Off to see a Tigger

So after 5 nights in Kolkata we packed up and did a 2-night, 3-day trip to the Sunderbans tiger reserve. We arrived at the tourist office at 8am, and after a 3 hour bus trip we boarded our boat. It turned out there were only 15 people on the tour, and only 2 others were Westerners (Jaime a gay Portugese guy and Michael an Austrian guy). Jaime explained to me that they needed a minimum of 14 to do the trip, so clearly this was not going to be a crowded trip. In fact, it turned out that the boat will take 46 passengers, so yet again on this trip, we've been blessed with the luck of the Irish, having a grand big boat with lots of room for everyone.

Originally I'd booked the cheapest option, staying in the basic dormitory, but when we arrived at the tour office the guy suggested that we could upgrade by paying him extra. Initally he offered the upgrade at half-price, but on condition we paid just him and in cash (obviously a back-hander). Anyway, I refused, saying it was way too much and after chatting to Jaime I knew for a fact that this guy would basically take any money I offered him, seeing as how the upgrade beds would just go empty otherwise. So after a fierce, but always friendly of course, bit of haggling I got the guy to accept 300 Rupees for our upgrade (from full upgrade price of 2200, and his initial offer of half-price of 1100). So we got a lovely little curtained cubicle all to ourselves, which was great.

The trip itself was really good. The boat was in pretty good condition, and surprisingly quiet, and the food throughout was fantastic. Basically it involved just cruising along at a nice slow pace, and stopping off at small reserves to walk to a watchtower to try and spot tigers and other wildlife. We never managed to spot any tiggers though (our guide said in 163 trips he's only had 7 sightings), although we did see quite a few beautiful spotted deer, a couple of huge wild boar, a big water monitor and millions of kingfishers. Its mad, but after only ever seeing 2 kingfishers in my life before this trip (both on the same Shannon cruising trip), I've now seen hundreds and about 6 different species.

So after a lovely relaxing couple of days cruising about it was time to board the bus back to Kolkata. In fact just before we left I heard a taxi driving past screech to a very abrupt halt. Turned out it had hit a kid that ran out from in front of our bus. Michael from our trip was a paramedic and when he realised what happened he rushed out, but literally within about 15 seconds I saw the kid being picked up like a rag doll and bundled into the back of the taxi, as it turned around and shot back up the road the way it had come - presumably to a hospital or clinic. 3 minutes later our bus left - no need for eye-witness reports or anything, so I have no idea what became of the poor kid!

Anyway, we arrived back in Kolkata 2 hours early. Having lots of time before our 9:45 overnight train we dropped our rucksacks at the left-luggage at the train station and did a wee bit more sightseeing in Kolkata, which involved getting the ferry across the river and then the metro down to Kalighat, the site of a very famous Hindu temple.

After the usual trouble trying to find the temple (streets have no name plates), I eventually found it and it was mad interesting to watch all the devotees doing there thing with offerings and stuff. Then another stroll to check out a couple of restaurants, and naturally eating in the mad fancy one ('Oh! Calcutta' which was very nice indeed).

So heading back to the train station I realised from the guidebook that the last ferry was at 8pm, and it was now after 9pm. Ah well, I reckoned we still had lots of time to stroll to the station by just getting a metro and then walking across the iconic bridge (Howrah Bridge). Sarah had another bit of a Negator attack wanting to get a taxi, but of course it all worked out perfectly, and the walk across the bridge was actually really atmospheric in the deep dark with thousands of Indians all walking the same way towards the station (I thought it felt like a mass evacuation like in a nuclear holocaust movie or something). Our train even left on time...