Wednesday December 17

We were greeted by steaming cups of biscuits and tea or coffee an 7 in the morning, a very nice touch indeed

We got ready to leave pretty much on time and were shortly underway, amazing no one left anything behind.

The wind appears to be little stronger today and getting a bit uncomfortable. We decided to have breakfast downstairs, breakfast peas kochuri and spicy potatoes, one of my favorites and of course followed by coffee.

We couldn't "dump" our guide soon enough, he was of very little help and violated s few rules which could get in trouble for.

We let me off the same place we had picked him up yesterday and picked up our next guide from the next stop, Shubhendu Bikash Jotder. This man appeared to be much more knowledgeable and pleasant to chat with.

There was a flotilla of 5 cargo ships behind us, and the guide informed us that they were going to Bangladesh (Dacca - where both sides of my family are originally from), carrying fly ash from India. We all kind of got quiet, remembering that we will probably never be able to see our ancestral home where generations before us had lived and died, a sobering thought for us.















We made a couple of stops, where there were observation towers, one of them had two tigers that had been wounded. They were in a very large area and quite a bit of place to roam around as opposed to the cages where wounded animals are typically stuck.

It was a long walk and took some but worth it see the care that was being put in.









We had a good lunch on board, and the guide kept narrating on sights along the trip. We came to out destination Dayapur, late afternoon and checked into the
Royal Bengal Hotel.

It was a small two storied spartan hotel but clean with all the basic necessities.

They had a few gazebos set up and we enjoyed our tea/coffee and snacks there. When it got colder some of us went in and continued ou discussion inside, while others kept sitting until it started to get too chilly.

There was an enactment of a very popular local folk lore by a group from the local village, they put on quite a show for all the guests.

After the show was over we went to our rooms to freshen up and get ready for dinner. The dinner was cooked on the but served in the hotel dinning room. Today was my cousin's wife's birthday and the boat had cooked her favorite - vegetable fried rice and chili chicken. It was very tasty and we all enjoyed the change from Bengali food.

Retired for the night shortly after, our last night in the Sunderbans although we do have about 6 hours of cruising tomorrow before we dock.