The second day of our Sunderbans tour happened to coincide with the Mayan apocalypse.
I've always been pretty sceptical about the whole thing. Does anyone remember Harold Camping? And seriously, a mountain in France?? As a British citizen (my dad was born in London) I refuse to accept that in the unlikely event of the world ending and Aliens coming to rescue us, they would choose France as a rendezvous point. And if the Mayans could predict the future, surely they would have foreseen the Spanish conquest?
'Hey guys, how about we quit cutting each others heads off and get our shit sorted, the Spanish are coming'.
I am a pretty big fan of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, the Walking Dead, 28 Days later, anything by Margaret Atwood, zombie movies and the post apocalyptic/dystopian genre in general, and I do have to admit that I was aware of the date. But I wasn't particularly worried…
Until our boat crashed.
Three times.
At this point I'd been in Bangladesh less than a week, and been on
three large boats. The boat trip to Bhola Island was thankfully
uneventful, but our launch from Dhaka to Barisal had a pretty gnarly
scrape with another launch, and my extremely crowded Barisal to Khulna
bus had somehow managed to squeeze aboard a dangerously overloaded car
ferry. Maybe the ghosts of the Mayans (or the French) were trying to
tell me something.
I was reading up on deck, when I noticed that there were a lot of leaves hanging over the railing. Next thing there's an almighty scraping sound, and a big branch crashes into the canopy. Our captain had somehow lost control of the ship and crashed into the trees hanging out over the river.
I helped to clear the debris off the deck, and then checked my phone. No reception. We had spun 180 degrees, and the captain and crew were trying to turn the boat around. But the boat wasn't cooperating, and we crashed into the opposite bank too. Thirty minutes later though, the boat was back on course and we were still afloat. Our worry turned to joking and laughter. Until I looked out over the side, and noticed that we were gradually drifting towards the bank again…
While not as dramatic as the first, the third crash was the scariest. We saw it coming for a good minute before we hit, and by now it was pretty obvious that there was a problem with the steering and/or the motor. Nobody had reception, we were out in the middle of nowhere in the Sunderbans with 400 hungry tigers for company, and the Mayan calendar had just ended…
At least I had the presence of mind to film it. Sorry about the swearing.
We survived, and I can now add two boat accidents in Bangladesh to my ever growing list of travel misadventures. We didn't see a tiger, but other than one of our guards who has been working there for 20 years, I've yet to meet anybody who has. The Sunderbans feel like the edge of the world, and are totally unlike anywhere else I've ever been. Our tour was without a doubt a highlight of my trip to Bangladesh and my travels thus far, and it was a pretty damn good way to spend the apocalypse. I still hope to see a tiger someday. And maybe the next time I'm in Bangladesh, I will!
Cheers,
Source: https://joeliscurious.wordpress.com/tag/joel-vinsen/
I've always been pretty sceptical about the whole thing. Does anyone remember Harold Camping? And seriously, a mountain in France?? As a British citizen (my dad was born in London) I refuse to accept that in the unlikely event of the world ending and Aliens coming to rescue us, they would choose France as a rendezvous point. And if the Mayans could predict the future, surely they would have foreseen the Spanish conquest?
'Hey guys, how about we quit cutting each others heads off and get our shit sorted, the Spanish are coming'.
I am a pretty big fan of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, the Walking Dead, 28 Days later, anything by Margaret Atwood, zombie movies and the post apocalyptic/dystopian genre in general, and I do have to admit that I was aware of the date. But I wasn't particularly worried…
Until our boat crashed.
Three times.
 |
Safety First!
|
I was reading up on deck, when I noticed that there were a lot of leaves hanging over the railing. Next thing there's an almighty scraping sound, and a big branch crashes into the canopy. Our captain had somehow lost control of the ship and crashed into the trees hanging out over the river.
I helped to clear the debris off the deck, and then checked my phone. No reception. We had spun 180 degrees, and the captain and crew were trying to turn the boat around. But the boat wasn't cooperating, and we crashed into the opposite bank too. Thirty minutes later though, the boat was back on course and we were still afloat. Our worry turned to joking and laughter. Until I looked out over the side, and noticed that we were gradually drifting towards the bank again…
While not as dramatic as the first, the third crash was the scariest. We saw it coming for a good minute before we hit, and by now it was pretty obvious that there was a problem with the steering and/or the motor. Nobody had reception, we were out in the middle of nowhere in the Sunderbans with 400 hungry tigers for company, and the Mayan calendar had just ended…
At least I had the presence of mind to film it. Sorry about the swearing.
We survived, and I can now add two boat accidents in Bangladesh to my ever growing list of travel misadventures. We didn't see a tiger, but other than one of our guards who has been working there for 20 years, I've yet to meet anybody who has. The Sunderbans feel like the edge of the world, and are totally unlike anywhere else I've ever been. Our tour was without a doubt a highlight of my trip to Bangladesh and my travels thus far, and it was a pretty damn good way to spend the apocalypse. I still hope to see a tiger someday. And maybe the next time I'm in Bangladesh, I will!
Cheers,
Source: https://joeliscurious.wordpress.com/tag/joel-vinsen/
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