December 9 – Drive to Manjuli Island

Before leaving the tea plantation we took a few pictures of the grounds.  It is lovely and tranquil here.

Along the way through the countryside...

we saw quite a number of migratory birds in the fields. We think these are Siberian Geese.

We are taking a ferry to the island of Manjuli.  Manjuli is the largest riverine island in the world at 136 square miles (it was over twice that size at the beginning of the 20^th century but erosion has eaten away much of the island).  There is currently some political unrest in the state of Assam that is causing shutdowns and we wanted to catch the earliest ferry, hopefully before the ferry is shutdown. 

We arrived in plenty of time to watch them load motorcycles onto the ferry.  These ferries can hold about 30 motorcycles, four cars and some number of people.  While waiting we walked along the river bank.

The river is very smooth and broad.

We were told the ferry was delayed and they didn’t load our car.  Then the ferry loaded with motorcycles headed off without us.  

This was the ferry we were supposed to be on.

And we were told there were no more government ferries going to Manjuli.  

So Tara went to work discussing our problem with some local authorities...

and found a private ferry at a very reasonable price.  Notice that there are no guardrails on the ferry.  

We made it to Manjuli only a little late.

Manjuli lies in the middle of the Brahmaputra River, one of the 10 largest rivers in the world.  Raju (our guide) and Tara both saw a pink dolphin.  Unfortunately neither of us managed to see it.  The pink dolphins reside in the tidal waters of the Brahmaputra and Ganges Rivers, the Sundarbans and some of the waters of nearby Myanmar.  They are very rare. 

The ferry ride was about 40 minutes so we saw a fair amount of the river.

Got some photos of birds...

and fishermen on the river.

Coming in to Manjuli Island

A sign at the ferry landing on Manjuli Island.

Upon arrival we first headed to the Dakhinpat Satra, a Hindu temple.  We didn’t explore it much because we would need to remove both shoes and socks and it was quite a walk on pavers/dirt up to the buildings.  So we took pictures of the ponds around the monastery and called it done.

Manjuli is in the middle of the rice harvest and we saw many people working in the fields.

We also saw an engine powered machine that thrashed the rice.   It was most interesting to watch.

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Video of thrashing machine
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The island has suffered a lot of erosion and parts of the island banks were covered with large bags of something to help minimize soil loss.

We had a nice walk along the river.  

We met a man walking down the lane carrying a snake on a stick.  He said he had just killed it and was going to dispose of it.  At about that time the snake started wiggling so he dropped it and began to beat it with his stick.  We think he finally killed it. 

We also saw a few more interesting birds... 

Kingfisher

and stopped to watch a woman make the local pottery.  We very much enjoyed watching her. 

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Video of pottery maker
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There was a number of pots stacked up on the waterfront waiting to go to market

Some of the neighbors stopped by to watch the tourists.

We then drove to another part of the island to see a mask making presentation.  The masks are used in the local theater productions. 

Our hotel has interesting architecture…

and our room is large, sparsely furnished and comfortable.  It will be a good home for a couple of days.