After spending the afternoon at Barisal visiting the historic Oxford Church and staying on board Ganga Vilas overnight on Wednesday, the cruise members enjoyed a canal cruise at Swarupkati in Pirojpur district of Bangladesh on Thursday. The tourists were welcomed by police officials at their arrival at Nesarabad and Banaripara from Barisal. <br />'' <br />'' Later in the afternoon, they left for their next leg of journey to Narayanganj where they will stay overnight. On Friday and Saturday they will be visiting tourist places in Sonargaon and Dhaka before sailing upstream to Aricha on the morning of Sunday. <br />'' <br />'' Over the last week of their stay in Bangladesh after arriving on February 3, the cruise members have visited some of the most iconic tourist places like the Sundarbans which is the largest mangrove forest of the world. Being an ecologically sensitive spot, the Ganga Vilas river cruise will open up the potential of ecotourism in areas like Sundarbans drawing the attention of the world to preserve this natural barrier against storms, protect the threatened species like the Royal Bengal Tiger and a help in saving the huge variety of other flora and fauna in the area.