The Tea Gardens
Trip Start
Jan 18, 2008
1
4
64
Trip End
Jul 29, 2008
Sylhet, Bangladesh
Monday, January 21, 2008
After an early start we set off for one of my uncles tea gardens, its a 2 1/2 houre journey, through the Bangladeshi countryside. This was one of those moments where the journey alone was as interesting as the destination. The area around the Surma Valley is famous for its tea, and our destination was called Srimangal.
We passed through rice paddy fields, which being the dry season were surprisingly wet. The weather has been quite unusual for this time of year, with quite a lot of rain. Also along the way were rubber tree plantations, which we will talk about later on. Driving through the countryside you realize just how populates the country is. Its approximately the size of Wales, yet the official population is approx 160million(yet surprisingly no sheep Sarah...so don't think about emigrating here). Unofficially the figure could be as close to 180million. As you pass through the countryside, there is very little stretches of non built up areas. There is almost one village or town every couple of miles or so. However the villages are very rural in their nature, with few buildings more than 2 stories tall. The heart of the towns and villages are the markets, and each one has the usual mix of market stalls, cafés, rickshaw wallas, bus stands and kids hanging around watching the traffic pass. Anywhere we stopped we were the local entertainment, It was great as all the women working in thier beautiful Sari's would stop to stare at us as they were working the fileds or doing thier washing which meant we could also stop to wave at them and take pictures. We may have been one of a very small number of westerners they would have seen, as this route was off the tourist track (what little tourism there is in this area of the country). Yet it boasts some of the most interesting landscapes, and hilly terraine in a country as flat as Holland.
After 2.5 hours we arrived at Srimongol and headed to my uncles. After some obligatory snacks we headed off to their tea plantation. ( Personally I went to the loo to sneakily avoid the obligatory snacks ....anything to avoid the dehli belly)
It was a really cool day out to be given a full days tour by Mufajels Uncle. We drove through tea plantations, passing pinapple plants, jack fruits, cinnamon tree's. He threw in a rubber plantation tour, showing us how they drained the sap from the tree right through to how the final product is made. ( which is a smelly affair). The tea factory was amazing, we assumed it would all be done by machinery but there were so many people working along side the machinery to produce the perfect tea. It has to be said the tea did taste amazing not a pg tips in sight !!!!!
The nicest thing was that this guy does not do tours, he is a business man but he took a day out of his life to show us round, just one of the many examples of how hospitable the Bengali's are.
The next day, we headed off exploring other local places of interst. On the was to the gas fields, when we stopped at the local garage to pump up the tyres, the locals managed to sell my dad 2 live chickens!!! Opodo has not arrived in Bangladesh just yet! So in they went into the boot! Clucking away and making love to Marie's foot! Not the best thing what with the brird flu. We headed to the gas works, which are natural crack in the earth's crust, which forces natural gas through to the surface. In the 50's there was a massive explosion which could be seen from 50 miles out, which lasted for days. Now it is tapped and used commercially. We then headed to some ancient ruins of a civilisation which could not be conquered by the Mugols. The tour was fascinating, as the gate keeper (who let us in was about 6 years old!!)...The tour was short lived when we found dead birds and Marie legged it back to the car!.....
And now for a bit of a diversion.... The human powered vehicle 'Rickshaw' remains a popular mode of transport in all the cities and towns of Bangladesh, even after the increase of motorized transport. Though the word rickshaw originates from the Japanese 'Jin Riki Sha', the original of this particular form of transport lies in Europe. In Asia, the use of cycle rickshaws did not become widespread until the 1930's. when it replaced the popular hand pulled rickshaws.
The decoration of contemporary rickshaw is popular art form. A new rickshaw is simply a riot of colours with its entire visible surface profusely decorated, this represents the best in traffic art in Bangladesh.
After our 5 days in Bangladesh, it was time to move to our next country. It was sad to say good bye to my dad and family. It was nice to spend time with them, and my brothers family for the few days we had together. We got our flight to Dhaka and had a few hours to kill, so we headed off to the Radisson at the airport, to kill the hours. Marie welcomed the luxury toilet, and after 5 days in Bangladesh came out with a grin after visiting it! Marie also lapped up the Western food on offer at the restaurant. It was a nice way to kill the hours before we got on our flight to Kuala Lumpur in Malayasia. Malayasian Airlines was pretty full, with 90 percent of the passengers being labourers on their way to work in Malayasia. In South East Asia terms, Malayasia offers great opportunities for migrant workers. I have to put in here however this made the flight the worst ever with all the burping farting and belching. They were so excited about the free beer and mixed with the curry ..... I will leave it to your imagination !!
