Beauty that Grows in the Mud: White and Pink Lotuses

If you learnt Bengali at your school, you must have learnt that Pangkaj -means something that grows in the mud. And while anything can grow in muddy silts, it's universally implied in Bengali that this precious is a lotus! Yes, lotuses grow in muddy swamps/ponds. I first saw a swamp full of lotuses at my 8/9 years of age and since then I have been searching one to enjoy the beauty of this flower. At last the chance came in. A few days earlier we took a journey towards Narsingdi. One may never heard about the place. Dholadia. If you take the road towards Narsingdi from Dhaka through Ghorashal you can spend some time with lotuses on the way and take a break from tiring urban concretes. Take the road that goes to the left past the CNG station just after crossing the newly built Shahid Moyejuddin bridge over river Shitalakkhya. From there you can either take a taxi or an autorickshaw (some battery-powered scooters) to reach Koroitola, Dholadia. The lotus swamp is on your right at Koroitola. However, to reach the white lotuses, you'll have to walk through the village. It's too tricky to give you a direction. For this you have to take the left road at the iron bars before Koroitola. Then you'll see a school and a Krishna (Hindu) temple on your right. Ask anybody for white lotuses and they'll show you the way to the gorgeous whites.

The white lotus 

Some blooming buds and a white queen sitting in the middle of the green guards

Here comes another. I am so fond of the lotus leaves. They can be used as a substitute of umbrellas...I am kidding! :) 

I am just taken aback by the white and green beauties, it's a kingdom of white lotuses

A blooming solitary princess  

These Togors (can't tell you the English name for these) on roadside

Lotuses of all stages: waxing and weaning  

A white princess being born...

And she comes.......the pretty pink Poddo (lotus)...the tall grasses failed to sabotage her beauty

These kids were playing football........my long-lost childhood cried out, I never knew in my childhood that I was going to miss it so much!

Pink lotuses in the swamp. These are fewer in number. Locals said that's because people pick and sell them on busy Dhaka streets....you see they make these green swamps lotus-barren just to make these available for you in the city. Also you might have noticed that the leaves are submerged. Probably, lotuses don't grow well if the water level is too high.

A dragon-fly......as green as it had to be to camouflage the twig it's sitting on 

A blooming pink princess

A young pink princess, those purplish buds behind are hyacinths.  

Close-up: green guards around

The queen sees her mirror: Narcissist Lotus in the swamp

This pretty lady is at the verge of losing her tender petals, yet how pretty she is!

A typical local courtyard of a jute grower: golden fibres are being dried. This is a dear place nearby

This Brahminy Kite (Shonkhochil-in Bengali) was singing a sad song (on a coconut tree)

Back to the courtyard again. The cone created with the jute-sticks would be sold for 20-30 tk each. These would be used as firewoods. Some might use these for fencing their gardens. Harvesting and trading jute seems to be a business of losses. It takes a very hard labour to grow and trade jute.

Ah Mymensingh, O Mymensingh!

One may call Mymensingh as my second home (although I don't) since I lived there 6 precious years of my life. Still Mymensingh doesn't attract me much for anything else but my FnF there do. So everytime I am in Mymensingh, it's a feeling.....Ahhh Mymensingh!

A classic picture of Bangladesh: a country boat with a sail crossing river Brahmaputra. It's monsoon now

Another view of the same river during sunset. the river here bifurcates just to join to the main stream again and creating an island. You can see part of the island or char or whatever on the right of the pic

Sun is setting-this is a road over the damn that's protecting the city of Mymensingh during monsoon

Locals enjoying fresh air and the sunset: I had a great afternoon and evening too!

It's the entrance to the park created near Shilpacharya's museum on the river bank

Entrance to the museum

view from the entrance, inside the boundary the atmosphere is tranquil. Lots of trees and flowers. However, mosquitoes are there too! The ground floor is the office and the exhibits start from the stairs. Most famine paintings are reprints. On the first floor corridors there are photos of Shilapacharya during various stages of life. Inside is the air-conditioned gallery with his paintings and some of his memoirs. There are some sketches and some remarkable oil paintings. His shoes are just as new, as if he would just put them on. There's a big leather bag that he used to keep his pain brushes, colours and accessories. Also, there is an easel  he used. I liked some of his Brahmaputra river. It seemed much wider specially the one of the Shambhuganj Rail Bridge with a steam-engined train crossing over it 

These lucky kids have found a space to breathe and play

Inside the park: Children's play garden, you don't have to pay for it. 

A very much Bangladeshi style ride

Another one.......how I wished to have a ride!

the sun is setting now, 5 km away from the earlier photo

It's dusk. This bigger boat was cruising with minimal effort, current was so strong on Brahmaputra that day. You can see the hyacinths floating-there's flood nearby upstream 

Another view before afternoon-a couple taking an afternoon walk on river bank

A problem for lovers, Bangladesh is not a place for lovers! You have to hide and find an appropriate space even only to chat and be just with yourselves. These poor fellas inside the park. There were some others.

A resort style hotel Silver Castle overseeing Brahmaputra. I stayed at it's sister concern that's cheaper. Tariffs are high at Silver Castle: starts from 3000 BDT (~40$+) per night. It shouldn't be a bad idea to stay here far from city chaos and enjoying the gentle breeze from Brahmaputra.

Hum Hum-Our Very Own Waterfall in Kamalganj, Moulvibazar

I am quite sure that anybody would mark me as an inexperienced hiker and too lazy & unfit lady to take a trekking that might take 6-7 hours. So I wasn't much surprised when the elderly guy at Kolabon Para told at first sight - "she's not gonna make it" as we were getting ready for the 5 hours long hike typically for the local villagers. This very question came to our mind at 5:30 am in the morning in a different way- "are we going to make it?" when we all sat quietly, helplessly at Rupganj just after a wheel got punctured and it was raining so heavily that the car windscreen wiper failed to clear vision.

J trying to loosen the punctured tyre

 We started our journey at 4:30 in the morning, hoping to be at Sreemongal by 8 am.

The mechanic couldn't fix it

Finally after running in uncertainty for about half an hour we could get the tyre fixed at a shop and reached our place of stay "the Heed Guest House" at Kamalganj, Moulvibazar. It is situated up on a small bump just after a pleasant drive through the Lawachhara Reserve Forest. This is one of the prettiest rain forests in the world I can bet.  We could find a Jeep that could take us to Kolabon Para. It was 2500 for the round trip + some gratuity to Kolabon Para from Heed Guest house.

on the way to Kolabon Para

On the way to Kolabon Para 

We arrived at Kolabon Para quite late. The notice there says no tourist allowed to take the trail after 12 pm. However, we kind of bargained and  the trickiest was to get rid of the criminal looking guide. Our driver cautioned us not to trust them and take help from a guide of Kolabon Para locals. We listened and thanks to him for such a precious advice. So, Do Not be fooled by the people at this entrance. Always take a guide from the KP village.

This is the entrance to Champarai Tea Estate that is where the KP villagers work. We asked the wage: it's 7 days a week for 460 tk! :(

This muddy and slippery road leads to Kolabon Para Village, surely a two-wheeler is not a choice 

Local children are trying to sell their bamboo sticks for the team and our just hired guide Apan picking the bests among them. The sticks are too cheap! 5 tk each. Most villagers work in nearby tea gardens and this newly found tourism has only expanded their way of income. It's unbelievable the kind of support they provide as guides. for 5 of us, he agreed at 250 tk. But his kind effort and help made us double the rate after we returned from there. Without him, it was impossible. We saw other guides too who were just trying to escape work. But he and another fellow Dhananjay (we paid him the same) just joined us voluntarily and helped us in an unforgettable way. We highly recommend hiring both of them. Sadly, we don't have their contact numbers :( 

We started the trail

There were 4 in total that we had to cross

Another bamboo and wooden bridge

Champarai Tea Estate

We watch them climbing up as we were taking rest at a 1/3rd height of the hill. We climbed at least 7 such hills and the most difficult part was the climbing down part. It was raining heavily and muddy as well as slippery all over. These bamboo sticks are not to be spared at all. 

View from a hill top: you can see the lush green hills and part of Indian mountains in distant 

At last we touched the base and the stream. It was ice cold and so soothing for a while. However, as time passed by my legs started freezing. At places it as waist level deep for someone of my height.  

Hum Hum at last!

It's not possible to describe the beauty of this still close to nature waterfall that on of the very few in Bangladesh. I saw tourists dancing in joy forgetting the pain they took to arrive here. 

I did some editing

Unedited vie, all photos below and 2 of the above are taken by A whose camera just got fixed. Last time it almost died in the US while taking another "traveller" trip. This time it went in to coma again after it got soaked in rainwater when we walked for almost an hour and half in the dusk and after dark. Luckily, the photoes lived!

NO edit, upper half of the waterfall

Another view

The falls

No edit!

Returning journey begins....this time we took the cold stream, called Jhiri Path. Jhiri means Hilly natural cold water streams

The road we took to come back was the toughest. Since we climbed up on the way to Hum Hum and it was the dry path, we wanted to take the stream to reach the village. It was cold, muddy and we had to cross the strong current of the hilly stream. Yet, the experience was rewarding. We could feel the silence of the forest at night, saw fireflies dancing in the dark. We also could feel how tough it is for the locals to live like it. People who keep complaining about life should take this walk some times. We walked barefoot since the knee deep muddy path was too difficult to walk with shoes on. At times in the dark we were stepping on roots and many sharp objects.....we had to cross some parts of the stream that were mid-belly high for me and the muddy slit was mid-shin high. It's not possible for me to describe in words the fear I felt- of leeches, snakes, poisonous insects, mosquitoes, fractures as I was falling down every 5-10 minutes.
As I sat on a wooden bench at the local tea-shop, tired, exhausted, all clothes wet from rain water, panting....still extremely excited that I survived...I recalled the old man who said, no she won't make it. I wish I could tell him, "Yes, I did it!" :) 

Tips for you: 

*Never be late to start, plan your trip of 7 hours (as an inexperienced local) such a way that to be back before sunset - specially if it's a wet season

*Forget sandals or sandal shoes, put on shoes with good grip

*Never leave your waste at the falls

*Don't forget to respect, reward and thank the good villagers who always gather to bring back the lost tourists until midnight only because they care. (they rescue tourists if they see that a group is late. 3 of them rescued 3 girls who were crying in the dark as they were failing to hike the muddy slopes and bamboo bridges in the dark.)
*always hire a local guide

Enjoy your own Hum Hum or the Leopard falls (locals used to call it Leopard or Cheetah falls since once upon a time there were a good number of Cheetahs here - *source-unknown locals)