Twenty-Four hours in Rangamati – tea with a king and the feet of a monk…….

The winding hill roads of Rangamati

The aluminum roof of the temple

Hot monks - is one allowed say that about monks?????

Linda with the boys at dinner

The beautiful lake

Gender equal boat people

Are the girls being arrested? What have the Swedes done now?????

Myself, Anna, Paul and Imti were joined by Linda and her friend Kristina to continue our tour of the hill tracts and visit the Chakma town of Rangamati. We waved farewell to the other as they headed back to Dhaka and set out on the road for our three and a half hour drive. The scenery continued to astound me and its beauty didn’t seem to fade. Linda and I practised our best Bangla flirting skills as we encountered the countless army check points along our route – all in a day’s work. We arrived at the Parjatan government tourist hotel in Rangamati at lunchtime and following a brief moment to admire our wonderfully comfortable rooms over looking the lake, we sat down for a massive lunch in the dinning room.
Feeling overly full, we choose to walk the 5 miles to the tribal shops area – a decision I questioned at one point when I moon walked backwards down a steep hill to dull the pain of my still recovering knees. The shopping as always in Bangladesh was a great experience of bargaining, walking away and coming back to walk away with your good of choice. I also discovered much to my delight that Rangamati grows cashew-nuts which were available for sale in the shops at a 10th of the price of cashew-nuts in Dhaka.
We enjoyed a roadside coconut water break before hopping into two auto-rickshaws to visit the local Buddhist monastery. The place was alive with people, monks and sounds I had never heard in Bangladesh before. We were asked if we would like to meet the resident 88 year old monk for a special blessing and needing all the luck I can get I obliged along with Linda and Kristina. Feeling a little holier than when we arrived, we got back in our auto-rickshaws and headed down to the river to cross to the residence of the Chakma King. Much to the horror of some of our members we walked up to his front door and rang the bell. Using the name of a friend whom had once worked with the King, thanks Jess, we gained an audience; not only that but we enjoyed the company and tea of a wonderful man. Not only was he the handsomest man I had meet in a long while, but he was interesting and was a wealth of knowledge on his local area and on the issue of minority rights. It also turned out that his sister is married to a member of the indigenous Swedish people, the Sami; and so the Swedes amongst us were very pleased.
An hour and a half later we bid farewell to the handsome King and made our way back to the hotel for a brief rest before dinner. Our destination turned out to be a wonderful local restaurant with the perfect atmosphere including candle light and Coldplay. The food was wonderful and the wine flowed aplenty. The next morning was our boat trip on the artificially created although extraordinarily beautiful lake. Myself and Paul made our way to the local police station to pick up our four man police escort, which is mandate for all foreigners travelling on the lake. Although we had called the day before and requested the escort, they were all still in bed recovering from what must have been heavy night duty the previous evening. Eventually after almost an hour waiting I had to the head police inspector involved to get them out of bed! All in a days work it seems. The two hour boat trip was amazing as the clouds cleared and the sunshine stuck the hills and water of the area. We stopped on the far side of the lake at a shop run by the local Chakma village and enjoyed tea and a lesson in the local language. Back to the hotel and we had to bid farewell to this exquisite town to make our way to Chittagong and our flight back to Dhaka.