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As May Day was a holiday, me and my mum (my dad's currently in the UK on a visit) decided to go to Cox's Bazar, to have a break from Dhaka and to see and swim in the sea, namely the Bay of Bengal..why not?
Cox's Bazar is on the south-easterly tip of Bangladesh, not far from the border with Myanmar (Burma) - the weird extra 'bit' at the bottom of Bangladesh, almost as an afterthought. The region was frequented by the Mogh pirates, along with the Portuguese, who ravaged the Bay of Bengal in the 17th century (thanks, Lonely Planet). The name 'Cox's Bazar' comes from Captain Hiram Cox, a Brit, who founded the town as a refuge for the Arakanese (who, you say?), who were fleeing their homes after the invasion of the Burmese.
We booked our trip through Guide Tours, one of the major tour companies here in Dhaka, based in Gulshan 2 circle. They offer a number of tours in Bangladesh and we'd gone through them before and they're very organised and trustworthy. Anyhow, at 5:30am (too early!!!) on Thursday morning me and my mum made our way to the domestic terminal of the Zia
trying to get visitors to have a horse ride..
..but don't look too closely, most of the horses were lame, looked knackered and altogether twas pretty distressingairport and a short while later lifted off from Dhaka. Good news was the planes were on time both ways, even departing early, which could be tricky if you are a disorganised late riser, but otherwise, better early than late any day.
Our plane touched down in Cox's Bazar about 1.30 hours later after a brief stop in Chittagong where some got on and some got off. We were the only bideshis ('foreigners') on the plane. The flight was good, short, with lots of snacks offered throughout, even though it was a short flight..so much better than cheapskate Easyjet who make you pay for meals! The hotel pickup was there and 10 minutes later we arrived at the somewhat monstrous Hotel Seagull. It's a 5* hotel which is about 20 quid a night equivalent, per person, for a double room (double bed, shower, bath, air con, TV etc). It looks massive from the outside but inside there weren't that many people and not thousands of rooms or anything so it's deceptive. The rooms were really nice and had large windows instead of a wall on one side of the room, so you could see the beach 50 yards away.
We spent the first day pretty leisurely especially after such an early start. At midday ish we walked across to the beach directly opposite the hotel, despite the offers of 'rickshaw madam?', we actually managed to, shock horror, walk the 10 mins from the hotel to the shore of the beach, ooh! All along the beach as far as the eye can see, in both directions, are beach loungers with brightly coloured 'umbrellas' over them. You can rent these out for an hour at a time, 35 taka per hour (about 25p I think). Before I came to Cox's Bazar, people advised me to walk 40 mins down the beach and it would be quieter. Well, I'm sure it would be, but the sand is SCORCHING most of the time as I found out (bring footwear other than flip flops!) as well as when we went it's pretty hot, so walking a mile or so down the beach in 30+ degree heat was not my idea of a relaxing time. So, we decided to literally sit on the beach a few mins from the hotel.
The good thing about sitting under these umbrellas is you have shelter from
the sun, you can order drinks/food, and you get a lovely breeze from the sea in front of you. However being so central, being so white, being so foreign and being so female, one comes across annoyances such as:
-hawkers trying to sell you shells, cocounts, fruit
-noisy, smelly quad bike riders pestering you to ride (for a fee) on their quad bike along the beach (erm, why?)
-god-awful looking flogged horses with their riders suggesting a ride (no thanks, animal activists, come here quick!)
-kids in rags coming up to you saying 'baksheesh' (money)
-people, especially men, staring, staring, staring at you as they walk by or simply standing there a few feet away and fixing their gaze on you.
This last part is particularly annoying. In China I got stared at, here in Dhaka I do, but when you're on holiday trying to just gaze out to sea and relax, the last thing you want is dozens (I counted within an hour more than 50 separate people staring at me as they passed by) of people staring at you. What gets to me is that it's not an interested gaze or stare, it's just a plain stare,
not questioning, not interested, not anything. Just a never-ending stare. I just had to stare back or throw my hands up in the air as if to say 'what's so interesting?' I really don't get it. Another annoying thing is being a woman on the beach. You have to wear a shalwaar kameez - the few women that were there were, and if you didn't, you'd feel even more under the microscope I would guess - but as soon as I went into the water, I just got stalked by packs of young men following me as I swam, staring, which again is hardly enjoyable. If you were the most under-confident woman ever, just come to Cox's Bazar, and with scores of men staring at you, you'd feel on top of the world!
So the few hours altogether spent on the beach mostly consisted of having a brief splash about in the waves, then reading or listening to music under the sun lounges and trying to ignore all these pairs of eyes fixed on your person. I would recommend if you are a white woman, come here by all means but bring lots of guy friends with you, and
countryside
..from on the back of a rickshaw perhaps come in the cool season so you can walk to another part of the beach. Anyway, it was a nice change to get a breath of fresh air and sea air and to see a different landscape.
The next day we ventured out a bit and hired a rickshaw-wallah for a few hours (who tried to cheat us at the end but didn't get away with it!). We bumped along to a couple of Buddhist monasteries, visited some Burmese stalls (a lot of the wares sold in Cox's Bazar are from Burma as it's so close to the border) where I bought a really pretty and unusual Burmese-style shalwaar kameez, had a cold drink and wandered along to the main shell market in town. It was very quiet as it was a Friday (the holy day for Bangladeshis) so it was easier to browse around even though of course we got followed by a crippled guy. If you don't live somewhere like this with constant poverty in your face every day, you won't understand it, but one does get used to it in a way and I have come to resent just walking along and hands being pushed
into my face for money just because I'm white and yes, do earn more than they do, but giving them 10 taka is not going to provide any solution to their lives, so I give less often to when I first arrived. Anyway the shell market is worth a visit, anything and everything made of shells and very cheap. I also got a few Indian silver bowls which were a lot cheaper than the prices in Dhaka, and a guy who sold the famed Bangladeshi pink pearls we also bought off, amazingly priced, and yes they were real, got some tiny pearl studs for hmm, 25 British pence! After that we hopped (if you can call it hopping) back onto the rickshaw and trundled along back to our hotel. Yet again the rickshaw driver tried to charge us double for what the ride was supposed to cost, but we didn't budge. Again, just cos I'm white, I accept I will be charged a little more than others, but I am unwilling to pay double what any Bangladeshi would pay for anything. Maybe this sounds cold hearted, but I earn a local wage, just because I'm white why should I have
to pay double or triple for everything when my fellow Bangladeshi friend doesn't? And why should I be pestered for money just because of my skin colour and the associations and misconceptions it has?
We spent an hour on the beach in the afternoon but again, wouldn't want to stay there much longer as the staring was getting too much, so we made it back to the hotel and then quickly out again, on another rickshaw to Angel Point, which was mentioned by a couple of friends - as well as the guide book - as an open air restaurant with a great view of the sea and where the sun sets. Again, we were the only whiteys there but we weren't bothered and with a bowl of chips (with a side dish of tomato soup in place of tomato sauce, nice) and a couple of Sprites we were good to go and watch for the sun to set. There were lots of silhouetted fisherman casting their nets into the sea and the odd red crab scattering into its hole as the waves crashed on the sand. After the sunset at approx 6:15pm we took a rickshaw back to the hotel, had a good evening meal of naan, fried rice, tandoori chicken, rice pudding and other Bangla food and went to bed for our last evening at Cox's Bazar, ready for another early start back to Dhaka.
I would say that if you're coming all the way from, say, the USA, UK, or surrounding areas like India, Thailand etc, then Cox's Bazar would be a bit of a disappointment. The hotel is 5 star but is lacking in a lot of things that a typical 5 star does and should have, there's not an awful lot to DO for more than a couple of days - but maybe that's just me, I've never been a beach holiday person, I need to DO stuff not just sit on my arse all day soaking up the sun - and it's hard to do that anyway because of all the staring. But if you live in Dhaka like we do, it's a worthwhile weekend break to inhale some fresh air, see blue, blue sky, swim in the sea, buy the odd trinket. I'm now back in my room in Dhaka with my assortment of shell purchases, sand in my hair and a hint of a tan on my face...what else do you need from a weekend at the beach?!
Cox's Bazar - good and bad points from a whitey's perspective:
Good:
-fresh air
-sea air
-sea as warm as a bath
-feeling the sand between your toes
-(some) good food
-view from the hotel room
-easy and stress free trip to and from Dhaka
-enough sights for a day or two
-some very friendly people
-blue sky
-sunset with a soft drink at Angel Point
Bad:
-terrible music playing at random hours in the hotel
-at the hotel, you had to pay 200 taka to swim in their pool (no way was I paying that on principle!)
-staring, gawping, whatever you call it, not pleasant
-getting followed for 'baksheesh'
-hot at this time of year
-not a lot to do, a week would be too much I think
-if you have anything that's not from the (Bangla food) buffet, the a la carte menu service can take about 30 mins to arrive from when you ordered it....very very slow
-there was no fresh fruit there (how when there are mangoes, pineapples, watermelon right outside the hotel door?) so all the food is basically fried..bring or buy some fruit if you stay at that hotel I reckon
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Pamela Eachus
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Thank you so much for posting this article about your journey! I'm going to be in Dhaka / Cox's Bazar for a week and have never been to India, so had no idea what to expect. Your honest review has really helped me! Still looking forward to my trip! Best, Pam