Wildlife sanctuary

Yesterday we went to a brand-new wildlife sanctuary. I guess it's only been open for 2 or 3 months. First, we had to cross a river to get there--it was a short car ferry, which was not really photo-worthy, but here are some of the local boats while we were waiting for the ferry:
Since it was blazing hot and no shade, we sought sanctuary in a very dirty little tea house. I did have a couple sips of tea, but was a bit afraid of the dirty water the cups were washed in--they were still very wet. Here is another faculty, Joanne, and I 'enjoying' our tea! (She didn't drink any of it). No sickness yet and it's been over 24 hours, so I think I'm safe!
Here's a nice image from the ferry as we were crossing the river--this area is very close to Burma/Myanmar and had beautiful hills.
The tribal people in the hilly areas of Bangladesh look very different from the typical Bengalis. Here are a couple women on the street--they wear a skirt and top rather than a salwar kameez or saree and look much more cambodian/laotian/vietnamese. This photo isn't very good b/c it was taken from the window of the van. They are mostly Buddhists, and we even saw a few potbellied pigs running around their villages. The closest thing to pork I think I'll see for awhile!
We didnt' get any background information about the wildlife sanctuary aside from a photocopied handout listing some animals they have there (wild elephants, foxes, bears, some monkeys , armadillo-like creatures, and some other things I'd never heard of) but we didn't see any animals because there was around 25 of us tromping through the woods.
Some guys carrying what seemed like civil war-era guns led us around a nice hiking trail for a little while. It was really nice to get out and walk around in the beautiful jungle even though there wasn't any breeze and it was incredibly hot. The security officer that accompanied us from the University was not an outdoors person, however and he cut it short on the pretense that we were all going to get rashes or diseases from the plants and insects.....not very likely as the path was very wide and cleared well and aside from a couple ant bites, not many insects to speak of....
Then when we returned to the sanctuary manager's house, there were the ubiquitous locals coming to gawk at the white people. Here's a woman who had to have her photo taken with all of us separately. The other white lady is Brenda from Australia.
And a very cute little boy who was given his mother's cell phone to pose with. A sign of the times, I guess!