Sri Mangal

Last weekend we took a trip to the Sylhet region, a hilly area known for its terraced tea estates, patches of tropical forest, pineapple plantations and orange groves. We stayed at a tea resort close to a city called Srimangal.

The trip to Srimangal took us right by the village where Romjan, our cook, lives. Mark and I were excited to meet his family, and Romjan was eager to introduce us. Romjan, his wife and their two sons share a family compound with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. We were warmly welcomed by everyone, and shared a tasty treat with Romjan in his home. We were glad to see that Romjan and his family live in a nice house, and that everyone appears to be very healthy and happy.
















After a pleasant visit with Romjan & his family, we continued to drive northeast towards Srimangal. The trip took a total of about 5 hours, and we were happy to reach our destination. I was very pleasantly surprised by our accommodations. I kept my expectations low so that I wouldn't be disappointed. Our tea resort felt like an oasis. The most amazing thing was how quiet it was - there were times when the only sounds were birds chirping and the wind whispering through the trees.

















The other pleasant surprise was how green & lush the area was. There were green, open fields of rice, tracts of forest, and vast tea fields shaded by deciduous trees. I had heard from Mark that the countryside was vastly different than the city. He has had the occasion to experience this previously from his field work. It was a breath of fresh air (literally and figuratively) to see people working and interacting in the country. Granted, there were still lots of people attracted by our presence when/where we stopped, but it was less intense.
















One of the highlights of the trip was the walk that we took through the Lowacherra Forest. The forest is not a large area by Canadian standards (it extends for a couple of kilometers), but the terrain was hilly and the vegetation thick. There were good trails to follows, and we wandered around with our local guide. Once we entered the forest I was struck by a wave of home-sickness. I really miss the quiet, green and solitude that we so often take for granted in Canada. It was refreshing to be able to freely wander around in the woods without being stared, confronted with poverty, or demands for baksheeh.


















There are several villages scattered among the tea plantations in the Srimangal area. Our local guide to us to a Khashia village located on a hilltop that was surrounded by betel nut trees (which is their cash crop). Our guide had a good relationship with the people, and we were invited to see how betel nuts are collected, peeled and ground up to make paan. The nut is chewed up to a red mush, and is then wrapped up in a betel nut leaf. The betel leaf and nut are chewed, and the red juice stains the teeth and is spat out into a messy red splotch by those chewing it.

The children in village were entranced by Clara. Our guide told us that they though she was a doll, presumably because of her porcelain skin.

















The area has over 150 tea gardens including three of the largest tea gardens in the world both in area and production. Nearly 300,000 workers are employed on the tea estates of which over 75% are women. Employers prefer to engage women for plucking tea leaves since they do a better job and are paid less than the men.

















The gardens are relics from the days of the British Raj. The plantations were started by the British and the manager still live in white timber homes as they did in those days. The bungalows stand on huge beautifully maintained lawns and the service and lifestyle is pretty much unchanged.

When the British began growing tea in Sylhet, they didn't bother training the indigenous people. rather, they brought experienced Indian labourers. Today, virtually all of the labourers are descendents of these original Indian Hindus, and the Hindu faith is still evident in Hindu shrines in the workers' villages.

We drove around and visited a number of tea plantations, and also saw lemon & lime orchards, pineapples being grown on hillsides and vast fields of rice. When we returned to Dhaka we felt like it had been well worth the effort to get out and see the country side. We had experienced relative quiet and walked around a green forest, and felt quite refreshed upon returning to our flat in Dhaka.

We hope that this finds everyone back home happy and healthy!

Sonargaon Park

I have been quite negligent lately in keeping our blog up-to-date...well, I'm back, and will definitely be better about keeping everyone up to date on our daily adventures in Bangladesh.

A couple of weekends ago, Mark, Clara and I, along with some friends we have met through the baby club took a day-trip to THE local park. We decided to hire a driver to get us to the park, which is about 25km southeast of the city, because we wanted it to be a relaxing, enjoyable day. It seems extravagant by Canadian standards to have a driver, but the traffic is chaotic, and we weren't certain of the route to the park.

After about an hour and a half of Sakir's skillful driving, we arrived at what, we presumed, was the park entrance. There was a line up of cars, buses & rickshaws jockeying for position to get into the park to try to find parking. At that point we parked the cars on the side of the road, and our driver looked after them while we spent the day in the park.

Our friends followed us to the park in their car, and parked directly behind us. While the group of us were getting organized, a group of about 20 Bangladeshis gathered around us to watch the foreigners. It felt quite awkward to be loading up so much STUFF for just one day in the park!

Sakir enquired of the group surrounding us, and found a guide for the day to show us the historic sites. Our young guide was a very helpful, friendly boy, and most skilled at 'shooing' the crowds away when we found a (relatively) quiet place to have our picnic lunch.















I am almost embarassed to post that picture. As soon as we had unpacked our lunch, I felt guilty about showing off all of our expensive, Western food. I wondered what the boy thought when he looked at us - extravagant, wealthy foreigners? or cash-cows that he would put up with for the day? or just normal people enjoying a day in the park? Regardless, I packed up some of the food so we would look QUITE as ostentatious.

Sonargaon was the Bangladesh's first capital. Except for several mosques, a bridge, a few tombs and stupas (Buddhist monuments), and some indistinguishable mounds scattered around the area, nothing remains of the original city. The Archeological branch of the government has done precious little to preserve this site, and I read that some of the poorer occupants sell the bricks from these run-down heritage sites to be broken into gravel for construction work.
















We had a lovely day wandering around the park. It was great just to get out of the city, see some new sites and some greenery!

At the end of the day we wandered back to the cars, which were still there thanks to Sakir! We headed home feeling tired from the heat, but also very happy to have made the effort to see some of the local sites.

Our trip to Ontario was made even more special by the arrival of Mark's parents in Ottawa. John and Sylvia Bolton made the trip to Ottawa from their new home in Campbell River to spend a couple of days with us. We all had a wonderful, very special visit together. It had been 5 months since we spent time with each other; it was lovely to be able to catch up and share Clara with her loving family.