last trip

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My last weekend in Bangladesh, I took a trip down to Cox’s Bazar with some friends of mine. It’s a decently long bus ride from Dhaka to Cox’s, about 10 hours, including the 2 bathroom-tea-paratha stops (there are sadly no bathrooms on any buses). We took an overnight bus on the way there, which ended up being great besides them playing a loud Bangla movie at 1:30AM and stopping for tea at 4:30AM.
I knew in my head that Cox’s would not be that great, but after enough Bangladeshis and long-term expats raved about it and its wonders, I couldn’t help but begin to believe in them. You hear lots of similarly sounding statements about the beach at Cox’s. I’ve heard everything from it being the longest beach in the world to the longest uninterrupted beach in Asia. (I’m still unclear what defines “uninterrupted”.) You also hear how developed Cox’s has become—hotel strips, tourist shops, etc. It’s hard to not envision your typical beach town just filled with Bangladeshis. It’s all misleading, though, because Cox’s is still much more Bangladesh than tourist beach town. With the exception of the Seagull hotel, every lodging place is still on rather low standards. Not that I mind since I stayed somewhere that felt safe, had air conditioning, a comfortable bed, was close to the beach, and brought me tea to my room all for about 8USD a night. You just can’t beat the economics of living in Bangladesh.
The beach at Cox’s is nice—the sand is soft and fine and continues on as far as you can see. I think my perception of the place is a little off, though, since I went in July—the most off-season month of the off-season. The beach was pretty deserted with the exception of boys walking around with seashell necklaces draped on their arms to sell and other boys strolling about on heat-stroked ponies offering to give rides. Luke bought a soccer ball and we began a pick-up game of 3 v. 3 with a couple local boys who obviously showed us up, especially with the heat and humidity. We got a decent crowd around us for this who happily acted as free referees. Little kids tried to imitate us by finding a stone and kicking it around as a ball. My team, with stunning support by Waret, our Bangladeshi defenseman, won all the games. At the end, when my shalwar was completely coated in sweat, salt, and sand, we began to walk along the beach back to our hotel. Waret and some others walked along with us. When we parted, he gave each of us one of the seashell necklaces that he sells. To be honest, they are not pretty necklaces at all, but it was a touching gift that I’ve kept with me.
Later on, we decided to do some swimming, even though the water looks far from sanitary and is known for a bad undertoe and quick sand. The huge waves and cool saltwater were kind of irresistible. Since it’s still Bangladesh, women really can’t swim in anything besides a shalwar kameez. I wore a tee-shirt and pajama pants. It sounds like it’s not that big a deal, but it’s actually a lot more difficult to swim in baggy pants when you really need to swim, as I unfortunately found out. We had a great time jumping through the waves and riding them in. The undertoe was incredibly powerful so none of went out past where we could touch. After awhile, we decided to head back in when I heard our foreign friend who had come with us call out to me. She was way out past where you could touch and waves were going over her head. The next 15 or 20 minutes were the most terrifying of my entire trip in Bangladesh. I dove in the water and swum out to her as quickly as I could, but the sea was so powerful even that took a lot more effort and time than I was expecting. When I got to her, she was basically helpless and couldn’t swim at all. I tried to hook my arm under her and pull her in with a sidestroke but she was just too deadweight and every time a big wave hit, she’d flip over. When I’d see a wave coming, I’d start swimming beneath her to try and push her up so she could catch the wave, but it wasn’t working. I told her to float, but when she did, the waves would just wipe over her face and she’d swallow more water. Meanwhile, I was becoming exhausted and pulled down by my waterlogged pants. I realized I just couldn’t do it and in an undeveloped place like this, there were no boats out to rescue her if I let her go and there were no lifeguards to come out and save us. I called back to the beach and my other two friends heard and came swimming out as well. Between the three of us, we were able to bring her in. When we got the beach, the girl was very shaken up and I had blood streaming down my face out of my nose, which I guess was from going underwater for so long. Everything ended up being all right, but it was an all-around terrifying experience and was not necessarily bound to end well. People drown regularly at Cox’s and we should have used excessive caution and made sure we were all together at all times. Even with three decently athletic swimmers and her not out extremely far, it was a difficult situation to handle. Anyway, I’m very glad she’s okay. Meanwhile, every muscle in my body was sore from that for days.
The rest of the trip was almost completely fun (with the exception of having to sit without an umbrella on a fishing boat off a remote island for hours in a monsoon rain). Cox’s is a nice place to go, especially if you’ve been in Dhaka for too long. At night, we went to a restaurant set up on the beach with grass huts, a juice bar, music, etc. The staff was very friendly and it was a good place to hang out. As it got later, more Bangladeshis showed up and we ended up having a legitimately great dance party. I befriended the DJ who let me hook up my iPod and I really can’t think of many more fun memories in Bangladesh than dancing all out to Rihanna’s “Umbrella” with my close friends and a bunch of Bangladeshis overlooking the Bay of Bengal under a full moon. When I got really into a Gloria Estefan song they played, I was told that I must have dancing lessons I was so good, which I thought was hysterical. I also got my ass kicked in foosball by our waiter who continued to gloat about it the rest of the night. Then when I asked him for a cigarette to give to one of my friends, he gave it to me saying, “You are so beautiful, any man would give you a cigarette.” I really will miss the great pick-up lines I’ve heard here. Apart from those and the swimming incident, most of the whole trip was a great time. At night, we would walk along the beach quietly and sit by the waves coming in. It was completely relaxing and beautiful. In many ways it’s nice Cox’s still isn’t the developed beach town it strives to be. At night, the beach is quiet, empty, and dark. It’s stunningly peaceful. I couldn’t think of a better way to end the summer.

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