Date: June 18-21, 2008 We were supposed to go to Srimangal, but everyone backed off in the last moment & only three of us were left - Ranku, Zea & me. So we decided to head towards Kuakata where any one of us haven't gone before. Even though there was depression over bay of bengal & it was raining pretty heavily,(not to mention i had to overcome my fear of water) we started our journey by launch to Patukhali. Earlier we managed to get the booking of our launch ticket through Pamir. Later i came to know that you can get the booking of the launch over phone.
We started journey at around 7 pm from Sadarghat & after some time it started raining heavily along with the thunderstorm. My tour mates tried to scare me out knowing that i have a fear of water. But it was such a majestic scene outside that i forgot fear & everything & sat on the balcony of our cabin. In the mean time we had our dinner at around 9 pm in our cabin. At first Ranku got scared to see the amount of order we gave. But when the food came, all of us equally attacked on the food.
Pineapple traders in SadarghatOur Launch Sunderban-6The navigation system of the launchOur cabin in the launchAfter our delicious dinner we noticed that it stopped raining. The sky is cleared & man it was a Full Moon. We were speechless by seeing the scene outside. We went in front of the launch & sat on there to enjoy the view. I tried to take some photographs but it was in vein. Trust me, no picture can describe the scene we saw that night. The launch journey is one of the best part in the tour to Kuakata. So if one goes to Kuakata by direct bus then he/she will miss a great deal.
The moon was shining as if it was day...The full moon getting out of the cloud after the rainThe full moon night -1The full moon night -2Another passer by launchThe navigation light of the launchActually there are three ways to go to Kuakata from Dhaka. One is to take the direct bus from Dhaka. Several bus companies have service in that route like Sakura, SAlam & Saudia. If you go by road all the way, you will have to cross five ferry in total, four of them are after Barishal. The second way to go there is to take the launch journey up to Patuakhali & from there take a local bus to Kuakata & cross three ferries in the road. The third & final way is to go by launch up to Barishal & take a bus from there. But i would avoid the third way as it will take take one additional ferry ride & one & half hour of extra hectic journey. The journey from Barishal /Patuakhali to Kuakata is bit hectic. Cause the road is pretty bad, you have to take countless ferry & the only transport option you have is the local bus service which is always over crowded.
Anyways, back to the tour now. We went to sleep pretty late & woke up around 6 am. The morning view was offering us another gorgeous look. I started clicking with my cam. We reached Patuakhali at around 6:30 am.
It is the good morning.....The river......We had our breakfast in Patuakhali & started for Kuakata at around 8:30 am. It was a so called seating service bus. The leg space was really small in the bus. Not to mention we had to keep our bags with us. Anyways, we were really surprised when the bus started exactly in time. But we didn't know what is coming. The bus stopped every possible stops & picked up passengers. Pretty soon the whole bus was cramped up with passengers. We had to cross total three ferries to reach Kuakata. The last river was so small that if you just put two ferries side by side then it will become a bridge. In the mean time it started raining again. I could see the flood is coming. The rivers are overloaded with water. It was interesting to see that the pontoons of the ferry are submerged under water. Finally we reached Kuakata at around 12 pm after a hectic journey.
We got down from the bus. It was raining pretty heavily & the wind was really strong. We saw really big waves coming and hitting the shore. It was a scene to remember. We forgot everything about finding a hotel or anything & went straight to the beach. I always wanted to be in the beach when it is raining. It was awesome & we were spell bounded. After some times we got our sense back & went out to look for the hotel. Suddenly we saw a blue cottage from a distance just on the beach and the waves are hitting just under the base of the cottage. It was actually the extension of a hotel. At first we wanted to stay there but later we canceled the planning because of the security reason. We looked for a couple of hotels & finally settle in Hotel Nilanjona which is one of the best hotels out there. We spent the day hanging out in the beach & i took some snaps wherever i could.
From the balcony of our hotelView from the roof of our hotelThe beautiful road...Zia & Ranku...On the way to the beach...Kuakata beachHiding from the rain.....The color of her dress caught my eyes....This is the cottage...i wish to stay here once.These are used to pull the boat from the sea side to the shore.The ever smiling RankuThe beach of Kuakata-1Loneliness....Just after the sundown...The second day was pretty relaxing. Although it was not raining but the weather was pretty gloomy. We took our bath in the sea in the morning. It was fun. The wave is pretty strong here in Kuakata compared to Cox's Bazar.
Bikes...the main transport source of KuakataRanku....running towards the sea.The beach of Kuakata-2The Grey cloud...preparing to come down on us.In the afternoon we hired two bikes & went to couple of places like kakrar chor, lebur chor etc. On the way we saw the devastation that Sidr has made. A whole fishermen village was ripped off. The effects of Sidr was lying here & there. It was a fun bike ride along the beach.
Sidr Effect-1Sidr Effect-2The beach of Kuakata-3SolitudeSidr Effect-3CrabForest..The bike ride....it was really greatSidr Effect-4The beautiful lake....The stream of water was going to the sea...I forgot the name of this lake.Zia....The forest just beside the lake.The lake..The beach of Kuakata-4The beach of Kuakata-5Fishermen taking their boat to the shore.Sand Sculpture by the nature...look closely it is the form of a human.The evening..One interesting thing in Kuakata is that the beach is small here. One of the reason can be we went in to the rainy season. There are 2 things that i liked most about the beach in Kuakata. One is there are lots of coconut & palm trees on the beach. The second one is there is 'Tong' in the beach. So you can sit in the tong, do some gossiping & have tea as long as you want, the thing we are used to do.
A view from tong where we passed a lot of time.Sitting & enjoying the nature from the tongRankuNext day & the last day of our tour we went to see the Buddhist monastery in the morning by the same bikes we hired earlier. As it was raining quite often & we had to go through a muddy village road, so it was pretty tough. Although the distance was mere 5-6 kilometers but it looked like ages. Some times we had to get down from bike & walk our way forward. Sometimes we had to abandon the road & go through crop fields. But it was worth of it. It was a huge structure. This is probably the tallest monument in Bangladesh. It may be mentioned that we didn't see the sun a single time so far we are there.
The budhdhist Monastery In the indigenous people's village near the monastery. The muddy village road to the budhdhist monastery..I forgot to mention one important thing in Kuakata- The food. The food here is really good. We found a very normal street hotel in the bazar. The food there was really tasty. If anybody likes fish then this is the paradise for him. The sweets-roshogolla here is exceptionally good.
After getting back from the monastery in the morning we had a quick bath in the sea and then packed our bags & checked out from the hotel. In the mean time there is a small monastery very near to our hotel which we also checked out. We also saw another monastery under development.
going to the nature.Relaxing....Under construction monastery...Anyways, after checking out from the hotel we had our late lunch & went to the beach to bid farewell to Kuakata cause our bus is with in 2 hours. We were sitting in the 'tong' & having our tea, then we saw rain was coming from the sea to us from a very distance. I haven't seen anything like this before. I could see very dark areas in the horizon & it was coming towards us. In no time it started raining there. We some how managed to save our self & our luggage from the rain by hiding our self in side the 'tong'.
The rain coming towards us....The rain coming towards us....It rained for around half an hour and after the rain, the sky was cleared and surprisingly we saw sun for the first time in our tour. We were bit disappointed that we didn't see any sun rise or sun set in our entire tour but hey... the sun is now out & it is the sun set time. We enjoyed the sunset & went back to the bus stand to catch the bus back to Dhaka. This time we are taking direct bus to Dhaka. The bus started at around 7 pm. The return journey was pretty uneventful; the only thing worth mentioning is that we had to cross five rivers on our way back.
Sunset-1The sun....that we finally managed to see in the whole trip.Sunset-2Sunset-3Sunset-4Just after the sunsetWe had a great tour altogether. I liked Kuakata very much. I think it is better than Cox'sBazar. The only problem is the communication & also lack of publicity. When we went there, the weather was pretty bad and there were hardly any tourist. You can count them by numbers. In our hotel there were just another group staying, other than us. Although i like it that way. I hope i will go there again.
