Hotelnet: Fri 18:25

Friday 03 December 18:25

I'm back at the Landmark Hotel in Chittagong, a known safe harbour -- speaking of which I've yet to see water in Chittagong despite it being the main Bangladeshi harbour.

Against LP information (via the German blokey the other day) ATMs and CCs seem to work just fine. Maybe that's a new thing in BD.

I rolled down to Cox's Bazar as suggested. Actually, I followed the road in the GPS to Box Bazar thinking it was a typo but for some reason the OpenStreetMap database doesn't have Cox's Bazar, the town, though it does have the airport. Luckily, Box Bazar is just next door.

I stayed at the recommended (5* it turns out) Seagull Hotel, Cox's Bazar, BD at n21 25.480 e91 58.569 where they wanted T4400 (about EUR50) for a single. That's too much I said and asked about a discount. No discounts, this is peak season said the man. OK, I said, can you suggest somewhere a bit cheaper? How much is your budget? Hmm, thinks I, there isn't going to be anywhere dirt cheap in peak season in the main holiday resort, I'll say the same as last night, T2000-2500. Hmm, cogitates the man. I can give you the room for T2513.

How does that work?

It is, without wishing to denigrate the place, just another overdeveloped and in the process of being further developed seaside resort. The bit of the beach I saw seemed pretty big though it's hard to tell if it really is the largest sandy sea beach in the world (or whatever the claim to fame is).

I was there in time for sunset and managed a few cliched shots before the body of curious bystanders overwhelmed me. In particular, cheeky little urchins trying to earn a crust. I realised eventually that the one was saying "I'm a singer" and then "blah blah song." Like beggars, though, if you give them money it'll just encourage them! (That's a joke, by the way. Obviously, I endorse the right of performance artists of all ages to earn a living plying their trade in what are difficult economic times for us all.)

These two, however, once they'd realised I wasn't about to give them or their colleagues any money for shells, trinkets, fresh coconut juice ("very sweet", "I don't care how fscking sweet it is..." [see the Cheese Shop sketch by Monty Python]) or coffee went straight for the jugular with "baksheesh!" The young girl had a very cheeky wink which was a bit worrisome for one so young.

Today I headed for Rangamati, up in the "hills." I shouldn't joke, BD has hills as high as Scotland, though, to be fair, most of the place is only a few metres above sea level.

The GPS had nothing in these backwaters and the paper map is necessarily a bit vague on detail so I blundered about using the old formula of: if there's a tarmac road in this third world country heading in the right direction then it's the road on the map. This mostly worked a treat apart from my underestimation of the distances involved and I took the wrong road from the one suggested by some people but one that would eventually come good.

Except for the police check point. I saw the notice about foreigners, stop, check and had enough time to think, oh, before being stopped and sent back to the check point building. Here, through a process of reading the notice board properly and being asked for my special permission form (which clearly wasn't going to be forthcoming) and despite some querying of the policy over the radio it transpired that I wasn't going to be going to Rangamati today (ie. at all on this trip). The Rangamati region is closed (to foreigners without special permission) it seems. I was only 10km from Rangamati itself which is only 30km East of Chittagong. I reached n22 29.411 e92 7.771.

So, back to the Landmark where they'd run out of single rooms with windows and (therefore?) my UTP cable is running down the hall...

Tomorrow, onto Dhaka for a couple of nights. The only tourist thing I know of is the Red Fort -- though, obviously, I don't know where it is. Then I think to Jessore for the last night. The map suggests the two Dhaka-Jessore roads are either very long or quite short but needs a ferry -- there might be the word ferry on the map but it's indistinct. That could be a fun day if it turns out there isn't a ferry.