Inani Beach

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In the morning we awoke fairly early to get breakfast at the Sea Crown and head out to Inani beach, some distance away by car. If I ever doubted that Swapan is the best driver that I have ever driven with, those doubts were dispelled during the ride to Inani beach. A couple of times we came to what appeared to be impassable mud or broken road, only to have Swapan expertly maneuver the car through/over/around the obstacle. I swear he would be able to drive on water like a famous religious figure.
As we arrived on Inani beach a cadre of kids ran up along side our car. They offered to carry our bags and protect us from the rocks while swimming. They set our belongings down next to the only outcropping of rock that could be seen anywhere, so we think it was a ploy to improve their rock-protection business. It was all in good spirit though. The water was very warm
It turns out that almost all Bangladeshis know at least one word in English - “Hello”. The rock-bodyguards and I went body-surfing, and while their English is minimal, they also knew the numbers 1,2,3. They or I would yell “1!, 2!, 3!” before being whisked away by an oncoming wave. It was a lot of fun, even with the scrapes and cuts we received courtesy of the submerged stones.
As we got out of the water to leave, one of the boys shyly approached me and asked if I could take their photo. The beauty of digital photography is that instantly you can show them their picture. An insane amount of fun ensued and I took an innumerable amount of photos of them modeling as a group and with their cows. The kids and I loved it, and they even got me to wade through mid-shin mud, all the while carrying my precious camera above my head. I must have been a pretty ridiculous sight. There was a great photo taken of me with my new friends by Nabil. After we finished they led me to the squat toilet, and washed my mud-covered sandals.
We had lunch at Danshiri, a restaurant that serves typical Bangladeshi fare. Before this meal I had been doing all my eating with fork and knife, and I up and decided to eat my food with my hands. This is the standard custom, and I wanted to give it a try. The rules are quite strict, you must eat your food only with your right hand, and once you have touched food with your right hand, you may not touch anything else until you finish eating. This makes perfect sense from a sanitary standard. Everything else must be done with your left hand, including serving, drinking, wiping your face. My right-handedness made this a bit of a struggle, but I pretty much got the handle of it. You take a pinch of rice, turn it into a ball by squeezing it a bit, grab it with your four fingers and push the food into your mouth with the thumb. Done correctly, nothing should get on your palms. This meal offered me my first taste of Nescafe 3-in-1, the three being coffee, milk, and sugar. The result is a sugary drink that has a slight resemblance to coffee, and it is quite good.
Normal Bangladeshi food is quite spicy and they eat a lot of fish. We had some at Danshiri, and all of it was quite good. It is different to Indian food, though I can’t quite put my finger on why and how it is different. I like both quite a lot.
After showering, Nabil and I went to Sweety’s Finger, a beach front restaurant that served, in typical Cox’s Bazaar fashion, food from all over Asia. Based on our unpleasant experience with culinary exploration at Sea Crown we went for the safe choices of Nescafe 3-in-1 and fries, for a grand total of less than a dollar US. Expenses here are almost nonexistent.
Our dinner was at a hotel owned by some friend of a relative of a friend of a relative or something. The proprietor gave us a long distance invitation from Dhaka City. On top of this, due to our trip being during the off-season, the hotel wasn’t even open. All of this made for a quite sketchy and awkward experience until we tried the food. The chicken was absolutely delicious. Succulent and delicately spicy, and BBQed, it was really good. We asked them for the recipe, but the recipe they gave us involved hours and countless ingredients, so we gave up trying to remember all of it. As has been fairly common on Cox’s Bazaar, the staff outnumbered the diners, and we enjoyed a cool walk back home after the meal.
This dinner was my first chance to try to eat with my hands full-out. One of the most digitally challenging foods is chicken. As the rule is right hand only, you can’t even use your left hand to hold the chicken as you take it apart with your right. I had pretty good success, much to the surprise of the Iqbals.
During dinner we were visited by some wildlife - a few Tik-tikis (green anoles I think) and two frogs came by. Wildlife here is pretty exotic and interesting, and at least in Cox’s Bazaar, all over.

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Comments

[sally bell]

wawa
Fabulous! Thanks Ian. Your writing is great I look forward to your next issue. Love, Mom

[R.Ali]

amazing, love the blogs, made me laugh out loud when you wrote about eating with your hand, i eat with my hand but have done so without giving a single thought to it, so i esp enjoyed ready about how you mastered eating rice with your hands. i never realised that it could be so tricky :)