Mohamaya Lake from Mirsarai

Mohamaya is the name of an irrigation project that is aid the locals. A rubber dam is built to preserve the water from the three main streams from the hillocks nearby. It was inaugurated by our Prime minister during December of 2010. Nowadays a lot of tourists visit this place.

It was a three day’s tour. Sunday was the holiday and most of the tourists were crowding at the popular tourist spots. So I have decided to visit less popular and populous places during this time. Actually it was a tour for Feni, Noakhali and Comilla. But the Mohamaya lake is very near to Feni, and I never visited this place before. So I added this into my bucket before starting the tour.

Last night We had a very hectic bus journey. We didn’t book/buy tickets before. I tried to manage a ticket for Feni at the very last moment, but couldn’t manage any. So our only hope was the bus to Chittagong. We found two seats at the very last row of the bus and it was a poor quality bus. We were looking for a bus starting from 11:00pm at night and finally managed those two seats just before 01:00am at night.

We couldn’t sleep well on the bus. Also we had a poor amount of space on the seat to stretch the feet. So my back, hip and knees were swollen and I was feeling slight ache. We left the bus near Mostan Nogor, a place after Baroiyar Hat. It was just after 09:00am in the morning. Good morning Chittagong!

We took an auto rickshaw from the highway and that leaves us at the gate (a bamboo cross over the road) of the project. I was thinking whether we were too early there or not. But in reality, people have already started coming. Few picnic buses were standing there. Crowds just started to warm up the surroundings like the sun.

Initially we walked around the lake without any plan. Later we climbed a hillock to see the lake from the view of a bird’s eye. That hill was packed with Gamar trees and a lot of small yellow Gamar flowers were scattered under those trees. After a while we returned back to the ghat to hire a boat.

There were a lot of boats at the shore with different sizes and shapes. Travelers having a small sized group can use public boat service with a shared basis. Each boat can take around 30-40 people and that costs 30 taka per person. Instead of such a boat, we have hired a small boat for 300 taka. It would take us to a small waterfall beside the lake.

Local people collects bamboos from forest and transport through this Mohamaya lake.

This is a dry season, and it’s not a suitable time for exploring the waterfalls in Bangladesh. So I didn’t have any plans for the waterfalls. I’d probably come back here again during the rainy season for those. We hired the boat for a boat journey on the lake. Otherwise we could have skipped the boats.

After reaching near to the moribund waterfall, I had a swim in the cool water of the lake. My travel mate didn’t show any interest in swimming. He can’t swim in fact. After a refreshing shower on the lake water, we returned back to the dock. From there we have moved forward to explore the Mohuri project, another irrigation project.

View of the Mohamaya dam that is blocking the water.

How to go

No matter from where you are coming, just leave the bus at the Mostan Nogor of Dhaka-Chittagong highway. From there take any auto rickshaw to drop you near to the Mohamaya lake. It would cost you around 100 Taka or more (as of 2013). Though the place is very near from there, you have to count that amount from your Pocket. Also for your information, you may have to use your feet while returning back. GPS Coordinate of the Mohamaya lake is (22°49’7.85″N, 91°34’12.20″E).

Where to stay

There is no good quality accommodation nearby. From my experience the best place would be to stay in Chittagong town. Look here for a list of Hotels from Chittagong.

Mohamaya Lake,
Mirsarai upazila,
Chittagong district,
Bangladesh,
GPS coordinate (22°49’06.5″N, 91°34’18.8″E)

Written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog https://alonelytraveler.com/

Friday, 15 March 2013