Cox’s Bazar is the most popular tourist destination from Bangladesh. Main attraction is the beach itself which is the longest in the whole world. The beach is located at the western side and ocean but nothing else after it. After the beach activities the tourists like to watch the sunset over the vast ocean. Thousands of tourists gather at the beach to say goodbye to the sun for a new day. The Sunset event in Cox’s Bazar gets most crowded during the 31st December. On that particular day the city gets overwhelmed by the local tourists. If you’ve returned from Cox’s Bazar without watching the sunset, then please go back again. Because your tour hasn’t been completed yet.
Trying to capture a sunset in Cox’s bazar using my Nokia phone.
I’ve visited Cox’s Bazar so many times that I can’t remember the count. I remember I visited there 6 times in the year 2009. It was because I watched the ocean in six different seasons. Everytime I visited there I never missed the opportunity to watch the sunset in Cox’s Bazar. In fact I like to watch the sunset anywhere in the world. Even from watching through the window of my home. During the sunset the light gets so colorful that you could feel it. Also it is fun to watch how other people watch the sunset. Everyone tries to capture their moment on camera. They try to pose in different styles. One of the common poses is trying to eat the fireball or holding the fireball in hand. Newly married couples (or would be married soon) like to capture a selfie with the sunset (though that time the word Selfie didn’t exist).
When I visited Cox’s Bazar for the first time I was amazed by the view of the ocean from the bus. It was the Kolatoli Mor where the bus dropped the first batch of tourists in Cox’s Bazar. I was trying to look at the ocean through the window of the bus. My friend was laughing and said your moment would come soon. During our first visit it was like, whatever the other people do we have to do that too. Few such common things were walking along the beach, bathing, watching sunset, having afternoon snacks in Tropicana, buying goods from Burmese market, and so on.
After leaving the bus, we had to struggle to find a hotel room. We didn’t book anything advance. So after wasting a couple of hours we booked a room for three people (three beds in two rooms, and we were only two). It was very costly, I think somewhere 2500 Taka for a night. After leaving everything in the hotel room we decided to go to the beach. But where to keep the shoes? So we decided to walk barefoot. But it was a mistake. Although it was winter, but the day was very hot. The sand near the beach was hot like an oven. We were running through the hot sands to reach the beach. But at the middle we were exhausted. Confused whether to return back or go forward. We kept running, stopped until we put our foot on the water.
I have motion sickness. When I walked over the running water of high tide it instantly triggered me. I was almost about to throw. It required a while before getting used to it. To avoid this I always rush into water so that I do not need to look at my feet where the water is running over it. While returning from the beach, we came back through Kolatoli beach as it was a short walk from the beach to the road.
Sea beach of Cox’s Bazar during sunset. The longest in the wold world.
At this point the first todo was done. Which was playing in water. So we went for lunch. Got some rest in the hotel room. Then in the afternoon we went exploring the beach for more. But the primary objective was to watch the sunset. Because watching the sunset in Cox’s Bazaar is a must. I had a Nokia mobile phone which had a fancy camera on it. Can’t remember the model, but it was approximately 10 thousands Taka that time (which was later stolen from the locker room in Dhaka University swimming club). My friend had a digital camera which started becoming a craze at that time. He was laughing at me while I was trying to capture the sunset with my mere phone. But I wanted to capture a moment for myself. After that I watched a lot of sunsets over the ocean. But that first time experience was the best one. Even with a cheap cell phone camera.
Written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://alonelytraveler.com/
November 2008
