On 2014 September we made a journey to Cox’s Bazar. It was three day stay. It was time for relaxing, an escape from the worries of city life. Cox’s Bazar is a district near Chittagong. There is an airport. But we went to Chittagong by train. And we traveled the rest by bus.
Before the event my wife got joining letter from his office. She wanted to delay it. Part of the cause was to help her mother organize her bag for foreign travel. And partly because her chances to get free and relax in distant places will be very small after she starts her job. So she convinced her department for late joining. It was rescheduled on Saturday. We paid the house rent and electric bill in Dhaka and we are ready for the journey.
We managed to get two tickets of Subarna Express. It is a train from Dhaka to Chittagong. It takes less time to reach in Chittagong by this train. We booked the tickets four days earlier. She said she cannot take big baggages with her. Because, she may need to take some of her mother’s bags. Her mother is in Chittagong waiting for the flight on Sunday from Dhaka airport. So with small baggages in my hand we reached the Airport-Railway Station in a transport (CNG scooter).
We entered in the terminal. There was a train standing. This train was not ours. It was heading for Rajshahi. There she managed to find a place to sit in a bench. It has rained yesterday. We were careful to keep umbrella with us. The platform was shaded. I bought a tea and a box of cake for her. There in the platform she finished the tea. Somehow the train came a little later. It was 3:30 PM. We just rushed to our compartment and went in there. There we found our allocated sit and placed all the luggages on the top racks above the head. Within ten minutes our journey started.
The mobile phone and android application changed life. I just started to enjoy some songs with my earphone. And I played games. I also kept a book for reading. The book was named The Idea of Justice. It was by Amartya Sen. It discusses about the inequality in the society and finds practical means to resolve the problem. The compartments had service-man to serve tea and snacks in reasonable intervals. I took sugarless tea. I do not know how other people see this. I feel bad about sugar. I read how it damages our body. And my father had diabetes too. Some doctors say that sugar does not make people diabetic. But that is not true. Sugar may make you fat eventually causing insulin resistance and type two diabetes. Anyway my wife likes sugar in tea. So we were taking tea in intervals. And our journey was enjoyable. I have the experience of train journey in childhood. In that time I used to go to Mymensingh to my home town. I stayed and enjoyed vacation there. So train journey is positive picture to me. Especially I like the small round fans available in the train compartments. I bought one of that for my dining room in Dhaka. This reminds me the childhood memory of train traveling.
We enjoyed the bucolic scenario around the train very much. And we reached in Chittagong at night. We went out the terminal and reached a marketplace. There I bought pomegranate and guava. I also bought half Kg of the homegrown cashew nut. If you are near Chittagong, I recommend you to buy these. Every time I take those nuts, I think about poems and songs. Finally we got into a passenger-scooter and reached her mother’s den.
My wife helped her mother with bags at night and we started our journey again in the morning. It is ninth of September. We went to Cox’s Bazar by bus. We made our mind to get in the Shaibal Hotel. This is built by Bangladesh government. And it is maintained by Parjatan, a government agency for traveling industry. It was evening when we reached the hotel room. We then took soup in the restaurant of the hotel.
In Cox’s Bazar the sea side is not the town center. It has nice small forest of tamarix tree. Shaibal hotel is near the sea beach. There is a nice walking passage from Shaibal to the beach. The passage has nice scenario around. Each time I walked the path I felt the same thrill. The passage was through the forest. And at the end of the passage the opening to the sea is marvelous. We walked there and reached Labani point. In Labani point there is a small market in the beach. We bought handicrafts like flowers made of seashell, garlands and ear-rings made of seashell and wooden bracelets. And we also bought sandal there. Then we got back to hotel. After resting an hour we went to beach again. It was full moon. Near the sea we ate a bar-b-Que of tuna fish. We spent nice time there. There was refreshing moist chilling wind blowing over the sea. It this point we felt that our long journey was meaningful. After a week it will be one year of our marriage. We spent nice time together. We wanted to take positive energy from this wonderful place.
The next morning we were exploring the places around. Shaibal is beautiful place. It has tamarix forest, lake full of water-lily flower. And often you will hear churning of swan, goose and white flying ducks. The motel Probal there is also nice. Along the road there was water channels. There was water-lily flowering. It felt so peaceful. We took some photos there. We learnt about famous local restaurants there, Poushi and Jhauban. Both of them are good. We took our breakfast in Poushi.
After breakfast we headed back to sea. We hired a photographer. He took our photo along the sea and tamarix trees. My partner is match master. She was always trying to wear a dress that matches mine. She found a place to sit on the tree. I dived in the sea.
The sea is very different place than our daily life in Dhaka. In the morning the water floods a big portion of the beach and at night it goes distant. This is because of the tidal force. The Cox’s Bazar beach has longest step toward the sea. So there is less risk of drowning. The water hits the stair beneath the sea and pops up into the wind. It then creates big ripple and crashes on the beach. Then it goes back to the sea. In the way backward it collides the incoming flow of water from the opposite direction. This again creates mini-waterfall. There were very small crabs in the beach. We saw a patterns in the crab-holes and the its’ foot steps. When water moves over these places the traces are erased. The tamarix trees are the special trees found near the sea here. The have very attractive leaves. These leaves dry out and fall to ground. The local people there collects these fallen leaves from the woods and use them as fuel.
At noon we got back to hotel. I swam in the pool beside the hotel. Then we went out for food. We took our launch in Jhauban restaurant. They have nice arrangements and local dishes available. At first they washed the plate with hot water and lemon. Then we started our meal with Mediterranean-spinach(puishak) and red leaves. Dried fish is the delicacy of Cox’s Bazar. They served dried fish items, lentil soup and Laitta fish fry. And there were two types of pickles too. At the end the served custard and pudding. The food was delicious. And the bill counted only 365 taka(BDT). We were impressed by the service.
Then we went for a tour to Himchhari hills. The road to Himchhari is along the sea. It was tremendous experience to ride the battery-rickshaw in this road. There was stairs up to the hills. And from there we experienced the afternoon sea view. There we also wet our feet in spring water from waterfall. We took some pictures with our camera. Then we headed to Inani beach. We were there at time of dusk. The sun just disappeared in the sea. One thing I must say that the beach near the Shaibal hotel was much better than this one. Again we headed back to our hotel.
At night we went to Jhauban again. We ate coral fish that night.
Next morning we got up earlier. We saw the sun shining at the back of forest just opposite to the sea. This created a pattern of light and shadow in the forest ground. My wife posed for picture. And she looked fresh and happy. The sun created a long shadow of two of us. We could not resist to take picture of this wonderful shadow in the beach.
After we get back to hotel, we saw there was shooting going on. Famous film hero was there dancing with heroine. My wife enjoyed that very much. Then we walked to the Jhauban hotel again and took our breakfast. We ate paratha with egg, chicken soup and vegetable stir-fry. There were pudding in the end. It was only 215 BDT. Then we went to explore the Cox’s Bazar city a little bit. We talked to some transport services for booking ticket to home. I got my bear trimmed. On the way to hotel there is a small market. I bought curd and fruit there. We then got back to hotel.
Around the hotel we found amazing scenes. We captured all the moments with water-lily, Christmas tree and other unknown tress. There were also colorful raised bed garden and green lawn. The side of the restaurant has fascinating architectural design. There were hanging trees and flowering groves growing there. The big pond had solid stairs. There we sat and relaxed. There were also some boats.
Then she took her time to rest. I went to the sea alone. The sunscreen she brought here did not wash away in water. Furthermore, the sunglass made things amazing. I bathed there. And got back to the hotel.
Again we took our meal in Jhauban. This time we ate roopchanda. This is delicate fish of this place. I admire their green leafy vegetables and lentil soup very much. This time the bill was 430 taka (BDT). Then we went to Burmese mall. There we saw lucrative items like, bags, umbrellas, shoes and special dresses(called thami). But we did not have time to buy them already because we needed to get back to sea to watch sun-set there. So we rushed to the sea.
At the time of sun-set the water goes distant and a vast land comes out the water. This wet land becomes very smooth because of the water flow. In that wet sand in the beach, the world is reflected as caricature. The sun, the cloud in the sky and the people looks like a paint work as they reflect in the sand. We took some selfies there. We enjoyed the sunset again. The local people there were jogging along the sea. And the tourists were all taking pictures. We planned to watch the sun-rise behind the forest and went back to the hotel.
At night we went back to Burmese mall. There we saw the Burmese girls selling their products. My wife bought handbags and clothes. And I bought clothes for my nephews. There we took nice horlics tea with breads. Then we went back to hotel.
At dawn we set alarm on 4.50 but we finally moved out at 6 O’clock. Again we walked the long passage from the hotel to the sea. Sometimes we watched the ponds and sometimes the forest. Our eyes rested in the tamarix canopy several times. Now the beach is almost empty. We were captured in the camera there. The sky got cloudy and it started raining. We ran to the hotel.
This is time to leave. We prepared our baggage and checked out. We went to Jhauban hotel again. After breakfast we went to the bus-stop. On 9 O’clock we started our journey back to Dhaka.
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