Sylhet: "Inshallah" Adventures Outside Dhaka
- Ella Cheng
- Nov 2, 2019
- 5 min read
In this blog entry and the next, I’ll be recounting reflections and moments from two trips I did over the past month, one inside Bangladesh to the green tea fields of Sylhet and one to Bhutan, an hour flight across the Himalayas from Bangladesh.
During both of these trips, I experienced a new form of travel, where the journey was just as meaningful as the destination, and I let go of my compulsive itinerary planning and usual desire to “see everything” to instead go slow and go with the flow (in cheesy consulting terminology, I learned to “release my agenda”). It was a liberating experience, and I definitely want to travel more like this in the future!
About a month ago, I went with a group of friends for a short but packed weekend trip to Sylhet, a city in the North East corner of Bangladesh close to the Indian border and known for its tea fields, blue skies and rivers, and vibrant green nature.
Previously when I’ve traveled, I’ve usually planned a pretty full and balanced schedule of activities with manageable commute times, so that there’s a “pay-off” of the destination for the journey. But, in Bangladesh, given the more under-developed infrastructure, journeys are usually long, unpredictable and really part of the adventure, since you’re not sure if the destination is exactly where or what friends have described, and your destination might not have a route at all on Google Maps.
Throughout our weekend trip, we set out on 2-3 hour drives in a 2-wheel drive van over rocky and unpaved roads to our destinations, which included:
A scenic river off the beaten path that we got lost finding, and that we had to pass off a little change to a village boy to let us through a gate on the way (thanks to Hanzalah, our hustling negotiator, for getting us through!)
A stone beach under the Indian Meghalaya mountains at the end of an overpriced 2 hour boat ride with the loudest engine ever (plus, the boat broke down twice). Because of Bangladesh’s conservative dress code, when we got there, the beach was full of people diving in to the crystal clear waters fully clothed and living it up!
A quiet boat ride through a mangrove forest that I almost filibustered because of an impending thunderstorm in the background. Thankfully, my fellow travelers were right and much more familiar with Bangladesh’s fickle rainstorms than me—the storm never came our direction!
Multiple trips to one of the hottest restaurants in town, Panci, where we had super filling, flavor-packed and affordable Bangladeshi breakfasts, lunches and dinners
It was so different to travel not knowing exactly what my destination, route or even current location was. Instead, I was able to enjoy the subtle, beautiful things about the journey, and appreciate the rawness and simplicity of human life alongside nature that I witnessed along the way—the bright greens, blues and yellows of the environment, a breathtaking sunset, children playing cricket with makeshift equipment in farm fields. Even Bangladesh’s countryside is dense, with farms packed right next to each other and small towns crowded with painted Tata trucks from India, so the scenery was just as colorful and stimulating as Dhaka in some ways, and a feast for the eyes.
I’m excited about approaching and experiencing other parts of Bangladesh in this way – with no expectations, the ability to nap in all kinds of vehicles traversing all kinds of road conditions, and an eager and open mind.
Some other scattershot reflections about the trip—
Adventurous Friends
I’ve been inspired by the spontaneity and adventurous spirit of my Bangladeshi friends who have generously invited me along on their trips as the useless, scam-attracting bideshi (useless, except for the occasional privilege, e.g., we got away with lounging in another, nicer hotel’s lounge by pretending we were guests). Many of my friends at Pathao organize ambitious weekend trips where they leave Thursday night after work and come straight back to work on Sunday morning, the first day of the work week. They are constantly excited about exploring their own country and region, making the most of their weekends and often challenging themselves to travel on shoestring budgets (for example, one of my friends here saved on transportation for a trip to Cox’s Bazaar by paying to sit on top of a bus!). I’m hoping that when I return to the US, I’ll approach my home country with the same desire to explore and venture out.
At times, I even struggled to keep up with my friends’ breathless and red-eye kind of travel, despite having been a management consultant who had survived flying out of LaGuardia Airport for the past 2 years. Fortunately, the coach buses we took between Dhaka and Sylhet were the nicest I’ve ever been on—you could basically push the seat back completely to lie prone and doze off. The only challenge to sleeping through the whole bus ride though was the roughness of the road all night—most major highways and roads in Bangladesh outside of Dhaka are still relatively unpaved, so we were swung around a decent bit!
Universal Threads
Whenever I travel, I actively seek out strands and cross-cultural connections with the people I meet. It’s always pleasantly surprising how common the human experience can be even at different corners of the globe. During our Sylhet trip, these shared experiences came in the form of music, as common tunes brought me back to home. First, the van that carried us all around Sylhet was equipped with these impressive boombox speakers under the back seat, and my friends and I made the most of them to blast hip hop/rap tunes from Past Malone to Travis Scott during our long drives. Even more astonishingly, I learned that Linkin Park was the most universally loved and known international band in Bangladesh, so much so that if you were to belt “In the End” in the countryside, an entire village would join you in a sing-along. Hoping to try that some time!
Interesting Encounters
Twice during our trip, we ran into and were hustled by hijra, whom we had to give pocket change in order to avoid a scene and further harassment. Hijra are “third gender” (transgender or intersex) people in India and Bangladesh who are ostracized from society and denied basic rights, but also historically celebrated in Hindu texts and Mughal courts, and still hired today to give blessings to newborn babies or dance at weddings. Their low status in society has unfortunately turned many of them toward extortion and petty crime—like the hustles we experienced—or sex work, in order to survive. However, over time, governments like Bangladesh’s have tried to integrate them more into society by legally recognizing the existence of a “third gender,” but much progress still has to be made to grant them full rights and adequate employment opportunities.
To sum it up, I learned from my first trip in Bangladesh:
Be adventurous in and explore your own country—see what new places you can journey to and discover even within the constraints of your regular job schedule and budget!
Enjoy the journey just as much as the destination
Actively seek out the random connections, with other cultures and people
For this blog's tunes, I’ve been exploring the Bangladeshi music scene, which apparently was predominantly alternative and metal rock at its beginnings, and have found myself loving the relaxing, lyrical tunes of Arnob, a beloved Bangladeshi artist:
Comments