The Road To Chittagong is Mostly Paved

Beckley, Sara, and I, after returning from the Sundarbans, took a five-day adventure towards south-eastern Bangladesh. We headed towards Chittagong, the second largest city in Bangladesh. The Dhaka Trunk Road, connecting Dhaka and Chittagong, is the busiest intercity road in the country, since Chittagong is the largest port city. We hired a driver from the school to drive our car, because Beckley and I are crazy enough to drive around Dhaka, but no way are we going to drive on the highways outside of Dhaka. We made a special request for Kalam, our favorite driver, and he cancelled his holiday plans just to drive for us. We love Kalam because he is everything good about Bangladeshis. More than that, we love Kalam because he remained absolutely non-plussed after unceremoniously plowing through a flying raven three hours into our journey.

The Dhaka Trunk Road goes right along Bangladesh's eastern border with India, and I got unreasonably excited at the sight of the slightest amount of sloped terrain. I hadn't walked up or down a hill in three months. After driving for about 6 hours, Kalam offered to take us on a detour. We stopped at a Hindu temple at the base of the mountains, and then learned that there were a couple of other temples at the top. Well, once you've climbed 100 steps, you might as well climb the other 900, and that is how we climbed a mountain in Bangladesh.

The view from about halfway up. Not there yet!

We were even more of a spectacle than usual, and at some points there were so many people crowding around us that a simple "Shobai ekhane ashun" (everyone come here!) was all that was necessary to create a picture like this:


My Dad can only dream of wielding this sort of influence over my cousins during family picture time. After almost two hours of climbing, we made it to the top!

We made it!!

Completely flat Bangladesh in the distance. The Indian border is right behind me.

Just some guys following us back down the mountain.

My camera ran out of batteries right at the top of the hill, which means I don't have pictures of the next two hours. Within these two hours, we managed to be invited to a vegetarian meal with the head gurus of a Hindu study center at the base of the mountain, immediately followed by an invitation to the ritual Hindu sacrifice of two goats, which we witnessed from less than six feet away. I can't be sure, but I suspect that the organization who invited us to vegetarian lunch is not directly affiliated with the organization in charge of the goat sacrifice. Before leaving, an old hindu woman from the temple came over and gave each of us a hug as if we were her long-lost grandchildren. I'm not gonna lie, that was a good hug.

We then continued the eight hour journey to Chittagong, and arrived in the late afternoon. We had no lodging planned ahead of time, so we checked out suggestions from Kalam, who eventually brought us to a hotel which happens to be owned by Kumar Biswajit, our favorite Bangladeshi pop singer from the 90's. The genesis of our love for Kumar Biswajit is unfortunately an entire story unto itself. Needless to say, the furnishings in the hotel room were primarily made of a pink satin material, but we expected nothing less of Kumar himself. All of this for less than ten dollars per person. How did we manage such a cheap rate? My conversation with the concierge went something like this:

Me: How much will it be for a room with three single beds?
Conceierge: [gives a price]
Me: Oh okay that sounds good.
Concierge: Sir, I am pleased to say that I can offer you a 30% discount on the room for the duration of your stay.
Me: That sounds great.
Concierge: How long do you plan to stay in Chittagong?
Me: Tonight and tomorrow night.
Concierge (after checking one of our passports): Sir, I am pleased to say that I am offering you an additional 10% off for first-time customers.

My bargaining skills are apparently so advanced that I don't even have to say anything to receive discounts.

More about Chittagong soon!