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Published: July 24th 2008
a Bangladeshi train
..which we caught to SrimongolA friend from the UK came to visit me last Friday, and prior to her arrival I/we decided to go on a brief sojourn to Srimongol (there are different spellings, but I’m going to stick to one).
Srimongol is where the tea-estates are here in Bangladesh, in the Sylhet region, east of the country, very close to the Indian border. Dhaka is such a chaotic city to live in, and visit, especially for a first-timer to Bangladesh, that I thought it’d be a change in scene to visit Srimongol, as well as the fact that I had never been.
I organised the trip through Guide Tours, a travel agent if you will, with an office close to me near Gulshan 2. A few days before the trip, I collected our train ticket (a tiny blue slip of a thing with printed numbers all in Bangla) and was ready to roll.
Our train was due to arrive at the airport station at 7:10am so it was an early start! A few metres in front of the train station is a kind of car park, but instead of cars there are lots of men, women and children simply sleeping there.
We got to the train station to find it ten times busier than London Victoria at rush hour on a Monday morning, and all the more confusing being that all the train timetables were in Bangla. Anyhow we pushed through the masses, a man ripped our ticket and to my question answered ‘Yes, yes, Srimongol’ and we traipsed along the platform trying to find a space to stand and wait for the train.
Although it was early the heat had already risen to the usual 30+’C (I estimated!) and the intensity of the stares we were attracting probably added to our feeling of being hot! We were the only white people on the platform, and being single, unaccompanied white women was another staring factor. A few beggars - old men, women and young children - came up to us, and others holding out their hand for ‘baksheesh’ (a tip, or rather, simply money). I see so many every day of my life here now I don’t often give anything and more often than not never have any small change. Once you give just one note, you have a whole swarm of people around you, pulling at your arm or
your clothes. May sound harsh, but unless you live somewhere like this, trust me, you don’t get it. I asked a couple of women beside me ‘Here, Srimongol?’ and they nodded in the affirmative. A few minutes later than scheduled, the train pulled up - chugging away on the tracks, a few people sitting on the roof and running along the roof as the train moved, people on the platform trying to spot their coach numbers. All the coach numbers were of course in Bangla, and mine is pretty limited, but after a few minutes of walking further and further down the train, with lots of helpful train conductors pointing the way ‘Acha, shamni’ (‘Yes/OK, straight ahead), we found our seats in first class, and as a great surprise, the carriage was air-conditioned! (This was my first experience on a train here.)
Again, as the only white people on the train we attracted a lot of curious stares but most people stopped after a few seconds to chat, chew, drink and read…only to give us the odd stare a few seconds later. Ever since I moved to Asia (2006, first to China, then here) I’ve just tried to think
to myself ‘I am a celebrity, this is what it must feel like for Angelina Jolie!’ It is wearing, but I try and think that to make it easier. If you’re an attention-seeker, or you know one, come here, you/they will love it.
The train journey took just over 4 hours altogether before we reached Srimongol station - again, a helpful train guard gave us a head’s up as to when we were about to arrive - I would advise to ask a lot, as all the train stations’ signs are in Bangla. The view from the train was amazing, another reason why I love travelling by train anywhere, it’s my favourite mode of transport. As the train trundled along I saw the countryside getting greener and greener and more hilly, the roads getting narrower but still with the odd rickshaw, brightly coloured truck and CNG zooming along, fields of rice and men in those triangular weaved hats as they farmed the land, often with large cows/oxen ploughing the earth, which I have never seen before. First class was great, air-conditioned, fans as well if you needed them, and lots of men coming along every few minutes offering cha
rice fields
it's real green...not Photoshopped.. (tea), crisps, biscuits and all sorts.
We were spotted at the station by what I assumed to be the Guide Tours ‘eco-guide’ as he called himself, as he confirmed my name, and we were the only white people on the platform so pretty easy to spot! He whizzed us into a small white car and in 10 minutes we had reached the Tea Resort (simple name, eh?) where we were to stay. As we travelled along I noticed the air quality was definitely better than Dhaka (hmm, not hard really) and of course all the little tea estates.
The Tea Resort was originally set up by DFID (Department for International Development) as a kind of base to stay while they did some work in the area (incidentally my dad works for DFID) but they let it go a few years back and sold it to a small business or equivalent who took it on. It’s quite rustic with little bungalows scattered here and there, an office at the bottom of a hill, and a VIP area (where we stayed - VIPs?!) which has easy access to an open air pool, right on the doorstep in fact. We were
in the best room and that was pretty basic! 2 beds, a loo and a cupboard, but it did have A/C so that was a bonus in this heat. It was and is fine - I compared it to the Village Inn in Nyanga, Zimbabwe, if anyone’s been there! - for a couple of days it’s all you need. It was dead quiet as although this is prime tea-picking season, it’s also the monsoon season and very hot so lots of people tend to travel abroad this time of year to visit relatives or simply to go somewhere cooler for a couple of months.
We were there for three full days, the last one as a kind of ‘rest-day’ where we just lazed in the pool, read books and played cards! To be honest I could have done with catching the train the night before as we finished our excursion by 1pm but there are only a couple of so trains a day back to Dhaka, so, c’est la vie.
Soon after we arrived in the morning (11am) we were again picked up by our guide and his little car and zoomed off to a number of places.
We visited two small village communities where they gather and wrap betel-nut leaves. Betel-nut is chewed here and spat out, rather like tobacco was in the UK all those years ago, except it’s slightly disconcerting as the spit ends up bright red from the betel-nut leaf, which results in lots of red splatters all over the place, resembling blood! However I didn’t see any spitting going on, just the gathering and wrapping of the leaves. We also visited a handicraft place in another village (all of these villages had their own separate language to Bangla) where woven scarves, handbags and shawls were sold for next to nothing and the craftsmanship was impressive. I wish more developed countries had access to these things, could import them and sell them for a decent price. So many Indian type things I’ve seen in the UK look and feel cheap and are still extortionately priced. We visited a village community where they were weaving - using a hand loom - saris and shawls. I’ve seen this before in a couple of other places in Bangladesh. The machinery isn’t electric or fancy in any way, it’s powered by workers and is very intricate work. Making
water lily
..national flower of Bangladesh a standard sari can take up to a month, a wedding sari even longer. Yet most get sold in shops here for about £6 equivalent.
On the same day, we drove several miles to a large, odd-shaped like an ink-blot lake, climbed the mounds surrounding it and took in the view. In front of us were acres of tea (i.e. the plants!), rice growing, general vegetation and India was visible in the hills beyond, as Srimongol is pretty close to that side of India, which was pretty cool. As we wandered around the lake there were three chattering monkeys in front of us that seemed to think we were following them! On the lake itself were lots of purple water-lilies, the national flower of Bangladesh. It was very tranquil and green…the opposite of Dhaka! We also got a foot bath as well because we’d both worn our flip flops, and as in the past few weeks we’ve got a lot of rain, it was very muddy and slippery…so definitely bring walking shoes if you come in the monsoon season!
The next day was an early start at 8am. Our guide drove us to wildlife area for a one
a tea-picker
hard work with only 18p a day as a reward... hour trek. It was like a mini-rainforest, very green and lush (and humid!) with all the sights and sounds you could imagine, different bird sounds, leaves rustling, little lizards darting about, and probably a whole lot more we couldn’t see or hear. As we walked along it was VERY muddy so we were glad we had put on our trainers instead of the pathetic footwear from the day before. Our guide was very eagle-eyed and luckily was ahead of us so he bent his way around large spider webs (and even bigger and multicoloured spiders) before we ran into them! The trees around us were also some of the tallest I’ve ever seen, surpassing even the banyan trees I climbed in as a kid in Vanuatu (South Pacific). Later in the day I rolled up my trousers and discovered a hell of a lot of blood…turns out a leech had had a little snack on me..the guide told us about that…common in forest areas…but it didn’t hurt otherwise I would have felt it, so…no big deal!
The waterfall was our last stop before ending our mini-tour of Srimongol. It was a couple of hours drive away, and although out
driver drove pretty fast and there were lots of bumps and curves in the road, we got there in one piece. I can never decide if the drivers here are really good, or really bad. On one hand pretty much all the cars/vans I’ve got into swerve around other vehicles like no tomorrow, speed increases and decreases in a matter of seconds, no-one indicates and traffic lights can be seen as just pretty colours that don’t mean anything. One the other hand I’ve never been in a crash or even experienced a serious bump, so somehow a lot of them seem to get away with hair-raising driving! Entry to the waterfall was a whopping $1 U.S, and again we were the main source of amusement and stares when we arrived. A few people were there having a quick bathe but no women, they just posed for pictures. Loads of hibiscus were around, and the occasional butterfly landed on one but fluttered off just as my camera clicked. The water to the waterfall apparently came/comes from India.
On the way back from the waterfall, we stopped at a small tea cabin, which basically consisted of a couple of shops, one
tallllllllll trees
...on the wildlife trek with sweets and biscuits in, the other serving tea. My guide urged me to try the 5 coloured tea apparently famous in the region, and as an avid tea drinker, I agreed! About 10 minutes later a small glass appeared in front of me with 6 layers of something that looked like tea swaying in the glass. To me it tasted a bit like masala chai tea, a bit spicy but at the bottom the layer seemed to be fruity. All in all it was one of the best cups/glasses of tea I’ve had, wish I could get it elsewhere but don’t reckon on it!
As we made our way back to our accommodation, we stopped to see and take pictures of tea-pickers. All the pickers I saw the entire time were women. They have a large cotton bag which they tie around the top of their head, around the forehead area, and the tea they pick goes into the bag that hangs on their back. They pick with both hands amazingly quickly and with great dexterity, so it seems to me anyhow. They work standard hours, but only get paid 20 taka per day (13p equivalent). Most of
spider
..also seen on the wildlife trek it goes into Finlay Tea that you buy here. Hardly fair-trade tea then. What was also flabbergasting was that on the train that we travelled on, there and back, they served tea. What was the tea they served? Lipton.
We arrived back at the Tea Resort at lunchtime and had over 24 hours to kill before our train the following day at 5pm, so although a little dull at times we used it as a lazy day, floating around in the outside pool, playing cards, reading and playing other games…and eating the odd meal of course! The food there was pretty good, we had a mixture of Bengali and ‘Western’ food. There wasn’t a menu, it was just plonked in front of you. We had curry, dal, rice, fried chicken, fish and chips, lots of vegetables and for breakfast and pudding we had the choice of fruit salad, mango/pineapple, both lovely and fresh.
The train back was a little tiring as we were sitting backwards (which I hate, gives me a headache), it was dark so there was nothing to look at out the window and the last half an hour some traditional Bangla music starting blaring out
from who-knows-where but someone a few seats in front of, which even my good earphones to my mp3 couldn’t win against! However it’s times like those - sitting on an evening train in Bangladesh, the only foreigner(s) on there, smelling a mixture of smells, a little kid staring transfixed at you, feeling the fans blast away and random traditional music coming at you that you just think - ‘Bangladesh. Love it.’
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Bangladesh Corporate Blog
non-member comment
Branding Srimongol, branding the tea
We hope the brand gurus of the country will take measures to brand such locally unique products of Bangladesh. Why does it always have to be the case that our foreigner friends discover what we have and then we jump into the bandwagon of brand jargons et al.