Eid Break

Who doesn't love a vacation after working for 4 and half weeks? Eid is a Muslim holiday celebrating the story of Ibrahim who was willing to sacrifice his son Ishmael in order to demonstrate his obedience to Allah. Because Allah provided an animal for Ibrahim to sacrifice instead of his son, Muslims celebrate this holiday by sacrificing animals in the street. All leading up to Eid there are cows and goats tied up along the street, lining the sidewalks, stuck in car garages underneath apartment buildings, some with decorations around their neck or on their horns. It is quite common for the sacrificed meat to be given to the poor, how this is done exactly, I'm not sure.

Most foreigners choose to leave during this holiday as they get a bit squeamish with cow guts and blood lining the streets after the sacrificing. Apparently, it's quite a mess. So we decided to get out of town too. First we spent 4 days on a boat gliding down a river to the Sundarbans, the home of the Bengal tiger that is becoming so endangered that they are incredibly difficult to spot. So we didn't see any. :( But we did see beautiful green spaces, blue, unpolluted skies, butterflies, deer, and river dolphins! It was so quiet and peaceful on the boat, we all felt very relaxed coming from hectic, noisy, and crowded Dhaka.

The first time we dropped anchor we thought the ship had run aground, it was so loud! We took a walk through a rural village one day, right on the water. It was really neat to see, but made me realize how vulnerable these people are to the tides, any kind of serious storm coming up through the Bay of Bengal and their entire village would be wiped out.

 

 

 We did a couple little hikes through the mangroves but stayed very close to the beach. I guess it's not the smartest idea to go hiking through the thick brush where tigers are hiding but I did so much want to see one, from a safe distance. What we did find, were several flip flops scattered along the walking paths. One here, one there, I think we counted about a dozen, some with teeth marks in them...which lead Ganraj and I to believe that logically, travelers were eaten by tigers who refused to eat one shoe per person that they devoured. Makes sense right? But I did get to see the Bay of Bengal and some super cool trees!