We stumbled upon a tiger about to swim across the stream

I did the 10-day Highlights of Bangladesh with Nijhoom tours with an extra day tagged on the end to see the ships being deconstructed and recycled on the beaches of Chittagong.

The highlight of the trip was the three-day sojourn in Sundarban mangrove forest along the coast of the Gulf of Bengal. We saw lots of animals quietly rowing up the creek, like deer, jungle fowl, wild boar, then we became really lucky and stumbled upon a tiger about to swim across the stream and later two jackals.

This trip is only for the adventurous. Bangladesh has virtually no tourist infrastructure. During the 11 days I was in the county I met only 10 other foreign tourists, three solo travels and a group of 7 Danes.

Nijhoom Tours did a wonderful job organizing all the logistics my trip entailed. Our guide even brought linen to use on our beds fearing that the local linen would not meet our standards.

In the Sundarban we had a seven-man team including a naturalist, an armed guard and a small ship to ourselves (2 people) for the three-day excursion. Wherever we went local people welcomed us warmly and we were able to view many activités like ship-building and religious rituals up close.

However getting around the country required many, many hours of travel by train or car which eventually becomes quite tedious. On the last day, I did a solo trip with my guide to Chittagong. We flew both ways which I considered money well spent.

People with respiratory problems should stay away from Bangladesh. Dhaka has the third-worst air pollution in the world. I carried an air quality monitor with me and discovered that even on the sea coast, the air quality was terrible.

With these provisos notwithstanding, I unreservedly recommend the services of Nijhoom Tours as a tour organizer. I will use their services again if and when I return to Bangladesh.