Srimongaling

Sometimes, there are moments when you just want to escape.... from what, who, or where.. you often don't know. You just want to leave.

I've been having those moments a bit too often lately. So, with less than an hour's planning and with two good friends on each side, we hopped on a bus to Srimongal ... the tea capital of Bangladesh. We didn't know much about it... neither did the locals... and embarrassingly indeed, Lonely Planet said little about it. While driving up there, we noticed how dry and barren the tea fields looked due to it being the dry season. Though slightly discouraged at first, we soon realized there were some hills that were still covered lush green tea plants!!

We found a nice shallow stream - only ankle high at some points- with clear, cool water. After walking for a while in this stream - surrounded by tea and holy trees - we laid on the grass and stared at the cloudless (chemicalless) sky. The next day, we ventured off into the Lowachhara Rainforest Reserve. Wild ginger plants greeted us with their fragrant white flowers as butterflies and birds flew about. Lemon groves, tribal hospitality, and hours of botanists' dream-come-true ... we slept well that night. Next-cum-final day, we rented three bikes - first one lacked a pedal and a bell, second one's seat and pedal kept falling, and and the third one was just plain wrong. Either way, we biked our way through the tea-covered hills, local villages until our bums can take no more. So what to do next? Ah of course - lay a la nude in our favorite stream. As the water flowed around us, I just couldn't stop smiling. From what was I trying to escape? The water knew.

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