India - River Cruising Detailed ItineraryPrint this page


North East India - Brahmaputra and Hugli River Journeys

Multiple departures.

ASSAM CRUISES. Wildlife and wilderness are the main features of a cruise in Assam on the vast Brahmaputra river - the river bed is often 20 or 30 km across, an empty world of sand spits and water with marvellous bird life and the occasional Gangetic Dolphin. The cruises here also give access to a number of India's National Parks, including Kaziranga, perhaps the finest of all, and Manas, a Project Tiger reserve on the Bhutan border.

BENGAL CRUISES. The waterways of the old Bengal Presidency now lie in the Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal, and in independent Bangladesh. Here in the north of the region the rivers Ganges and Brahmaputra meet head to head and then flow out to the sea through the world's largest delta. The rivers meet the sea through a maze of low-lying mangrove-covered islands, the famous Sunderbans, home of the Royal Bengal Tiger. Inland, however, on the rich agricultural land lie prosperous towns and villages, rich in history and culture. This is village India at its best, completely unknown to tourists. Cruises go north from Calcutta on the intimate River Hugli, and can be linked with our cruises on the Ganges proper from the Bangladesh border up to the historic city of Patna.

ASSAM JUNGLE LODGES. At Manas National Park ABN now has its own jungle accommodation, "The Bansbari Lodge", situated right at the entrance to the Park. The 16 large twin-bedded rooms all have attached bathrooms and the lodge is simply but comfortably furnished.

At Kaziranga National Park, the "Diphlu River Lodge" opened in January 2008 and is run by ABN. In prime position, its cottages provide premier quality accommodation for a total of 24 guests. The airconditioned cottages are built on stilts with generous thatched verandahs and en-suite bathrooms, and have fantastic views directly overlooking the river and the National Park.


ASSAM DESPATCH 2 - RHINOS AND MORE

Day 1, Sat Guwahati:
Met at Guwahati airport and taken on a short sightseeing tour of the city. Drive up Nilachal Hill to see the holy Kamakhya temple. With its tantric rites and animal sacrifice, the more squeamish may prefer to content themselves with the exterior. Visit the poignant Commonwealth War Graves cemetery. Finally walk through a local market before embarking on your cruise vessel. We set sail and cruise for about an hour and a half upstream to Kurua on the north bank.

Day 2, Sun Ganesh Pahar:
The day is spent cruising upstream, with hills rising on either side. Battling against strong currents, we reach an idyllic stop at Ganesh Pahar, where we can explore a delightfully serene hinterland lying under jungle-covered slopes.

Day 3, Mon Village visit:
Leaving the hills behind, we enjoy our first taste of the wilderness experience, sand banks like icebergs on either side. We may make a short stop to visit a bankside village, creating a sensation as we do. We moor for the night in a lunar landscape of sand islands, with hopefully the Himalayas in view and providing a contrasting backdrop in the distance.

Day 4, Tue Orang National Park:
Rising early, we take to our country boat for another cruise up a side stream, this time into the Orang National Park. Here in this rarely visited park we mount elephants or take jeeps and ride through forest and grassland looking for rhino, deer and other wildlife. Returning to our ship, we cruise upstream to moor close to the isolated Singri Hill.

Day 5, Wed Tezpur:
We cruise on to Tezpur, where we visit the 6 th century Da Parbatia temple ruins with a beautifully carved portal, then explore the town by cycle rickshaw, stopping at Cole Park with medieval stone carvings saved from sites all over the region, and perhaps get to penetrate the bungalow once lived in by Alexander Bruce, pioneer of the tea industry. Our ship will be waiting at the town's waterfront for us to reboard.

Day 6, Thu Kazaringa - Rhino, elephant and more:
We continue upstream, passing below a seemingly endless new bridge across the vast width of the river bed, to moor at Steemer Ghat (sic), a lovely beach backed by jungle-covered hills. In the afternoon we drive to Kaziranga's Western Range for a jeep safari and to scan the wilderness from an observation tower. Kaziranga is a World Heritage site and with a population of well over 1000 rhinoceros is the best place in the world to see these beasts. There are also good populations of tiger, wild elephant, sambar, swamp deer, hog deer, wild pig and many other species.

Day 7, Fri Elephant ride, tea plantation:
Disembark pre-dawn and drive to Kaziranga's Central Range for an early morning elephant ride, the best way to get really close to the rhino and other animals. After breakfast at a lodge, we visit a tea factory to see all the processes involved from picking to pot (not operating Dec-Mar), walk through terraced tea gardens and past a Karbi tribal village, then drive to a Mising tribal village, with their distinctive houses raised on piles. After lunch either take a jeep safari in the little visited Eastern Range before returning to the boat, or if preferred return directly to Steemer Ghat, visit a delightful Assamese village nearby and walk along a path alive with butterflies to a solitary temple on the river bank.

Day 8, Sat Guwahati, Disembark:
An early start for the 4 hour drive back to Guwahati airport, or alternatively we can arrange 40 minute transfer to Tezpur airport or 2 ½ hr transfer to Jorhat airport.



BENGAL DESPATCH 1 - THE HISTORIC HUGLI UPSTREAM

Day 1 Kolkata:
You are collected from your hotel late morning. Embark midday on your ship and sail up past the old Danish colony of Serampore to Barrackpore, land and take a walk through the cantonment past the Semaphore Tower, Government House, the Temple of Fame, and Flagstaff House, its garden housing many of the British statues removed from central Calcutta. At high tides it may be necessary to perform the first mile or two under low clearance bridges by a launch before boarding the cruise ship at Bally Bridge

Day 2 French, Portuguese and Dutch history:
Sail up to Chandernagore, a French possession until 1950, and visit the 18th century church and Dupleix's House containing a small museum. Drive on to visit the Dutch cemetery at Chinsura, the Imambara at Hugli and the Portuguese church at Bandel where you reboard your ship and cruise upstream, leaving urban sprawl and cruising through the night to a mooring near Kalna.

Day 3 Kalna, rickshaw ride:
Land at the country town of Kalna and take cycle rickshaws to see a group of some of Bengal's most attractive terracotta temples, as well as the unique Shiva temple with concentric rings made up of 108 shrinelets. Continue on through the countryside to Mayapur, its skyline dominated by the vast new ISKCON temple. Visit on the opposite bank at Nabadwip the older and humbler temples entwined within a giant banyan tree before sailing on through the night to a mooring near Matiari.

Day 4 Brassworking Village visit:
This morning visit the brassworking village of Matiari where you can see the whole primitive process of beating out brass water pots and other vessels. Later cruise on past the battlefield of Plassey where in 1757 Clive's defeat of Siraj-ud-Daulah changed the course of Indian history, to moor at Murshidabad.

Day 5 Tombs of Siraj-ud-Daulah, Nawab's great Hazarduari Palace:
Land and travel by cycle rickshaw to the Khushbagh, a peaceful Moghul-style garden enclosing the tombs of Siraj-ud-Daulah and his family. Continue a little way upstream to where the Nawab's great Hazarduari Palace, built by an English architect in 1837, dominates the waterfront. Inside are an extensive collection of pictures, china, weapons and other objects. Visit also the great Katra Mosque and drive out to two amazing buildings of the late 18th century, the Nashipara Palace and the Katgola Palace. Both were built in classical Georgian style by rich local merchants and represent the other side of the coin of the "White Moghul" period when English and Indian cultures came close to fusion. Overnight on the riverbank across from town.

Day 6 Rural India, Baranagar Village:
Moor at the delightful sleepy village of Baranagar with three gorgeous miniature terracotta temples to which you walk through the fields. This is rural India at its most idyllic. Continue up the Hugli, here a charming waterway twisting and turning between banks lined with mustard fields and mango orchards. Carry on to moor at dusk at Jangipur.

Day 7 Silk weaving villages:
From Jangipur, near where the Hugli flows out from the Ganges, a morning excursion explores native villages where silk is woven and "bidis" (primitive cigarettes) are rolled. In the afternoon, cruise up a long canal section to the Farakka Barrage.

A full day excursion by road is also available at extra cost ($50 pp) for those just taking the Bengal Despatch 1 7-night itinerary to Gaur, near the town of Malda, or English Bazar. This quiet, deserted place was once one of India's great cities, first under the Hindus in 12th century, then as the muslim capital of Eastern India from the 14th to the 16th century. There are plentiful remains of mosques, palaces and gateways and you visit a number of the most interesting before rejoining the ship in the evening at Farakka.

Day 8 Farakka, Disembark:
For those taking the Bengal Despatch 1 7-night cruise, dawn transfer to Farakka station for morning 6 hr train journey to Calcutta.

Alternatively it is possible to travel on by road to Silguri and Darjeeling (transfer not included in cruise price).

Duration: 4 to 10 nights

Max Group Size: 24

Accomodations: ship cabin

Price: From $195USD per night to $395 USD per night dependent on season + 2.5% tax