my travel blog: Sundarban National Park

Somehow it already smelled in Dhaka as an upcoming disaster: my attempted organization of a trip to the Sundarban National Park. The habitat with the highest density of man eating tigers – The Royal Bengal Tiger – that’s at least what I read about it and that’s what brought me here in the first place.

“Ok, you are in here in the off season (one week after the official season) so there are no boats with 40 people for the standard 3 day/2 night tour, you are on your own.“ Well having 40 people on board didn’t appeal to me anyway as the tiger is shy and need quiet, absolute quiet. I am in one of the poorest countries on earth, what on earth can a boat for a couple of days for my own little group cost? Mistake, the charge for the boat for would be more than $1000 for a 3day/2 night trip – are you serious? I could probably buy my own boat for that that and hire a skipper. A couple of days before I paid for a 12 hour journey with the train in 'first class' (kind of) 245 Taka – $3. What is going on here? “Well, you need to pay for the cook, the captain, the guide and the helper…ah and the entry to the park, the photo license...” So what? Salaries are around the $50-80/month here. Then there is talk about the pirates, the jungle, the water level, the dangerous animals… Do you really want me to go in there? I am not sure what exactly is going on, but nobody was really keen on going into the biggest mangrove jungle of the world. That surprised and made me even more curious and we ended up on a one day trip for only about $200 for the both of us! Mistake again. The moment I saw our ‘guide’ meeting us at the hotel I knew we won’t see any wild animal today. He came in his business shirt and pans and in his slippers, just after the night shift at the reception in the hotel. Congratulations. Tourism Bangladesh had a slogan at the airport: Come to Bangladesh before the tourists come. So true but you don’t make it easy for me either. End of the story, we spent a full day on the road and in the boat cruising down the river to go to the forest headquarter (to pay the entry fee) and see one spotted deer which was fed by the guides with chocolate biscuits. The other animals were some crocodiles in a sad croc farm which are supposedly being released into the wild – or maybe sold and converted into some flash handbags? Second and last stop was a walk with an armed guard around a little lake on a boardwalk. “No, no footprints today” he said "river high”. Has there been ever any tiger around or are they all walking around in form of coats in Moscow’s winter? To my question about how many tigers he has seen in all his years (to his look I am sure he worked there the last 30 years) he said “Maybe one or two times” – Why on earth do you carry a gun I ask myself? We are here at lunch time as it takes ages to get there. At least he likes a tip our guide said. Ok, time to go now, a long boat ride back and a long drive back is ahead of us. Thank you for the fantastic day – not. On the way back we came pass some little fishing villages, probably the real highlight of the day.

I am not sure what exactly is going on there, but something smells here - and it is not the missing poo of the big kitty. more images