Mangoves and.. Mangroves!

We finally went on the much anticipated trip to the Bangladesh Sundarbans. The Sundarban Forest is a dense network of mangrove trees connecting through Bangladesh and India. It is the home of the bengal tiger and a variety of other creatures, including crocodiles, dolphins, monkeys, deer, snakes and birds.

It's pretty cool, a little spooky, and really wet. Going through the Sundarbans is a web of waterways, subject to daily and seasonal flooding cycles that literally make chunks of land disappear and reappear with the tide (which seems to have a mind of its own).

For the trip I was joined by a group of Michigan students (Ashish, Charlie, Sarah, and Karen), an American I met here through Rosie (J.R.) and two Brits (Hayley and Arthur). The trip started with a 7-hour overnight van ride down to Khulna - interrupted only by a fishy (in so many ways) ferry crossing. We boarded our boat just as the sun was rising in Khulna and began sailing down through the Sundarbans.

Being on a boat again was amazing. I can't get enough of sailing. Bangladesh may not have the clear blue water and beautiful coral of the Palawan Islands in the Philippines, but its sandy brown water and friendly fishermen certainly have their charm.

We went on a hike, swam in the ocean, trekked through calf-deep mud, watched Germany beat Argentina 4-0 with a group of Germans, and bonded! In addition to the Germans (who we seemed to annoy with our incessant chatter), we were joined by Aigars, a Latvian backpacker, David, a Scottish painter, and a large Bangladeshi crew who kept us safe (the guards had giant rifles and clapped loudly to scare away hungry tigers) and well-fed. We docked at Kulna on Sunday, boarded an overnight train and rode for 11 hours to Dhaka. From there I went home, showered and went sraight to work. B-school has taught me well.

We didn't run into any bengal tigers (shame!), but we did see some tiger prints, beautiful mangroves, birds, snakes, a few monkeys and a bunch of deer.

Photos to come once I can get the photo uploader to work.. (things are a bit haywire right now.. my computer overheated and crashed.. oh Dhaka.).