An unforgettable adventure – Bangladesh…
Early this year, in February, my girlfriend and me planned to visit Bangladesh from Germany. We were fascinated by the fact that there exists world’s unique mangrove forests where one could spot a Sundarbans tiger, if really lucky as well as some other great scenic places. With the help of our friends Mamun, the local “Bangla Sher” who is in Germany and Holger, who is based in Dhaka, we planned our trip to fit in our holiday schedule.
Our flights were on time and it was snowing in Berlin when we took off. We received a warm welcome from Mamun and Holger at the Dhaka international airport. We could immediately feel the warm weather there, a big relief of leaving behind the winter in Germany. There we go Dhaka we are here for our holidays. Holger’s and Mamun’s apartment in Dhaka was very well furnished and we received an immediate homely welcome drink, a chai. We thoroughly enjoyed the great hospitality by Holger and Mamun as well as Mamun’s family during our stay. We enjoyed the roof top breakfast with some spicy egg bhurji and planned our trips in Bangladesh for the next weeks in this cozy apartment in Dhaka. We spent couple of evenings in Dhaka were we could see how busy a city could be being part of a progressive Asia. We enjoyed some delicious local food in the evenings we went out. During the day we also took the trips to Sadarghat to see the business in the water front.
Our first trip was to Cox’s bazaar by flight and St. Martin’s islands. We took a boat trip on a rough Bay of Bengal water’s until we hit the shore of St. Martin’s islands. We enjoyed the scenic islands where one could take a walk around with the friendly people around. The stay in St. Martin’s islands was memorable as we had out hotel right in front of the beach. The food at the Coral view hotel was very tasty and we enjoyed the best grilled tandoori fish. After enjoying Shiva dweep island during a day trip and enjoying “chai” in the most remote chai shop of the world we headed back to our hotel. We enjoyed the beach during one whole day while swimming, playing football at St. Martin’s. Very memorable experience to mingle with the locals there who were very friendly in displaying their local catch from fishing and other handworks.
We flew back to Dhaka to plan our route to Sundarbans. We started the journey with a beautiful trip on majestic P.S. Mahsud on the Ganges. Overnight boat trip with some excellent service on board took us towards Kuakata where we took our motor boat to move around Sundarbans. We were warmly welcomed on board and there started a remarkable trip on the marshy forest area where most of the tigers in Asia are located. Sundarbans on early mornings is very beautiful with the wild mist hovering over the water bodies, where one could easily see lot of animals around. We enjoyed every bit of our stay on our boat with some excellent fish delicacies and very tasty grilled fish. Sundarbans really touched us being the scariest and at the same time the most beautiful forest in Asia.
On our way back we were spending time also in Faridpur where we enjoyed the hospitality of a family in a real village. The village was surrounded by fertile land, very important for agriculture. The locals were very friendly and always curious were the children for an interaction. We came to our end of holidays with a chilling evening in Dhaka, the capital, which is a busy city always. Bangladesh always warmly welcomed us and by having Holger and Mamun on our side we were lucky to enjoy every bit of it.
Barbara, Siva & Marcel (in December, 2015)