From Dhaka to Srimongol - a death defying experience

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Since Monday was a holiday, we decided to take Sunday off and leave for an extended weekend trip to Srimongol from Thursday after work to Monday evening.

Srimongol is a city in the tea producing Sylhet region, northeast of Dhaka. I was excited about the prospect of drinking lots of tea, but also more generally to be out of Dhaka and experience something new.

We were picked up after work in a minivan, which started out by scraping its side against a parking column when it left the embassy. Not very comforting when you’ve read hundreds of horror stories in guide books about driving at night. But we managed to get to Srimongol in one piece, despite a few near-death experiences once it got dark. The busses down here act like the bulky playground bully, pushing their way in front, even if it means driving in the wrong side of the road and forcing oncoming cars into the ditch while they pass. A minivan would classify as the average boy who hasn’t hit puberty yet, while CNGs are the freckled guys with glasses and braces. There is no room for stubbornness on the road at night. You move aside when the bus approaches at 80 km/h or you get smashed to pieces. The dents, scrapes and broken windows on the busses bear witness to many such occurrences.

Anyway, we made it safely to Srimongol at 9.30 pm and were shown to our two rooms. Rikke and I shared a double-bed in one room, and the boys got a double-bed each in the other. We unpacked, then had a late dinner at the ‘guest house’, which was the term for what amounted to a mix between a hostel and a hotel, and we then went to bed.

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