Author Archives: Julie

Boat trip to Sundarbans National Park, Bangladesh

The Sundarbans National Park (pronounced Sh-undarbans) is the largest mangrove forest in the world, and is home to around 400 Royal Bengal tigers, the largest single population of tigers in the world. Approximately 60% of the park’s area lies within Bangladesh’s borders, the rest in India. The best way to see the wildlife and explore the forest is as part of an organised tour although there is very little chance of seeing a tiger and (spoiler alert!) we didn’t.

We joined a group tour of 3 days and 2 nights with agency Guide Tours. Our group size was eight (a nice manageable size) plus two babies (who were very cute but not so good at being quiet…) and, perhaps surprisingly, we were the only real tourists. The two ladies with the babies, Nathalie (mum to Lucas) and Cameron (mum to Tragar), are ex-pats living in Dhaka (their husbands work for the same firm), Ben from London has a Bangladeshi wife and they were in the country visiting family, she was sorting out some business while he did the trip, Kamal was born in Bangladesh but is now living in the US and again the main purpose of his visit was to see family, Hubert is Dutch and makes an annual trip to Bangladesh to review the work of a charitable foundation which he has set up, each of his trips culminates in a tour of the Sundarbans, and his friend Jewel is Bangladeshi, and as well as running a tour company, he manages the foundation day-to-day.

Our tour boat the MV Chhuti (which translates as Motor Vessel Holiday!)

The first morning was an early start, we met with our guide, Emamul, at Jailkhana Ghat (Jailhouse Pier) in Khulna at 7am to shuttle across to the tour boat and start the long cruise south to our overnight dock near the Bay of Bengal. Most of the morning we were outside the National Park and we had the opportunity to see some of the industry and commercial shipping along the river. Ships full of raw materials such as sand are often unloaded manually by men carrying basket loads on their heads and there are lots of brick factories along the riverside here, as there are all over Bangladesh. I’m sure we must make bricks in the UK as well but I’ve never seen a factory there, whereas here I think we see 3 or 4 per day!

Early morning on the River Rupsha at Khulna

Unloading a ship the hard way, cross-river passenger ferry, riverside brick factory

At about 11am we arrived at the edge of the National Park and collected the two forest rangers who would travel with us for the duration of our stay in the park. They carried antique looking rifles to protect us in the doubly unlikely circumstance that we (a) saw a tiger, and (b) it decided that we looked like lunch…

Picking up our forest rangers

For the remainder of the day we chilled out on the boat, admiring the lush green of the mangrove trees lining the river banks and keeping an eye out for any wildlife. We missed the huge crocodile that some of the others spotted, but we did see some Rhesus monkeys along the shore as well as brief glimpses of the backs of Ganges River Dolphins, plenty of egrets and Brahminy Kites flying overhead. After a delicious dinner of curried crabs whipped up by the onboard chef we retired to our bunks, excited for the 6am alarm call the next day.

Our first activity on day 2 was an early morning rowboat trip through some narrower river channels. The mist rising from the water was beautiful and it was lovely to float in silence (barring the occasional shout from Lucas or Tragar) between the trees. We didn’t see any animals but there were otter tracks on the muddy banks and plenty of bird life including our first kingfishers of the trip and a bright Scarlet Minivet flying overhead.

Floating peacefully through the narrow channel

After a leisurely breakfast we got into the small speedboat to be ferried to the starting point for our walk to Kotka Beach. Almost straightaway we saw a wild boar at close quarters. Emamul joked that Bangladeshi wild boars are unafraid of humans as they know that Muslims don’t eat pork! And then Jewel spotted a huge water monitor lizard in the grass, it was about a metre long and watched us for about a minute before it sprinted away.

Wild boar and Water monitor lizard

Kotka beach is full of dead trees killed by Cyclone Sidr in 2007 and was quiet apart from scuttling crabs. The other male guests went off to the far end of the beach for a mud bath and Andrew later wished he’d joined them although I don’t think I would have liked the cold seawater to rinse off with. There didn’t seem to be much wildlife at the beach until a white bellied fish eagle flew over just as we were leaving.

Bay of Bengal lapping Kotka beach, dead trees line the edge of the beach, White-bellied fish eagle, Kamal, Ben, Hubert and Jewel preparing to wash off the mud

The afternoon excursion was a walk through the forest. For us the pace was a bit fast and we would have preferred longer to stand and look for whatever wildlife was there. Still we were chuffed to see a fish owl, a woodpecker and lots of Spotted Deer as well as another wild boar and a tiger’s footprint! The going was quite difficult as the mangrove trees push up lots of little stumpy roots which we kept tripping over. Dinner on the second night was barbecue which we were amused (or should that be alarmed?) to watch being lit on the deck of the boat with a petrol soaked cloth…

Mangrove roots jutting up from the forest floor, Buffy Fish Owl, Julie’s hand next to the tiger print, Spotted Deer in the forest

As soon as we were back on board after the afternoon’s walk, the boat lifted anchor and started motoring north for 4 hours before bedtime. That meant that we would have enough time for an excursion on the third day as well as getting back to Khulna for the evening train to Dhaka which some of the others were booked on. Early in the morning we started moving again and soon moved into a relatively narrow channel where we saw lots of boats collecting palm leaves (which I think are used for roofing), three different kinds of kingfisher and a fleeting glimpse of a crocodile in the water.

Boat full of cut palm leaves

Stopping just before lunch we set off for another walk through the forest. This one seemed even faster paced than the day before and with ten or so people tramping along a wooden boardwalk it was never very likely that we would see much wildlife.

Tramping along the boardwalk

Wildlife around the pond at the start and end of the walk: large Indian Bullfrog, butterfly taking off, two Shikras (a type of small hawk) having a drink

For the rest of the journey we saw similar sights to the first morning. We arrived back in Khulna feeling privileged to have seen some of the richness of the National Park and fearful that the rapid development of Bangladesh and India might put it at risk – Emamul told us of plans to build a power station on the bay at the southern edge of the park and it’s inconceivable that such a huge project won’t have a massively negative impact on the fragile habitat and biodiversity of the area.

Dressing like a local in Bangladesh

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As a woman travelling in Bangladesh, it’s a good idea to pay attention to local customs in terms of dress. Ladies here usually wear either a sari, a long dress, or a salwar kameez (a long tunic worn over trousers with a scarf/shawl) and as a visitor loose fitting clothes which cover the legs and shoulders are the best bet – you will get a lot of stares as a foreigner anyway, there’s no need to attract even more by wearing tight T-shirts or shorts.

My original kit included a couple of shirts but that wasn’t going to be enough for a month in a hot and dusty country so it was time to go shopping! Tempted by the bright colours (and relative similarity to my usual trousers and shirt) of the salwar kameez I decided to try one for myself and Andrew and I ventured into the chaos of Khulna market. With dozens of small shops all displaying a wide variety of patterns and colours and all seemingly different from each other it was quite overwhelming at first and we did a full circuit without approaching a shop.

Colourful salwar kameezes for sale in Mymensingh market

Eventually I spied one that I liked and pointed it out to the shopkeeper who promptly pulled out three more colours in the same style, but I preferred the green one which he had on display. I’d heard in the past that it is common to have clothes tailor made in Asia but I’d naively assumed that buying from a market I would choose my style, be offered a choice of small, medium or large and be ready to go. So I was alarmed when he unpinned the tunic from the dummy and it was huge and obviously unfinished at the neckline. As we agreed on the price (about £10), I tried to ask him about the finishing and if it was included. His English was only slightly better than my Bengali but eventually he understood my question and indicated that I had to take it to a tailor to be finished and directed us to a shop around the corner.

The tailor was a little less intimidating than the shops and he quickly started taking measurements and making cryptic notes on a piece of paper, asking how long I wanted the tunic and showing me a couple of different options for the finish on the hem of the trousers. Within ten minutes we were on our way with the receipt. Two days and an incredibly low £2 later we excitedly collected the adjusted clothes and scurried back to the hotel to try them on!

The finished article!

The salwar (trousers) look like baggy clown pants and I wasn’t sure how I’d feel wearing them, but actually I’m really pleased with the result and it’s cool and comfortable in the heat of the day although I don’t think I’ll be wearing them after we leave Bangladesh. The only bit that I can’t get used to is the scarf which seems to fall off my shoulders every other minute. I assumed that local women must have some kind of trick to keep it on but when I asked a lady who we met on the train, she laughed and replied ‘habit’ so I guess it’s just practice… Another upside is that practically every time I’ve worn it locals have commented approvingly asking where I bought my outfit or saying ‘nice dress ‘ or ‘Bangla dress’.

Village life and ancient mosques in Bagerhat, Bangladesh

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The area around the small town of Bagerhat in southwestern Bangladesh is home to more ancient mosques and mausoleums than anywhere else in the country apart from Dhaka. We visited as a day trip from the Division capital of Khulna and after an hour on the cramped bus we got off beside the centrepiece, Shait Gumbad Mosque, which dates from the 15th century. Its name is misleading, it means ‘Temple with 60 Domes’ but actually there are 77. We arrived just after it opened at 9am so there were few people about and we had the shady columned interior almost to ourselves.

Shait Gumbad Mosque

Us inside the columned interior of Shait Gumbad Mosque

After a quick pitstop at a nearby tea stand, we followed the path around the pond behind the mosque, passing through a small village with locals calling out hello and children following behind (this is normal if you’re a foreigner in Bangladesh…). There are two more ancient mosques hidden away in this village. We could only get into one, but the exteriors were both beautifully decorated with bricks patterned with plants and trees.

Village mosques (clockwise from top left): Bibi Begni Mosque hidden in the trees, village kids in a doorway of Bibi Begni Mosque, Chunakhola Mosque, decorative brickwork on the exterior of Chunakhola Mosque

The walk between them passed by a small patch of open ground where in the UK you might find kids playing football, but in Bangladesh cricket is the national obsession so here there were a group of boys with bat and ball. Andrew was persuaded to go in to bat much to the boys’ delight, but after knocking the ball into a nearby pond (a boy jumped in to retrieve it) and then shouting ‘England vs Bangladesh‘ they brought out their best spin bowler and Andrew didn’t stand a chance!

Spin bowler, Andrew as batsman

A short walk down the road brought us to the Mausoleum of Khan Jahan Ali, the man who decided to make his capital at Bagerhat and who is behind the creation of most of the historical monuments still there today. His tomb was busy with local pilgrims and women weren’t allowed inside the building (Andrew went in alone and reported that it wasn’t anything very exciting although he wasn’t allowed to leave until he’d made a ‘donation’). The large nearby pond is the home of a 100 year old crocodile who, according to the Lonely Planet, has become a bit of a tourist attraction. Unfortunately he didn’t put in an appearance for us although we got to see the taxidermied remains of his companion which died in 2011 and is preserved in the small Bagerhat Museum in the grounds of Shait Gumbad Mosque.

Clockwise from top left: Mausoleum of Khan Jahan Ali, decorated gateway in the mausoleum’s perimeter wall, there were a lot of people bathing in the pond considering it has a crocodile in it, there’s a handy picture on a wall beside the pond so you know what to look for…

Near the mausoleum are a couple more mosques, the Nine Domed Mosque which is a pleasant walk along the side of the pond, and Zinda Pir Mosque which has a number of tombs in its grounds.

Zinda Pir Mosque and old tomb

Nine Domed Mosque: from the front, mihrab (niche facing Mecca indicating direction of prayer), and domed ceiling

The final mosque that we visited was Ronvijoypur Mosque. Again away from the main road, this one took a little more finding as a crucial signpost was missing but eventually, after enquiring ‘masjid? masjid?’ to several bemused locals, we got there. The 11m wide dome is the largest in Bangladesh and is supported by 3m thick brick walls.

Ronvijoypur Mosque and its impressive dome

After the chaos of Dhaka it was great to see a little of what rural life in Bangladesh is like by wandering the narrow roads and villages between the mosques. Bagerhat was also our first taste of the rich history of Bangladesh and definitely whetted our appetite for more with its well preserved buildings and lack of tourists.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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We weren’t sure what to expect from Kuala Lumpur before our visit, but we both ended up loving it. It’s a relatively small city and the central area is more or less walkable supplemented by an easily navigated public transport system, the traffic was more orderly than we’ve seen since Hong Kong (I’d say it was a legacy of British colonialism but now we’ve seen the chaos of Bangladesh’s streets my theory is completely overthrown!), and it was full of interesting and varied sights – more than enough to keep us going for a week at our leisurely pace, but unfortunately we only had three days. The only down-side was the extreme heat and humidity (it’s not even the hot season yet) but that just meant lots of stops for cool drinks and occasional breaks in air-conditioned shopping malls to cool down.

We love KL!

Petronas Towers

The iconic image of Kuala Lumpur is the Petronas Towers, the world’s tallest twin towers at 452m high, and for a time (from 1998 to 2004) the world’s tallest buildings. They were designed to incorporate features of Islamic architecture, for example the cross-sections of the tower are based on a Rub el Hizb, the eight-pointed star, with additional circular sectors to allow for more interior space. Another influence can be seen in the pinnacle spires which echo the design of a mosque’s minaret.

The iconic Petronas Towers

We always like to climb towers for the view wherever we go, from Riga to Yekaterinburg to Hong Kong on this trip, and when we visited Croatia in 2012 it felt like we climbed a church bell tower practically every day! The Petronas Towers can only be visited by guided tour at specific time slots with tickets for each day going on sale first thing in the morning and selling out quite quickly. Having joined the queue at 7.20am, more than an hour before the ticket office opened, we managed to secure tickets for the 9.15am time slot.

The tour began with a safety briefing projected onto smoke (I was so interested in how it worked that I forgot to listen to the emergency procedure…) before we boarded the lift to the Skybridge at floor 41. The Skybridge connects the two towers but is not connected to them. It is designed to slide in and out so that it doesn’t fracture when the towers sway.

Andrew playing with the smoke before the safety briefing began, inside the Skybridge, looking down the tower from the Skybridge

Finally we boarded the lift again to whizz up to the observation deck on floor 86 (the total number of floors is 88). The lift moves incredibly quickly (between 3.5 and 6.0 m/s) with the executive lifts taking just 90 seconds to travel from the basement to the top floor. Even in the tours lift we could see the floor counter going up at roughly one floor per second.

Looking down at another Kuala Lumpur landmark, the KL Tower, from the observation deck

Chinatown and KL architecture

Another popular thing to do in KL is to walk around its Chinatown. We had picked up a city map from our hostel which was helpfully marked with a couple of walking tours and information about some of the historic buildings so we spent a couple of half days wandering around and enjoying the varied architecture – everything from a traditional Chinese clan house to a Hindu temple to British colonial buildings to a hundred year old Mughal style mosque where we were given a guided tour by a very friendly volunteer and I was required to wear a not very fetching purple robe complete with hood… Many of the shopfronts in Chinatown are now below street level and the doors have been reversed so that they open inwards. This is because over the years more and more utilities have been laid under the roads thus raising its level and leaving the buildings below.

Decoration on Chan She Shu Yuen Chinese clan house, entrance gate of Sri Maha Mariamman Hindu temple, traditional shopfronts in Chinatown

Masjid Jamek, Mughal style mosque window, inside the main prayer hall in the cover-all purple robe

KL architecture (clockwise from top left): I loved the Islamic influences in this new skyscraper, the Dayabumi Complex, Malaysian flag and clock tower of Sultan Abdul Samad building, the old Central Market is now full of handicrafts shops, the Art Deco style Bank Bumiputra Building was originally built to house the offices of Radio Malaya

Botanic Gardens and Bird Park

On our final day we planned to do the final walking tour on our map which highlighted various points of interest in and around the Perdena Botanic Gardens, but we quickly became very lost and even after finding a plan of the park we couldn’t match the landmarks to those on the map. So we gave it up as a bad job and spent the rest of the day in KL Bird Park, SE Asia’s largest covered aviary, where it was difficult not to take hundreds of photos of the hornbills, egrets, parrots and other exotic birds!

Perdena Botanic Gardens

A small selection of the birds we saw at KL Bird Park (left to right, top to bottom): Scarlet Ibis, Superb Starling, Cattle Egret, Palm Cockatoo, Great Hornbill, Greater Flamingo, Spot-billed Pelican, Peacock, Sun Conure

Food

Although we only spent three days in Malaysia we did our best to try a good sample of the local cuisine. I was surprised to find out that satay comes from Malaysia and not Thailand as I’d always thought, and we had a fabulous dinner at a street restaurant where we chose our skewers to be barbecued and then doused everything in delicious peanut sauce. A bizarre local specialty is Cham, or Hainan tea, a mix of 40% coffee and 60% tea – I wouldn’t recommend it… On a more pleasant note, for lunch on our second day we ate at a South Indian restaurant in an Indian section of the city and our huge and delicious meal was served on banana leaves.

Julie with an Indian lunch served on banana leaves, trying to decide which skewers to choose at the satay stand, a kind of peanut filled waffle which we tried for an afternoon snack

Moving on

Arriving at the airport by the airport express train from Sentral station we were surprised to find that our flight wasn’t on the departures board. After checking with the information desk, it seems that our airline had changed the flight time by 8 hours but hadn’t thought to communicate that fact to us (OK, I’ll name and shame them, it was Biman Bangladesh)… Fortunately we were able to book seats on another flight at a similar time to our original one and we arrived in Dhaka on time for a month of exploring Bangladesh but with Malaysia firmly on our list of countries to revisit.

Sukhothai UNESCO World Heritage Site, Thailand

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Our first stop on our trip south from Chiang Mai was at Sukhothai. Near to this small modern town are ruins of ancient Thailand:

The Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns is a UNESCO World Heritage site which consists of Sukhothai historical park, Kamphaeng Phet historical park and Si Satchanalai historical park. These historical parks preserve the remains of the three main cities of the Sukhothai Kingdom which had flourished during the 13th and 14th century CE. The Sukhothai Kingdom is viewed as having been the first of the Thai kingdoms.

Sukhothai

Sukhothai Historical Park is divided into five zones (each with a separate entrance fee). We visited the central area which contains the heart of the old city and the remains of several wats interspersed with pools and surrounded by trees. The wooded park between the wats was a pleasant place to cycle through and even though the bikes that we rented were rather rickety it was completely flat, the paths were in good condition and nothing was very far away.

The centrepiece is Wat Mahathat, surrounded by brick walls and a moat it contains a staggering 198 chedis (conical or bell-shaped structures often containing Buddhist relics) as well as the remains of a viharn, or prayer hall, and several Buddha statues.

Large Buddha statue reflected in the moat at Wat Mahathat

Buddhas of Wat Mahathat: Andrew imitating the 12m high standing Buddha, this seated Buddha has gold painted fingernails, walking Buddhas surround the base of the central chedi group

Although somewhat less impressive, many aspects of the site reminded us of the ruins at Angkor in Cambodia and a Khmer influence is obvious in some of the temple domes. Here though there are not nearly as many tourists so we rarely had to wait very long to get a photo with no one else in it, or to get a closer look at something that interested us.

Khmer style temple roofs at Wat Sri Sawai

The shape of the temple roof is obvious from the remains of the pillars at Wat Sra Sri

The chedis are of various shapes including Khmer (Cambodian) and Sinhalese (Sri Lankan) influence, but the lotus bud shape is known as typically Sukhothai in style.

Chedis of different styles (clockwise from top left): the central chedi grouping at Wat Mahathat has a lotus bud chedi surrounded by Khmer style ones, some chedis have niches which would have contained images of Buddha, a typical lotus bud shaped chedi at Wat Traphang Ngoen, us with the elephant chedi at Wat Sorasak

King Ramkhaeng the Great is the best known of the kings who ruled from Sukhothai and he is commemorated here with a monument and several bas reliefs showing key moments of his rule, most notably the carving of the earliest known example of the Thai alphabet.

Monument of King Ramkhaeng the Great in Sukhothai Historical Park

Si Satchanalai

The next day, on the recommendation of our guesthouse landlady, we decided to head off to another of the ruined cities in the same UNESCO listing, Si Satchanalai, about 70km (45miles) north of New Sukhothai. We rented a motorbike and set off through the countryside passing fields full of marigolds and what we think was tobacco (we saw racks of the leaves drying as well as fields full of the plants).

In the morning we explored the main area of ruins and enjoyed them even more than the ruins at Sukhothai. There were even fewer tourists and no traffic noise so that at times we were completely alone in a ruined wat with just the sound of bird song which made it seem as if we were discovering the ancient city before anyone else. The temples were also very varied and, perhaps because of the lower numbers of tourists, more accessible, it’s possible to climb some of the chedis here and have a look inside!

The central temple, Wat Chedi Ched Thaeo, is a profusion of chedis in different styles

Chedis supported by elephants were a common motif in the Sukhothai period and there’s one at Si Satchanalai too. The elephant’s strength signifies the Buddhist religion being held up for 500 years. This one is much bigger than the one we saw at the Sukhothai Historical Park and has not been restored so you can see the elephants in various states of decay which meant we could try to work out how they were put together. Sadly none of the trunks remain which gives some of the statues quite a menacing look.

Chedi at Wat Chang Lom, look closely around the base to see the remains of the large elephant statues

Wat Nang Phaya had a large chedi that we climbed up to see the small internal chamber as well as a wall of well preserved plaster carvings. These red flowers were dropping from trees all around the site

After lunch in one of the local restaurants outside the park’s gate, we motored 5km down the riverside to Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat Chaliang. The entrance gate here has Bayon style carvings of faces and the main shrine itself is also reminiscent of other Khmer architecture which we saw at Angkor. Unlike the other ruins this shrine is still an active place of worship and a working temple is found just outside the ancient walls.

Us with the main shrine of Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat Chaliang

The large Mon style chedi, Phra That Mutao, with the main shrine in the background, Bayon style carvings above the entrance gate, this old man was busking inside the ruins

After the long ride back to New Sukhothai we found a street restaurant serving the local specialty, Sukhothai-style noodles with sliced pork, crackling, peanuts, greens and a side bowl of broth. Yum.

two year trip

Andrew and Julie's Travelling Adventures