were to leave, there was no room on the train. Most of us were very squeamish about the idea of taking a night bus, as the driving here is terrifying, especially at night, and pretty much everyone says to avoid them at all possible. Luckily Ashish was able to arrange a private van and driver through GE (which still meant we would be driving at night, but at least meant we could wear seatbelts, and felt slightly more in control).
Unfortunately, Wed night (we were set to leave Thurs night at around 8) I got really really sick. I was up all night (I will spare the details out of both modesty and considerateness). Basically I wanted to die, and figured the thought of me traveling in a van anywhere for 8 hours sounded like one of the circles of Hell. That morning I still felt terrible, and called Guide Tours to see I could get a refund. They told me that since it was the day before I was out of luck. This was terrible news, and made me feel worse. Not only was my illness going to prevent me from spending 3 days out of Dhaka with my friends, it was gong to cost me a whole bunch of money for absolutely nothing. The entire day was spent drinking copious amounts of rehdration fluid and coconut water and resting. Around 6 I felt well enough to get up and eat some white bread. I packed, just in case and got ready. Then I wavered again and decided against it. I thought, what if this is some sort of sign? What if I'm not supposed to go? What if I have a relapse 4 hours into the van ride? Finally as the van arrived I decided that I felt well enough, that I would regret not going for the rest of my life, and that I would be entirely miserable for the whole weekend if I didn't go.
The van ride in some ways seemed designed to test my resolve. We were stuck in traffic leaving Dhaka for about 2 hours. The ride was fairly bumpy and swervy. After another few hours we arrived at the ferry and parked next to a truck full of rotting fish. Luckily at this point my nausea had mostly subsided, but still, rotting fish just has to be the absolute worst smell there is when you are already feeling a bit ill. We were told that there was an air conditioned VIP room on the ferry, and they led us upstairs. Unsure what to do we spent the first 20 minutes standing on the deck (the seats were all taken), as people gaped at us and I thought about how I just wanted to not throw up. Finally one of our drivers found us and lead us to the VIP room, which was just a big half-empty room filled with fans (no AC), tables and chairs and a smattering of Bangladeshis. I sat down and immediately tried to sleep, so I don't remember much of the rest of the ride, or even how long it was. As it ended we returned to our van (and the rotting fish) and set out on the rest of our journey.
At this point the driver (who also had a friend with him) decided that to stay awake he wanted to listen to music. The music was of course Bangla music, which isn't awful but both the voice and the instruments seem to be higher pitched than the music I am used to listening to, and this made it much harder to fall asleep, and terribly annoying.We finally arrived at the dock in the absolute middle of nowhere at 3:30 in the morning and there was no boat. I have never in my life been more unsure about what was going on, as I was at this moment. I thought maybe these guys were going to rob us and leave us stranded in the middle of nowhere (which honestly crosssed my mind multiple times that night). We managed to get a hold of Guide Tours, and they came to meet us. We said goodbye to our driver and his friend and took a row boat to the big boat we would be staying on for the next 3 days. Our guide, Kubir, introduced himself and showed us all to our rooms. The rooms were tiny (probably 6 x 4 or something close to that) and were meant for 2 people to share. Luckily, I was given my own room. Kubir told us that 2 people were already on the boat, and that 7 more would be arriving in the morning, and that we could go to sleep and have breakfast when we woke up. Although normally I have problems falling asleep in unfamiliar surroundings, I was so exhausted that this time I had absolutely no problem.
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