From the Northeast I took a flight over Bangladesh to Kolkata. There was nothing really I wanted to see there, but I went to visit my friend Shubham. I had met him two years ago during my internship in Bangalore.
Unfortunately he was pretty caught up in his studies, but we did manage to meet twice. At this point I am not very keen on big, noisy and polluted cities. Kolkata was interesting though in the essence that one could clearly see the British influence in the architecture. (Perhaps if one newly arrives to India it won't be so clear).
I also have one more friend in the area there. Gyanesh, who I had met in Madrid on his Europe trip, arranged for us to go to the Sunderbans national park. We were picked up in Kolkata, had a 2 hour car ride, then a 15 minute ferry ride, then a 25 minute rickshaw ride on what you can barely call a road, then a 30 minute boat ride and then we reached our remote village. After relaxing in the cottages we went for another boat ride just to see the mangrove forest. They are rarely spotted, but there are many Bengal tigers in the forest. This is a real threat to honey collectors and fishermen. In January 2 people were killed by tigers. In the deep mud a human doesn't stand a chance against this animal.
On our tour we unfortunately/luckily didn't come across any tigers. We went back for dinner and went on the boat again in the night. As the rivers are filled with glowing plankton we saw a truly beautiful sight. The small waves of the boat caused the tiny particles to light up in the otherwise dark water. Even nicer was holding your hand into the water and watching that area light up. Or one could sprinkle water onto the river and watch little parts light up. I really felt like a magician throwing around some magic powder. I can only let you imagine how immensely stunning this looked because it was not possible to photograph it.
We started early next morning for a bigger boat safari. At first it was very foggy and we couldn't see much. Luckily it cleared up and we got to see some wildlife. Seeing the huge crocodiles we realised how dangerous swimming in these waters would be. And once they glide into the water they are just gone. I was fond of the many kingfishers as well. We went to a few watchtowers to try our luck in spotting a tiger, but that day they didn't want to be seen.
After the enjoyable boat tour we went back to the village.
Later in the evening we went to a marriage. Besides eating and shaking hands with the groom nothing really happened. Apparently the bride was crying. She was happy about the marriage itself but this meant she had to leave her family and in this culture this is a huge step.
The next day we returned to Kolkata where I said goodbye to Gyanesh and the day after that I took my flight to Delhi. I only went here as a transit point and spent one complete day in the Akhshardham temple reading one complete book, the White Tiger. After the tour in the Sunderbans tiger reserve and after reading this book I decided I wanted to see a tiger. The book even mentioned the Delhi zoo so I went there the following day. The zoo has many interesting animals, but I was just glad I finally got to see a Royal Bengal tiger. I also got to see one of the rarest animals of the world, a White tiger.
Now I am back at the hostel waiting for my train, which has been delayed by 15 hours.
