Fresh Air

Dhaka is a great city for exploring, and I still have lots more on my list to check out, but after being cooped up in Dhaka for a few months for language school, I have really been enjoying the flexibility of my new schedule, which allows me to travel around the beautiful country of Bangladesh. To make my recent travels even more enjoyable, I had my first visitor in Bangladesh, Zach! Zach and I left Dhaka for a 10 day trip down to Cox's Bazaar, Bandarban and Rangamati. 

We arrived at Cox's Bazaar with the rain and spent two days there dodging rain drops and exploring the world's longest natural unbroken beach. There are a few qualifiers in that last statement, but when you include them all, it is true; Bangladesh is home to a 120km long beach that is entirely natural (as opposed to man-made). Since it is the low season and there was a storm coming, Cox's Bazaar was nearly vacant, and Zach and I barely had to share the entire 120km stretch with anyone! Zach played in the waves as I watched from the shore (I did not want to brave the water in my Salwar Kameez since an actual bathing suit would be wildly inappropriate) and we explored all the little shops selling dried fish, sea shells and even tourist T-shirts! On our second day we went to town and explored a Buddhist monastary, where Zach managed to impress the locals with his cricket skills. Then, as the storm left Cox's Bazaar, we boarded the bus to visit the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Zach playing in the waves at Cox's Bazaar. 

Dried fish for sale at Cox's Bazaar.

He sells sea shells by the sea shore.

Buddhist monastery in Coz's Bazaar.

Zach bowling.

Next we headed to Bandarban in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Chittagong Hill Tracts, and especially Bandarban, is the most mountainous part of Bangladesh (most of Bangladesh is incredibly flat), and here we found the tallest mountains in the country, though they are under 3,000 feet (about 880 meters). This, so far, has been my favorite place in Bangladesh. We stayed in a beautiful bamboo hut on the side of a mountain with a porch that looked out onto a beautiful green valley. We spent two full days hiking around the countryside, exploring different indigenous villages (Marma, Tripura and Bawm) and taking boat rides up and down the Shangu river. Hiking to different villages was very interesting. The Marma people are the most numerous in Bandarban and their language and script is derived from the neighboring Burmese. The Tripura villages are the second most populous in Bandarban, however most of the overall population lives in Inida. Lastly, there are quite a few Bawm villages in Bandarban, where most people actually are Christian as a result of missionaries from the early 1900s. 

View from the porch of your room in Bandarban.

Mango season has arrived!!

Kids in Bandarban.

Tripura village in Bandarban.

Village kids in Bandarban.

Woman sorting rice in a Tripura village in Bandarban.

Village in the mountains of Bandarban.

Grazing cow.

Small school in Bandarban.

Kids playing in a waterfall, Bandarban.

View from inside a covered boat on the Shangu River, bandarban.

Very sweaty hiking in Bandarban.

Shangu River, Bandarban.

A small following walking through a village in Bandarban.

Sharing a water taxi on the Shangu River.

Fishing boat.

Sunset in Bandarban.

After a lovely time in Bandarban, we moved on to Rangamti, which is also in the Hilltracts. Ragamati town circles Kaptai Lake, which was actually created in the 1960s from a dam that was needed to meet electricity demands. Sadly, this resulted in displacing over 100,000 indigenous people. Our first day in Rangamati there was a large bi-weekly indigenous market where villagers from all over Rangamati come to sell vegetables, meet, fish, clothes, tobacco, spices, etc. Zach and I spend the entire morning walking through the market, tasting new exotic foods and talking with the villagers. We then headed out to walk around the lake and visit women weavers. Rangamati and actually all of the Hill Tracts are known for their beautiful hand loomed textiles. They use lots of bright colors and unique geometric patterns. All of the women we met were extremely excited to show us around and show off their craft. 

Roadside in Rangamati.

Onions, chili powder and tumeric for sale in the Rangamati market.

Fiddle heads and a tobacco bong in the Indigenous Market in Rangamati.

Crabs are inside the baskets.

Dried tobacco.

Jackfruit coming in.

Making friends at the juice shop.

Lots of jackfruit.

Zach helping out.

Market snack, sticky rice steamed in a banana leaf.

Waiting for the bus.

On the way to the weavers.

Small weaving factory with big looms.

The weaving factory.

Women who work at the weaving factory we visited.

Women selling spices on the side of the road.

Weaving next to her home.

Finished weaving for the day.

The next day we decided to rent a boat and go out onto Kaptai Lake. This was a very unique experience. Due to past security issues, Zach and I managed to find a boat and boatman, however, before leaving we were forced to bring with us no less than three policemen to escort us around the lake. So the two of us found ourselves floating around the lake, taking in the beautiful scenery with our new entourage. Needless to say, this was not how we originally imagined ourselves visiting Kaptai lake, but it certainly will be unforgettable. 

Kaptai Lake.

Cha break with the police escort.

Kaptai Lake.

Kaptai Lake.

Kaptai Lake.

Kaptai Lake.

We sadly left Rangamati and the rest of the Chittagong Hill Tracts for Chittagong city. After an amazing week and a half of traveling around the south east, we had thoroughly exhausted ourselves and decided to only spend the afternoon in Chittagong city before catching a night bus back to Dhaka. So with half a day in Chittagong, we decided to head out to Chilla of Hazrat Sultan Bayazid Bostami, a Muslim pilgrimage site to see giant tortoises. This was a rather unusual destination. The tortoises are believed to be evil spirits who were forced to assume their current form when they incurred the wrath of the Muslim saint Bostami. Following others, we bought a bag of cut up bananas and paratha, got two extra long toothpick like sticks, walked over to the stairs that lead down to the tortoise pool and began feeding the giant tortoises. A couple dozen lichees later, we boarded our bus and headed back to Dhaka megacity.

Mosque with the tortoises.

Feeding a tortoise.

Busy street food vendor in Chittagong.