Wednesday, 27th April 2011
Many day’s have passed after my last tour, and I didn’t able to make another one. I was thinking about to pass the weekend somewhere, but suddenly got an offer from my fellow friends who were with me during “Expedition Rumana-2010”, and just opted positively for this 5 days of tour, where our destination was “Pukur Para”.
Our bus leaved the Dhaka city at 10:45 and after a safe journey we arrived at Bandarban town by 7:45 at morning. I must believe that we were late by an hour. So everyone of us rapidly walking towards the “Ruma Bazar Bus Stoppage”. The first bus will leave the stoppage at 8:30. So it will be unwise if we miss that one(next one at 9:30).
It was raining with very little drops, and unfortunately to increase our misery, the bus was already packed. All the seats of the bus were sold, even it was 30 minutes to go. This actually happens during tourist season(i.e. at winter), but right now it was totally unexpected.
The roof of the bus was packed with the goods, so no space at there. And we don’t want to waste one hour here. So we had only one option, that was to get inside the bus, and hanging inside. By the way, we were able to buy one seat, and illegally managed another two. We don’t know who was the owner of those two! We just sat over those, and no one requested us to leave those two. So why bother man? We are 9 people right now, and easily we can ’round-robinly’ rotate the seats.
The journey was terribly boring. Nothing to do, just standing, and my body required sleep. I was trying to enjoy the clouds around the bus so that I can ignore the bore feeling. But It didn’t work for me. The ambient was excellent, hardly possible to see the next mountain through the thick clouds. It was still raining mildly, and clouds were flowing around the bus heavily.
Bus reached at the “Ruma Bazar Ghat”(30 minutes after “Betchhori Police Camp”) after three hours. A bridge construction was going on over there. Hopefully within 5/6 months the bridge will be done completely. Looks like they are working rapidly. For your information, the work was halted for many years there due to unknown reason. For sure that bridge will enhance the communication between “Ruma Bazar”, and Bandarban town.
After dropping out from the bus, we hired a boat for 250 taka. Though local people advised us to walking at the bank of the river, and that would be faster. But we didn’t listen to them. They said, it will take 50 minutes on boat, and 40 minutes on walking. The river at this period used to be the lowest depth. And I believe right now the average depth is 1-2 ft.
After few minutes of sitting inside the boat, I was feeling suffocating. So I have changed my dress into shorts, and started walking at the bank of the river. Later Hassan joined with me for strolling. At several places the boat stuck, but we didn’t, so undoubtedly we have reached at “Ruma Bazar” before the boat, and it was 12:30.
Time to take a lunch break. So we entered inside a hotel, and started our lunch. For this tour, I have prepared “powder of dry fish(shutki)”, and taken with me inside a tin cane. Mixing the sliced onion, salt, and green chili with that powder can make an easy dish quickly. So for a trial, I have prepared few for the lunch. No one from us didn’t miss the chance to taste that one. It was excellent as expected. We will use this for rest of the days.
After lunch, we were forced to make some delay on our way for guide issue. Now a days, you can’t move a step without a guide from Ruma. Any tourist at “Ruma Bazar” are bound/forced to take a guide with them. And the burlesque is, you have to pay the guide 400 taka per day for nothing! Since we were not interested about guide, that made us the delay. Finally we have picked “Belal” a local as our guide forcefully.
Since it rained at last night, and still raining slightly. It will be tough to trek at the “Jhiri Poth”. It was already 3 at afternoon. So we can not make the “Jhiri Path” inside the day light. Also the height of the “Ruma Khal” increased for uphill streams after rain. To avoid the risk, we have decided to walk over the road to Boga Lake. It will take time, and will be harder, but will be safest at this situation.
The weather was very nice for walking before starting our walking. But after that it changed unbelievably. I know I am a bit slow at trekking(specially climbing uphill), so as expected, I was always at the behind of the trail. Sometimes the last person in front of me was 5-10 minutes away.
We have taken multiple breaks amid of the road. Those times, we have enjoyed green mangoes and ripen papaya. All were stolen!(without permission) from the trees around the road. When we have reached at “11 kilometer” village on our way, sunset was advent. So we have rested there for 30-40 minutes. Out water were finished on our way, and we were thirsty. So we drank to slack our thirst, and repleted our bottles for rest of the path.
After the sunset, we started to walk again. We were walking slowly, and didn’t want to make any gap between us. But still I was alone on the way, this time I was at the middle of the two groups, one was faster, and another was slower.
Some of us were using their torch light. To show my bravado, I didn’t use my one. But that was the problem. I got slipped on a rough patch of mud. After smashed down on the ground, I looked either side of me, and I didn’t see anyone watching. I think I can take another 2/3 minutes before get up! That was a lesson for me, and I started to using my torch.
Before the Boga Lake “Army Camp” hill, you have two options, you can continue the long walking through the road, or you can climb the hill for shortcut. We have decided to climb. But trust me, it was terribly hard for me. I was taking rest after every 15-20 steps.
After climbing the first one at our tour, All of us sat on the ground to relax. From there you can easily see the Boga Lake Para. So we were almost finished. Just few minutes of walking. After completing the formalities at Army Camp, we are at Boga Lake finally. Our today’s walking just finished. It was 9:15 at night.
After leaving the bags on the room, I got few of us to take a clean up at Boga Lake with me. It wasn’t that much fun, cause none of us wanted to swim at night inside Boga. After the bath, we have completed the dinner quickly and went for a sound sleep.
If you want to read Day-2, click here.
