SUNDARBANS With The Beetles

A bus, a boat, a tuktuk, then a smaller boat took us back to nature, to our eco village out in the wide blue yonder.

A massive mangrove archipelago, mostly in Bangladesh but with a decent swathe in India, the Sundarbans are a world away from Kolkata's chaos.

We took a long day's boat ride out with our superb guide MJ (Manjeet, top) and a local government walla, looking fruitlessly (inevitably) for tigers, but did see more deer, hogs, snakes, monitor lizards, birds and a couple of crocs.

The landscape was unique, hot, harsh blue sky and blazing white sun.

Then a couple of village walks and a cooler night cruise around the waterways, where Kim and the girls experienced the muddy riverbanks first hand. I stayed on the boat to guard the flipflops.

It was a great experience just to get away from it all, living the simple life in our little straw hut.

In the evening we tasted a little baule music, played by four local musicians - a sad and happy, reflective and esoteric song form, very authentic and emotional stuff.

The Fab Four, plus one

I was minded of The Beatles and how they may have felt 50 years ago. Something strange and other in the gloaming of a warm Indian evening, the proximity and intensity of the performers drawing one in. Man.

Aye, anyway, we enjoyed the Sunderbans very much. Even the something rooting around in our room at 3am - rat or mouse for sure, I didn't lift the mosquito net to find out.