Sunderbans Boat Cruise
We were 32 on the Boat to the Sunderbans and 32 waiting for George early in the morning in front of the Parcomat. The Bus was delayed so we flagged a passing newspaper vendor and bought The Telegraph etc. to while away the time early in the morning so as not to spend all our time cursing, complaining and whining for having to be there at 6 and then only leaving just before 7am. I called Hasher Nil and Dev whose picture was in the papers. Why shouldn’t he be awake too at 6:30 to hear that their names and Yvonnick’s was in the Page 3!
We still reached at 9 after stopping for our traditional Bengali sweet “nikhuti” and tea on the run. Lots of fruits and chicken sandwiches were also passed around. Andy and I were having intensive Spanish lessons and driving Afroz, Manish and their friends from last Thursday at the British Club quite crazy with our giggle fest. Francois became the butt of all the Spanish insults and Yvonnick or el queso grande or Big cheese got all the compliments. Although they wanted to stop and take pictures of the prawn farms and other scenery, we drove right through just stopping for the pit stop to refuel with mineral water! No one hid Doc’s pillow on this trip. However our traditional game of scoop the hat out of the Ganga happened when my bamboo and batik hat that Zoria was using to cover her face while sunbathing near the prow of the boat fell into the water. Pradeep managed to keep his cap on and Aditi managed to keep her hat on too. The poles were taken out and the hat retrieved and flung on my head giving me an even worse hair day.
I spent the rest of the journey covering up my spiky hair with a Bibi Russell scarf tied like a turban by Tony being called sardarni and Negrita Neela when Andy tied it on me like in the Caribbean. Uppal, Tony and Shelley’s friend gave me his detachable turban to pose in as Shelley was with camera taking loads of pictures of the hashers considering that that was the extent of all the wild animals we spotted. We saw a monitor lizard, deer and monkeys, and crocs in the reserves. We visited the museum and took pictures of a real bat that was part of the diorama. Some bought bottles of honey for Rs.50 and Rs.100. and Breakfast was lutchis, pickles and chhola, omelettes, and fruit. Lunch was chicken curry, kurkure alu bhaja, papad, tomato chutney, etc. Tea was some sort of fried snacks and salad. Kevin and Sana were thrilled with the visit in the creeks where we saw Kingfishers and sand pipers, parakeets and butterflies! Andy was convinced it was the same kingfisher following us around! So we were happy to just enjoy the cruise and the scrabble and crossword. I got stuck on the clue fish but Aditi came up with sardine and we were able to complete the crossword. The singing was disappointing as The French contingent only sang one song and tho’ Andy comes from Puerto Rico, the land of Ricky Martin, he really can’t carry a tune to save his life. But hey nobody’s perfect. Carl and The sardars had a bar on the side of the boat and Pradeep enjoyed his Kingfishers. The cruise back was cold and luckily I had extra shawls for the guys. We nearly had a titanic experience as there were sand bars too but we reached without incident. We got back before ten to Cal. Juned hatched an Indo Bangaldesh Hash on the Saraswati Puja weekend but more on that later!
We were 32 on the Boat to the Sunderbans and 32 waiting for George early in the morning in front of the Parcomat. The Bus was delayed so we flagged a passing newspaper vendor and bought The Telegraph etc. to while away the time early in the morning so as not to spend all our time cursing, complaining and whining for having to be there at 6 and then only leaving just before 7am. I called Hasher Nil and Dev whose picture was in the papers. Why shouldn’t he be awake too at 6:30 to hear that their names and Yvonnick’s was in the Page 3!
We still reached at 9 after stopping for our traditional Bengali sweet “nikhuti” and tea on the run. Lots of fruits and chicken sandwiches were also passed around. Andy and I were having intensive Spanish lessons and driving Afroz, Manish and their friends from last Thursday at the British Club quite crazy with our giggle fest. Francois became the butt of all the Spanish insults and Yvonnick or el queso grande or Big cheese got all the compliments. Although they wanted to stop and take pictures of the prawn farms and other scenery, we drove right through just stopping for the pit stop to refuel with mineral water! No one hid Doc’s pillow on this trip. However our traditional game of scoop the hat out of the Ganga happened when my bamboo and batik hat that Zoria was using to cover her face while sunbathing near the prow of the boat fell into the water. Pradeep managed to keep his cap on and Aditi managed to keep her hat on too. The poles were taken out and the hat retrieved and flung on my head giving me an even worse hair day.
I spent the rest of the journey covering up my spiky hair with a Bibi Russell scarf tied like a turban by Tony being called sardarni and Negrita Neela when Andy tied it on me like in the Caribbean. Uppal, Tony and Shelley’s friend gave me his detachable turban to pose in as Shelley was with camera taking loads of pictures of the hashers considering that that was the extent of all the wild animals we spotted. We saw a monitor lizard, deer and monkeys, and crocs in the reserves. We visited the museum and took pictures of a real bat that was part of the diorama. Some bought bottles of honey for Rs.50 and Rs.100. and Breakfast was lutchis, pickles and chhola, omelettes, and fruit. Lunch was chicken curry, kurkure alu bhaja, papad, tomato chutney, etc. Tea was some sort of fried snacks and salad. Kevin and Sana were thrilled with the visit in the creeks where we saw Kingfishers and sand pipers, parakeets and butterflies! Andy was convinced it was the same kingfisher following us around! So we were happy to just enjoy the cruise and the scrabble and crossword. I got stuck on the clue fish but Aditi came up with sardine and we were able to complete the crossword. The singing was disappointing as The French contingent only sang one song and tho’ Andy comes from Puerto Rico, the land of Ricky Martin, he really can’t carry a tune to save his life. But hey nobody’s perfect. Carl and The sardars had a bar on the side of the boat and Pradeep enjoyed his Kingfishers. The cruise back was cold and luckily I had extra shawls for the guys. We nearly had a titanic experience as there were sand bars too but we reached without incident. We got back before ten to Cal. Juned hatched an Indo Bangaldesh Hash on the Saraswati Puja weekend but more on that later!
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