Srimangal

A few weeks ago we took a train to Srimangal, Bangladesh with some friends for our 3 day weekend.  I had not seen any cities of Bangladesh other than Dhaka, so I was excited to get a better understanding of the country.

Srimangal is located a little northeast of Dhaka, and it took us 4 hours to get there by train.  It's known as the tea capital of Bangladesh, and there are tea plantations as far as the eye can see.  There are also pineapple plantations and lemon orchards.  There were actually times when I looked around and didn't see another human being - which is pretty crazy for the most densely populated country in the world.

The first place where we stayed had little cottages spread out over a large piece of land.  My friend and I were sitting outside at one point when we realized we couldn't hear a single sound.  Nothing.  Just completely quiet.  It was incredible and actually a bit eerie as it's something I haven't experienced since coming to Dhaka.

Below is a photo of a chital deer (spotted deer) behind our cottages.

The sunset over Madhabpur Lake

While we walked around the lake, there were 2 boys who followed me a couple paces behind.  They taught me a few Bangla words, and whenever they wanted to get my attention they would say, 'hello'.  One of the boys made some sort of bird noise throughout the walk, and I was really impressed by how real it sounded.  

We tried this fresh honey 

The next day we went to a local Manipuri community where the women specialize in producing hand woven items. The Manipuri people are tribal people that descend from the Indian state of Manipur.  They are mainly Hindu and Christian, and they do not speak Bangla.

Rice

Cute piglets!

Boys playing a game similar to pool 

I think they were going for 'color'

Delicious 5 layer tea that had 5 different flavors!  Sorry the photo is so small.

Staring Bangladeshis at the Srimangal Train Station