Sunderban

I CAME FACE TO FACE WITH A TIGER,





foot print.

So as i was saying. i went to this place called Sunderban (translates in bengali to Beautiful forest). It is the southern tip of west bengal. Very close to Bangladesh. It is the home of the mangrove tree (which survives in both water and no water) and it's many beautiful species of animals and insects. It is also the home of the bengal tiger and it's largest reserve for them. I had the wonderful oppurtunity to go with my dad's friend's borther who is a high officer in the governemtn and was able to let us go on this wonderful trip.

we started off with a 2 hour drive to the tip of the Southern Paraganas. The sunderban region is a web of tiny land and fingers of water surrounding it. Due to this much water it was very difficult for the villagers to expand there markets and travel outside of there land area. The group of men that we were traveling with are the ones that were resposnible for putting the roads there. The wonderful thing about india is that ifyou know someone in the Government than your in good luck. Since goverment officials get the sweet deal. They are treated almost like royalty.

After our 2 hour car ride in a comfy air con jeep (Toyota Cealis) we got on a boat that had the works, bathroom, sleeping area and a kitchen downstairs with a dining room. We were on the boat for some time trying to find a tiger or monkey or something that moved. After our boat ride we came to a location where we were going to rest for the night. It was a nice housing place. it was ment for tourists that wanted to explore the region and only costs 100rs ($2.5) a night. They cooked us some really great food and i throughly tried to fight off my food coma. I have never ate so much rice before, but it was good. Except for the fact that that area produces yellow water, so that was not to appetizing.

We then got on a jeep so the men could do there road inspection. We traveld a bit far and into a remote location where the only barrier between man and tiger was a deep waterless gape and a school yard fence. I was kind of shocked and asked if there were any tiger feasts on the village people. Sadly there were plenty. Especialy young children sitting right next to thier mothers. There have been lots of deaths, especialy men that wander into the forest in search of honey. There have been so many young men killed, that there is actually a village called widow's village. That would explain why in this region there are so many women working. In the same village we also saw the most spectacular sight. Under the ground deep in the well, there seems to be something in the water and the froth on top of the water sets on fire when you light it. It was so wierd and beautiful.

The sun finnaly set and in the pitch black night i stole some rice grains and went back to our bungalow. Thats when the party started. the scotch came out, the annoying girl came out(not me) and the stars were brighter than ever before. It was very pretty. Annoying girl as in the 14 year old girl that acted like she was 8 and just spoke in the worst whiny voice immaginable. My dad and his friend's wife and i could not believe how she was acting. Let alone her attire for the evening. I mean who in their right mind would go to the forest wearing there best clothes and heels?

Anyway the next day we were being made late due to these girls and there ridiculous time mangement skills. It took them 3 hors to get ready, this tardiness cost us at the end of the day. We were in our pants and sneakers while these other girls were in there finest fabric. they could barely get off the boat and were the least bit interested in seeing tigers. I was fuming. We finnaly came to the tiger reserve and i got to see three kinds of crabs (oh and on our way down the river we scored some fresh crabs from the crab fisherman 14 huge crabs for 120RS, ($2.74, my dad and i were feeling very guilty) in america is costs $2 a pound and they are tiny crabs.

I saw so many tiger prints, i wish i was able to see the actualy beast, but the weather and the amount of people that were in the reserve made it impossible. Smelly cologne more like it scared them off, i am still trying to figure out why someone would dress up to go to the forest. It still boggles me. I also saw a half eaten deer that was killed a day ago which was kind of interesting. Tigers are apparently a very shy cat and they are very scared of us. I was really sad to hear that many are being slaugterd due to them trying to kill people. No one understands that the reason they are killing humans is becuase building villages killed off all the wildlige and in part the tigers meals. That is the main reason this santuary was build. I was really happpy to see that the tigers population has risen every year. And thanks to people like Sigfried and Roy tigers can be loved again.

********************TROUBLE BEGINS *******************

Since we lost a lot of time in the morning, we were coming very close to darkness and still very far away from the car. After the tiger seeing, we got in the boat and headed for land. The night was getting very cold and the boat was moving slower than the water current. Everyone was getting a little worried about nightfall. This is where the amazing skills of indian skills come in handy. The captian was a complete moron and refused to turn on the lights. So we were driving on low tide water in the middle of the dark. Not to mention and everytime the there is a hint of light the captain yelles at you. It came straight out of the soup nazi episode, some of turned there cell on, "MAN TURN OFF THE LIGHT", Somone lit there ciggarete ("NO LIGHT, NO LIGHT", even the ciggaret butt light was too much luminense, i wouldn't know what to do if all of a sudden some glow bugs came around the boat, would be have to swat them all dead for our anti-luminence captain. WE all agreed that he was blind and retarted. One of the guides mentioned to the captain about a section of the river that is very shallow and muddy. Ofcourse idiot captain yells at him, and ofcourse as karma goes we get stuck in the mud. The engine shuts down and gear box breaks. The only source of light now is the moon, but the fog is comming close around us. We somehow got out of hte mess due to the fact that the boat was filled with engineers (I guess when indian parents tell you to become either an engineer or a doctor is for this reason only) so we got the engine running, got out the mud with a long bamboo stick, and was on our way. UMM TO BAD NO ONE KNEW THE WAY!.
so we were guided by our trusty guide in the old ways by looking at the stars. amazing, this is what realy GPS is all about, screw technology when you've got stars! Finnaly came to shore after being in the dark and shivering and went straight to bed.

i'm still thinking about tigers and want to go to the zoo. meow