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Outdoors

Monsoon trek in Naikhanchori

Salman Saeed

NAIKHONGCHHARI Upazila (BANDARBAN district) with an area of 463.61 sq km is bounded by Matamuhuri reserve forests. It is one of the best places in Bangladesh to trek, where you can pitch camp and enjoy the magnificent view of the plains from the top of the hills. The trek goes between the beautiful hills, and at times we will pass the colorful and rustic indigenous people. Then there are some beautiful lakes, streams and waterfalls. This was a paradise place for trekking.

So some friends and I left for a vacation to Cox's Bazar. When we reached, we planned to do some thing different in this rainy season, and decided on a one-day trek near the Cox's Bazar hill tracts. We picked Naikhanchori for this purpose.

Next day we started early in the morning from Cox's Bazar by microbus for a place called Ramu. From there we got into a local jeep called "Chander Gari" and set off for Naikhanchori, from where we moved toward another village called Chakdhala. From there we got our guide. We were going trek through the rubber plantation area of Naikhanchori.

I have been to this place before this trip, so I had already planned to make a short documentary on our tour. From the very beginning, there was heavy rainfall, and we had to remove our shoes and clothing, and proceed barefooted. It was very difficult to move along the hills because of the roads were very slippery and the deadly leeches that were sucking all the blood out of us. It was more difficult to shoot in this kind of bad weather. Despite all these obstructions we managed to reaches the top of the hill of a rubber garden by lunchtime.

Once we reached the garden rest house we bathed at the garden's personal waterfall which looked very beautiful. After bathing in the clean water we had our lunch cooked by the local garden rubber tapper. It was delicious! After our lunch it was time to return. We followed the same route. The route was so beautiful; the road went down between the hills and jungles.

We reached the bazaar by dawn and caught a tempo from Naikhanchori Bazar to our Cox's bazar hotel. Thus ended our barefoot monsoon trek.