Halloween in Bandarban

A few weeks ago Dan and I teamed up with Polly and Denise and ventured out to the Chittagong Hill Tracts for a weekend getaway. The Hill Tracts are considered the most "remote" area of Bangladesh. The people who live there are generally not considered "Bengali", but are local tribes that have been in the area for a long time. Whereas I feel like most people in Bangladesh look like they're from South Asia, the people in the Hill Tracts look more like they're from South East Asia, so maybe the area could be considered as sort of a junction between South and South East Asia. Beyond looks, there are some other interesting differentiators between the people in most of Bangladesh and the people in the Hill Tracts. For example, although most people in Bangladesh are Muslim, in the Hill Tracts Buddhism and animism are widely practiced. Additionally, in most of Bangladesh it seems that women have to dress extremely conservatively- sometimes wearing the burka, or simply just covering from head to foot, or at least neck to foot. However, in the Hill Tracts, many women wore sarong-like fabric wrapped around their bodies, with bare chests covered in dozens of beaded necklaces.

I'm not totally great on the history, but I know that there are a lot of politics that have been caught up in the region, which have caused the area to be highly scrutinized by the military and government authority in Bangladesh. As a result, before we left Chittagong we had to register with the government and tell them that us four foreigners were planning on going, and when we got there we had to sign in, and before we left we had to tell them we were leaving. I think there's technically a rule that you must have a military escort with you at all times, but we just threw that out the window and hiked around on our own.

We arrived at night after a grueling winding three hour van ride, directed by an aspiring Bengali race car driver (I'm sure). I'll spare you all the car-sick details, but it's safe to say that by the time we got there I definitely needed some recovery time. We were greeted with a delicious dinner and then shown to our rooms. We had two rooms in the same bungalow. There were two options where we were staying- concrete, or tribal. We went for tribal. The bungalow was entirely made out of bamboo (except for the bathroom, which was concrete). It was really amazing- built with bamboo supports and then covered with woven bamboo so you could walk around in it easily.

Dan taking some photos in our Bamboo bungalow in Bandarban the morning after we arrived

Dan and I crawled under our purple mosquito netting, turned off the lights, and were in outer space. Lights from the pathway outside streamed in through the holes in the bamboo weave and shot stars all over our room. They were coming from the walls, ceiling, and floor, and were scattered on every surface, including our mosquito netting. It was definitely like sleeping in the Milky Way, or at least a planetarium!

The next day I woke up to find that I had been mistaken the night before- our bungalow, which I thought was on somewhat even ground, was actually on a hill. This meant that during the day you could see through the bamboo weave and see that you were walking over nothing!

Morning light streaming in through the floor of our bungalow

I went out onto the balcony and we were in a cloud. I couldn't see more than a few yards out into the day. It was such a dreamy change from what I wake up to in Chittagong. There were only the occasional scattered jungle sounds and the thick green leaves popping up from the fog surrounding us.

Morning view in a cloud

A few hours later the fog had lifted and we were greeted with this view of the valley below us.

Our bungalow in the morning after we went and grabbed some breakfast

After grabbing some breakfast we decided to go out for a hike. We were told that the best way to get to town was actually to hike down to the river and catch a boat. One of the helpful people at our resort drew us a map. Some of the landmarks on the map were "banana aria" (I think that's Banana area), "large mango tree" and "small water passing". We knew we were in for a good walk if the landmarks included all natural features.

We were pointed in the right direction and off we went. Whatever we were expecting in terms of a path was definitely a lot more than what we encountered. At times we had to ask ourselves- is this the path, or is this a goat trail? because we encountered several goats wandering about. But true to the map, we found ourselves pretty soon in a banana aria.

Dan and Denise in the banana aria

Banana leaves in the banana aria

Denise making her way down out of the banana aria

The next landmark was a large mango tree. When I was in India there was a mango tree right outside of my apartment, so it was up to me to recognize our next landmark. I started to doubt myself, or our friend's map, when after quite awhile we hadn't found what I was looking for. Then suddenly the banana trees cleared and we found ourselves face to face with a Huge mango tree. I wish I had a picture.

After the mango tree we had to find what looked like a small river. Now, if someone in the US draws you a map in which you follow a small river, you might assume that the path goes along next to the river. This is not the case in Bangladesh. We spent a minute or two looking for the path along the stream, but then realized that the stream was the path. Again, in the US this wouldn't be too problematic because the stream would be filled with pebbles or stones that you could gain traction on. But, in Bangladesh there isn't much more than just highly plastic silt. Polly ended up taking one for the team as she attempted to get down into the stream, slipped on the silty bank, and slid down on her side. Although our trip down the stream was really only a few hundred feet (at most), it took us quite awhile because we were being so careful not to slip. At times we grabbed bamboo and tried to push against the banks with it to gain some leverage against the near lack of friction in the stream-bed. At one point Polly grabbed some vines hanging from the jungle above us and just slid down the stream, Tarzan style. We basically all managed to somehow stay pretty dry, which was impressive considering!

Dan and Denise slowly and carefully making their way down the slippery stream bed

Polly looking thrilled to finally be at the end of the stream-trail.

Now how to get up this embankment?

Dan and Denise working their way down another steep slippery slope later on in the hike

Dan in a second banana aria, taking a moment to take it all in

After we emerged from the jungle, we were face to face with a wide slow shallow river. We were told that it wouldn't be difficult to find a boat to take us to town, and that the journey on the boat would be about 250 taka and would take about 1 and a half hours. We walked out into a field where a man was chopping away with a machete. We saw him and told him where we wanted to go. He stood up, yelled across the river, and a man on the other side climbed into a shallow wooden boat and started pushing across the river using a large stick. After minimal negotiation (we were in no position to negotiate, really), we carefully climbed into the boat, and off we went. I didn't take many photos while in the boat because I simply wanted to just take it all in. If you want to see some really amazingly beautiful photos of the life by the river in Bandarban (which you should), definitely check out Dan's blog entry about it. For now, here are a few photos that I took:

Cows grazing by the slow river

Polly taking with our helpful farmer

Dan emerging from the jungle

Women working by the river

Our boat driver, pushing us away from the riverbank

The entire journey down the river was one of the most amazing things I've ever done. We simply sat in this carved out wooden boat and watched a fascinating world roll by us. We saw many women washing clothes, washing themselves, and washing pots and pans at the water's edge. We saw men working- throwing fishing nets into the river, looking for gas, building bamboo rafts, and transporting goods. We saw dozens of children playing- climbing up onto the cliffs and jumping in, swimming with their friends and families, chasing after our boat, and even one kid rolling around in mud until he was filthy and then flipping into the river. It was a beautiful, hot, and amazing ride.

We got to the town of Bandarban, or "mox's bazar" (I'm not really sure if this is the true name, or the part of the town we were dropped off in). We were totally exhausted from sitting on the boat, and immediately grabbed some food to eat. At one point when we were wandering around trying to find a place to eat and I got kind of tired. I sat down on the sidewalk in front of a closed jewelry shop, and Denise and Polly went on to look down the street for a restaurant. Dan and I sat there for about five minutes, but then decided we could venture off after Polly and Denise. Now, this is a small town, so we figured we could probably just walk in the direction they went in and find them pretty quickly. Unfortunately for Dan and me we immediately lost their scent. We walked down the street but pretty quickly came to a big intersection. Not knowing what to do we stood there for awhile hoping that Polly and Denise would magically emerge. In a moment of desperation I turned to a man selling nuts on the side of the street, pointed to Dan and me, and then gestured 'two', implying, 'have you seen two other white people around here?'. The man pointed down the street and off we went. We did this every hundred feet or so, and at every intersection, until we eventually found Denise and Polly, who had been doing the same thing looking for us. It was basically like following a trail of white-people breadcrumbs.

The town was pretty laid back. There were a few people out selling things, but for the most part it was fairly quite in the heat of the afternoon. After eating we decided to walk out to the Buddhist temple that was outside of town. The walk took quite awhile, but went through some beautiful countryside. We were greeted by a monk in a rickshaw, who quickly and gladly descended and walked the remaining length of the journey with us. Dan and I quickly fell behind because we kept stopping to take in the scenery, take photos, or hang out with little children (that last one was mostly Dan).

A cow outside of town

The river

A cow in a boat, and a calf watching curiously

Men selling vegetables in front of the mosque.

Thread for sale. I bought blue, pink, and green.

Rickshaw in the shade

Dan trying to catch up after no doubt taking some amazing photos of children

A wood-working store front

Some chickens

Polly and Denise shopping in Bandarban at night

There's a lot of Che paraphernalia in Bangladesh.

Denise and a cow, taking a stroll through town at night.

The golden pagoda off in the distance

At the golden pagoda, with the sunset and moon in the background.

The monks' dog.

When we arrived at the golden pagoda, we were free to wander around and look at everything. The pagoda was up on a hill and looked out over the whole valley around us. We got there right at dusk, which was an amazing and calm time to arrive. I spent a lot of time walking around the pagoda, looking at all of the different statues and gongs and carvings. I wish I knew more about Buddhism though, because there were a few really interesting paintings and carvings that were clearly related to a story that I was unfamiliar with.

After a few hours at the pagoda we took some rickshaws back to town. It was halloween eve and I managed to look up just in time to see a giant fruit bat fly in-front of the moon.

The next day we decided we should stick around our hotel a little bit, take some hikes in the area, and head back to Chittagong before it was too late in the day. Little did we know that we were about to hike up up up up up and become so sweaty. Denise had the brilliant idea of wearing the sweaty clothes from the day before, and we all wisely followed suit.

Denise and Polly and Tiger Hill in the background. That's where we're hiking!

Denise, Polly, and some local children passing each other

on the "brick road" that we were following.

A small bungalow off the path

Dan looking probably much more optimistic than he was feeling about hiking up that hill.

Little flowers

And then things got steep...

...and our brick road deteriorated

...but the little flowers remained.

The view from the top. If you enlarge this you can see the golden pagoda in the distance.

Another view from the top

Denise showing the hard work she just went through

A very sweaty me

A very sweaty Dan.

A very tired Polly

Green! Blue! Clouds!

Polly and the vista.

A wandering goat at the top of Tiger Hill

A snack shop at the top of Tiger Hill. These shops are actually incredibly common all over Bangladesh. Want chips? You probably won't have to go more than 50 yards without being able to find them in one of these little shops.

Denise on the swing-set at the top of Tiger Hill

The next step in our journey was to hike down to this village.

Little white and yellow flowers on the way down

The final steps down to the village. After getting there we didn't take any photos.

The village was really small- just a few dozen families probably. The huts were made out of bamboo, mostly. A few men sat around, but mostly I saw women and children in the village. One woman came out and sat and talked with us for awhile. She spoke a little Bangla, and we spoke a little Bangla, but that was the extent of our ability to communicate. Some women were fanning their babies who slept in cribs hanging from the rafters of their porches. An old woman sat and watched us from the stoop of her bungalow as we tried to identify the grain that was spread out to dry in the sun. The woman was wearing a sarong tied around herself, had dozens of beads around her neck, had spikes going through the top part of her ears and the bottom of her ears had been stretched to fit in a thick stud, she had at least a dozen silver bracelets on, and a nose piercing. Like I said, we didn't take any photos, but here's an example of the adornment I'm referring to.

We had some candy, which we gave to the children in the village. I felt bad coming into the village and not having anything to contribute, and then giving candy to children with distended stomaches. I felt especially bad when the children then unwrapped the candies, popped them in their mouths, and then dropped the plastic wrappers on the ground. At least Denise went and picked them up.

The village was surrounded by some farms, which I'm guessing is the village's main export and source of income. We had also been told that this was a particularly impoverished community. We didn't stay long, feeling like we had nothing to offer these people, and like they knew we had nothing to offer them, and we started the trek back up to our hotel.

bungalow in a farm

Some yellow flowers

Back to the main road where we could catch a break in the shade and have some water!