Social Slave

This is the last part of the series of posts on our trip to Bangladesh. After about a week of exploring the city and indulging in local delicacies, we decided to take a trip to the nearby touristic spots like Chittagong, Cox’s Bazaar and Hemchhari. Before that we took a ride to the outskirts of Dhaka to a nearby suburb called Ashulia. It’s a 2 hour drive and it’s well known for the Ashulia lake, vast rice fields, brick factories and the first theme park of Bangladesh called Fantasy Kingdom.

The next day we booked the Scania bus tickets for an 8 hour ride to Chittagong. It was more like a mini airbus with big and comfortable leather seats and a foot rest and you get water and blankets on the ride. Chittagong has one of the busiest ports of Bangladesh with most of the trade passing through the Chittagong Port. Some of the places to see here are the Hill Tracts, Foy’s Lake, Patenga beach and the Heritage Park. We stayed at the Hotel Tower Inn which was a pretty good place with good service and free WiFi. Later we went to Foy’s Lake which is a man-made lake where they have a resort, an amusement park and a sea world.

Next morning we had our rented car ready with the driver and we were taking a road trip to Cox’s Bazaar, the longest beach in the world measuring 125 km that opens into the Bay of Bengal. It’s not a bazaar or shopping area but that’s just the name of the place. The ride was 4 hours long and we enjoyed every minute of it with the scenic views along the way, colorful mosques and short tea stops. Once we got there it was magnificent! As far as your eyes could see there was just water. The beach was absolutely beautiful with big waves crashing at the shore that looked like a painted texture as you can see in the photos below. It was a sunny day with a cold breeze and we took horse rides and spent a lot of time on the beach till we got hungry. There were a variety of restaurants along the shore with all kinds of cuisines available but we stuck with Chinese as a safe bet. All the restaurants were on stilts because the water level gets really high during the summer season with massive waves.

After lunch we drove a bit further to go to the Hemchhari mountains and national park where you can climb up to the top for a breathtaking view of the beach. There is a small waterfall there but the best time to see it would be in the summer when it rains. The view from the top was just gorgeous. The sun was setting and there was a Burmese Market nearby which is famous for the Burmese cotton fabrics and shawls. We did a little of shopping and ran to the beach across to catch a view of the sunset before we head back.