Thursday November 20, 2025
Today is our last day on the houseboat and we
started the morning with a boat ride with lots of birds but no tigers. We knew
seeing tigers would be slim to none and a pure lucky fluke if we did, but it
was still disappointing.
We came back and had breakfast of crepes,
omelet, and bananas.
We started our return journey back to
Mongla and stopped at a fishing village. It was tricky getting off the houseboat
as we had to walk through another boat and everyone assisted us. To leave, the
tide was up and flowing swiftly, so the houseboat wouldn’t work, and they
brought the rowboat and helped us down the steep steps between the dock and the
boat. We said goodbye to the ranger at the fishing village.
These are always fun stops. Piku
seemed to enjoy handing candy to the children that greeted him.
We went back to the boat for lunch and
stopped in a sanctuary where we could see dolphins occasionally leaping out of
the water. Our final lunch was huge prawns, beef, veggies, mashed potatoes that
had a horseradish flavor and mashed beans and yogurt for dessert.
Almost back to Mongla Port the crew
lined up to say goodbye and collect their tips. Not sad to leave the sparse
accommodations of the houseboat but the crew will always be remembered. They
really were genuinely nice and helpful people.
My hiking shoes were accidently left
in a baggie since the Tige’s Nest hike in Bhutan and they were gross. I wasn’t
bringing them home. So, I left those and hopefully someone can air them out and
get some use out of them. Piku didn’t seem to understand why I would leave
them, but I wanted to tell him so they wouldn’t think I accidentally left them
behind and jump through hoops to get them back to me.
Back on land, our driver was waiting
for us with the van running and Piku came with us. Piku actually lives in
Khulna.
The drive was longer coming back since
traffic was back to normal now that the trial was over.
Piku said he took the bus to Mongla to
get the boat ready for us and he was concerned since in the past protesters had
thrown things into buses to blow them up. The political situation seemed
peaceful enough now but once the election is held tensions will rise again.
We got checked into the same rooms at
the Jatra Flagship Hotel and couldn’t wait to take showers! Knowing we were
returning in a couple of nights, we were surprised that there were only towels
for 1 person in each room. We asked for 3 more so we could shower now and again
in the morning, but he only had 2 more for each couple. We could reuse the towels,
but the entire floor gets wet and we used the used towels to dry the floor. He
said laundry wouldn’t be delivered until 10:00 the next day.
We walked to the Schwapno store for
sodas and water and bought 2 pair of earrings. We were a bit burned out on
Bangladeshi food on the boat, and we ordered food from our hotel. I think they
actually cooked the food in their kitchen, and we had the best cheeseburgers
and fries. The manager of the hotel talked to us about our travels and costs of
things in other countries and how long we’ve been married and about children
and grandchildren. They had a nice area with tables and chairs to eat or just
sit outside of the rooms so that was great. The manager asked if we wanted a
full or continental breakfast tomorrow morning and we requested continental. Normally,
they don’t serve breakfast as early as we were leaving, but he said he’d put
something together.
After dinner we walked back to get ice
cream bars. A very nice man checked on us when we came and went making sure, we
were safe each time we went for a walk.
We fell asleep to howling dogs and
honking horns, but nice to sleep in a real bed.
Tomorrow, Piku and the driver will drive
us to the Indian border. They will wait until we are safely across to India where
the guide from Kolkata Magic will be waiting for us.
We noticed many men that had orange hair and
orange in their beards. Seems that popular opinions on why that has become a
thing is to look younger and/or the prophet Mohammed used henna, and they were doing
it as a religious statement. Whatever the reason, we saw it everywhere in Bangladesh.
We enjoyed visiting Bangladesh and
felt safe everywhere. (even with the political situation)
Houseboat Sundarbans https://photos.app.goo.gl/vqwdHJh3nN6kKqcx7
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