Up again early, but no woodpecker today. A bunch of stray dogs were milling around though. This pack was given biscuits yesterday by Anand and they decided that they needed to give us company for as long as we were around probably hoping for a few more treats. Today my wife Radhika woke up early too and decided to join me for tea. Since she was up too, we decided to leave the kids asleep and go for a walk.
We pottered about a little within the resort. I've not shared those pics with you.
Chotu and Ali joined us so we had our guides for this walk. Our resort is almost on the banks of a river and we walked along it to get a good look at the expanse of waters and explore the inland areas that we couldn't do yesterday..
The bunds are made of mud and sand with occasional reinforcement of bricks and was about 6 feet above the water. This was built just a few years back after a cyclone wiped out settlements along the bank. In fact the school building is still visible as you can see in the photo below. You can notice that the earlier extent of land extended upto that tree and piece of land on the right of the picture below.
The Govt had got the bund raised to this level to prevent any further tragedies like the previous one.The human settlements were moved 200 mts inland.
We went through that village and marvelled at how simple these people's lives were. They lived in mud huts with the regulation dugout pond in front of each house. They owned livestock such as sheep, ducks and occasionally chicken. They harvested fish from the banks and some of them were breeding prawns.
Both Radhika and I wondered how it would be to live like this, with no cares in the world about EMIs and traffic and myriad other pressures of the city life. Here it's about the tides, the weather, the crops or the harvesting, about social life and chatting with family and friends. It seems so idyllic and we wondered whether it is possible for us to live like that.
We wended our way back to the resort and got our kids ready for our travel back to Kolkata. After breakfast, yes , you guessed it, aloo parathas, so aloo again, we lugged our baggage out. We had an entourage to accompany us to our vehicle.
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| the faithful four |
Our first transport for the day was the local equivalent to the taxi, bus and private car.
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| our vahanam for the day - the kuppavandis |
We bumped along (un)happily for half an hour missing a few near collisions with oncoming speeding vehicles and almost knocking down a few unsuspecting pedestrians. We passed a barath (a wedding party that was headed to the marriage) in a procession of local taxis and limos (hic). But seriously, it is really cute to see that all of what we do is done, but in a more eco friendly, simple and non ostentatious manner. Lovely life style. Showed us how else life can be lived.
We finally reached the dock in one piece with all our bones intact.and found that today our boat was the larger more stable variety than the one we got when we reached this place. We were grateful for this and were told that today the waters are choppy and the smaller craft may be unstable or unsafe.
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| Anand loves being photgraphed, as you can see :) with Radhika and Ali |
There were only four of us and Chotu and Ali on board on this big boat. We saw other boats that were loaded to capacity with 50 people or more and we were told that this is the local ferry bus that carries passengers across for Rs 1/- per head. Unbelievable piece of news. Now we know how far one rupeee can carry you.
Finally we arrived on the mainland and happily boarded the Tata Sumo that had been parked there by Ali two days back. And we headed back into Kolkata.
I must share with you my impressions of Kolkata traffic. Every driver behaves like he has the right of way and ploughs along irrespective of who else is on the road. There were so many close missed in that 4 hour drive that I must have developed 40 more gray hairs in that journey. In one instance the car actually pushed a lady who was walking and she turns around and glares at Ali but he just ignores that look and continues as before.
The cops are not bothered when someone drives in a one-way or cuts the red light and the drivers are aware of it and breaks all traffic rules with impunity. Chennai seemed like a safe place to drive, so you can imagine how bad it must have been.
We reached our hotel by 1.30 pm and sent off Chotu and Ali with fond farewells tinged with regret that we didn't get to sight our tiger or any other respectable animal that we could have shown off as trophies of our visit to the Sundarbans.
After lunch we were not allowed to rest for a well-deserved nap since Akshaye didn't want to be deprived of his moments in the swimming pool. So we dragged ourselves into the pool and after a 2 hour gruelling time in the pool got back to the room for a bath and lie down. This hotel has a pool in the basement and the waters are so cold even on a hot day that our teeth were actually chattering for the first 30 mins.
In the evening we took off by taxi to New Market which is in old Kolkata because we wanted to get a taste and smell of this great city. We were lucky to get our first glimpse of the tram,
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| the old and the not-so-new - the tram and the yellow cabs |
This city's roads is ruled by the yellow cabs. All Ambassadors of varying vintage, they are lords of the roads and can turn where they want, stop traffic when they feel like and run down vehicles if they get in their way. Wow! They don't have any suspension and are as bad as our autorickshaws. But they are dirt cheap. A trip to New Market from Landmark Hotel (near Science City) was only Rs 150/- A distance of about 7 kms. As cheap as our autos. And as uncomfortable.
New Market is actually a really old market with an annexe that is the new new market.
New Market was opened for the English populace on January 1, 1874. New Market was formally christened Sir Stuart Hogg Market on December 2, 1903 and is filled with so many shops selling everything under the sun. It reminded me of our Moore Market in Chennai where we could bargain to our heart's content.
Then we took a ride in the metro to get a feel of the famed Kolkata Metro. It's only when we entered the train did we realise that this is a non AC version which is similar to our MRTS except its underground. It was packed to capacity and we quickly got out in the next station and took a cab back to our hotel.
Day 3 is over and our Sundarban trip was over. Tomorrow and day after we are to spend in Kolkata. See you tomorrow:)
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