Back from the Sunderbans!

I’m back! With a tan and a nasty cold & cough, thanks to the sweltering heat & humidity of the forest and the air-conditioned confines of our resort.

Frankly, I’d say the Sunderbans are over-hyped if you ask me. Tales of how dense and crocodile-infested they are is largely true, but the forest is shrinking rapidly due to the pace at which we are polluting our eco-system. Tigers and other fauna are dwindling in numbers. Moreover, the tigers have forced to become man-eaters b/c their natural prey is difficult to come by (due to the shrinking forest) and fishermen who venture too close to the forest or go in to collect honey are easier prey.

There are apparently almost 250 tigers left in the Sunderbans but you have to be really lucky to spot one. The biggest disadvantage being that one can’t venture inside the forest due to its density. One can travel only through the river, so what you get is endless boat rides! The scenery remains the same...water flanked by forests on both sides.

Tigers can be spotted only if they’re walking along the banks of the river. However, the river water itself has become really saline due to pollution, so tigers prefer to drink water from the fresh water ponds made at various places within the forest by the forest department as part of the Tiger Conservation Project.

Luck didn’t favor us and we couldn’t spot a tiger. But we saw plenty of deer and even a crocodile in the river, right next to our boat!

The Sunderbans do not get a very large number of tourists, so the tourism scene in the area is not too developed. There's only one resort worth staying at - the Sunderban Tiger Camp. There isn't much to do except go on boat rides hoping to spot a tiger! The forest is so dense, one can't even explore the area on one's own.

All in all, you should go to the Sunderbans only when you want to break away from the maddening pace of city life & you want to relax. Not a place for adventure seekers and definitely not a "happening" place!

Here are some pictures from the trip...

From New Zealand

I was watching a show called 'Footloose' last night on Travel & Living. They were showcasing New Zealand, and guess who was taking the host & crew of the show around? None other than the Prime Minister of New Zealand herself!!

Can you beat that? She went rafting with them, mountain-climbing, bungee-jumping, camping, took them to meet the Maoris. She was with them for 5 days straight!

Yes, we're talking about the Prime F***ing Minister of New Zealand. She really must not have much work to do! After all, how difficult can it get managing a country where the sheep population outnumbers the human population 10:1?

Let's move to New Zealand!!

Bittersweet Symphony

One of my friends is on a two week trip to the UK.

It reminds me of the time when I was in college in the US. I had a very close friend studying in the UK and both of us planned a trip to Europe during the summer. We were both students, therefore money was scarce. I had a part-time job at the bookstore on campus, called the Bull’s Head Bookshop (what a nice little bookstore it was, with an attached little coffee shop that supplied the 15,000-20,000 odd students & faculty of UNC – Chapel Hill with their daily dose of java), and I’d been saving up for a whole semester for my trip to Europe!

We did such planning for the trip. We bought the Lonely Planet guide to Europe. We had a shoe-string budget, so we had to carefully select the countries and cities we could visit. We finally narrowed down on England (London), Italy (Rome, Venice), France (Paris) and maybe Spain (Madrid), if we had any money left after Paris.

We planned to fly from London to Rome and travel to the rest of the destinations by Euro Rail. Since we would’ve gone there as backpackers, we would’ve had to stay at youth hostels. We compared hostels in each city and picked the ones we wanted to stay in. We compiled their contact numbers, addresses, rates etc.

Then came the time to apply for a visa. I remember I had to send my passport along with all the papers to Philadelphia for the visa, and that’s when tragedy struck my friend’s family. He lost his dad and had to rush back to India for the funeral.

As they say, some things are just not meant to happen. I was disappointed for sure, but I’d had so much fun just planning for the trip, I got over the disappointment quickly. I was practically living Europe for the entire semester that I spent saving for the trip and planning. For those of us who love traveling, there is nothing that gives us more happiness than the thought of seeing places we haven’t seen before. All of us have our favorites. As for me, I’ve always wanted to travel through all of Europe (including Eastern Europe) & South America.

Hopefully, I’ll get to do it one day….

'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life
Trying to make ends meet
You're a slave to money then you die
I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down
You know the one that takes you to the places
where all the veins meet

- Bittersweet Symphony (The Verve)

N, I hope you’re having a great time on your “really long vacation”!! ;)