-Journey to Bandarban District ("welcome to the hilly green edge of Bangladesh")... close to Burma!
-many ethnic/tribe groups
-permission required to enter this district. many security checkpoints VERY inefficient process
-stayed in 'hillside resort' cabin in the deep woods
-took 5 hour hike through the forest and paddies with a local guide 'Onik' who introduced us to lots of different villages and several different tribal groups along the way. hard hiking...
-Bandarbans looks a lot like W.Va mountains to me!
-Bandarbans means 'monkey forest', but no monkeys inhabit it. sad realization
-that night, did some walking and some shopping in the town at the base of the mountains. Bangladesh is a country of stall-shopping: little one-small-room places side by side that sell much of the same thing everywhere! in particular: bananas, tea, potato chips, flip-flops, scarves
-early the next morning, a stop at Bandarban Buddhist shrine which was BEAUTIFUL and absent of all other people. a visit with the sun just coming up - wow! such a peaceful place
-Travel to Rangamati, small town that is home to a famous Buddhism center!
-A day of much, much driving on perhaps the worst roads ever been on. We were accompanied on the road by many trucks and many many buses so crammed full of people that they spilled happily onto the roofs of their vehicles. we passed one bus with over 30 men sitting on the roof. remember: high speeds, SHARP curves, VERY bumpy and narrow roads. insanity!!!!!!!!
-more security check points
-a visit to a hanging bridge
-a visit to the tribal 'king's' house; there is still a 'king' today but he has no political power
-sampan rides to and from the sites in this town
-visit to Rangamati Buddhist temple/center. we are told about this place: once a year there is a big ceremony and festival here that attracts 3 million people, from Bangladesh, India, and Burma. the festival is in November, and preparations were underway. the complex was simple, very nice. the Buddhist monks offered refreshing calm and sincerity
-long hours of tense driving
-finally, returning to Chittagong our driver Kalam takes us to see an Islamic prophet's holy burial site from 300 years ago, which is also a pilgrimage place: there is a pond there filled with HUNDREDS of big white turtles who swim around and eat the food that people feed them and let people touch their shells. a very surreal scene at night time - no pictures aloud! and i had to cover up with a scarf. woah, mind-blowing experience! holy turtle pond
Overall Thoughts:
-Life in villages seems better than the life of a poor person in Dhaka city...
-Bangladesh is a land of cement stalls.
-trash is everywhere. all over every street, littered through green spaces, piled in public areas. for me, it makes everything seem so dirty... i have trouble adjusting to this
-so many people, people filling every vehicle to the brim, people lining every street
-Driving is so dangerous. People in every sort of vehicle from pedestrian, rickshaw, baby taxi, car, truck, bus share the same highways of narrow and poorly maintained roads. the country's biggest highway - the Dhaka-Chittagong highway - is a two-lane road not divided. people drive way too fast and pass each other all the time. it is normal to be run off the road... it must have happened to us 50 times on the drive home.
-We (the 3 interns) hired a school driver to drive our car on this trip: Kalam. He is a smart man and we trust him a lot, more than any other driver we've met. He took really good care of us - and we needed his guidance. He was very kind to come, and we also paid him a great salary - as well as money for him to eat and sleep along the way.
so glad we got to know Bangladesh at this much deeper level now - what an adventure it has been this last week. I also feel very grateful that we made it home safely. I went in to school yesterday after we got home, and really enjoyed the kind welcome that the school staff (mostly local folks - our cooks, guards, and janitors) gave. Glad to get busy with school life again - a successful break!
Pics from Jimi and Beckley:
hear no, see no, speak no evil at the buddhist temple
hiking
