Chittagong Hill Tracts: A Bird's-eye View of Beautiful Bangladesh

 As I was looking down from one of the highest peaks of Bandarban, it struck me with a feeling of awe. I imagined as if I had turned into a bird, looking at the miniature cities and woodlands. The gentle breeze was messing with our hair and the perfect saturation of humidity made us feel neither cold, nor sweaty. It was a wonderful moment to cherish. The struggle to hike to that spot felt worth it.

Last October, I visited the three hilly districts of Bangladesh, widely known as the Chittagong hill tracts. I was accompanied by three of my school friends. A tour with my friends was long overdue as we weren’t able to align our schedules for the trip. But eventually we planned the three day trip amidst our very busy schedules.

The trip started with us getting on a bus leaving Dhaka towards Rangamati. We started at around 11:30 pm on a night coach. The journey was almost comfortable with a few minor hiccups like the roads not being as smooth as we had expected to be able to sleep. We reached Rangamati at dawn.

Our three day schedule was an adventure packed one. We planned on spending each day in each district and touring throughout the day without any breaks. Rangamati was our first destination, followed by Bandarban and Khagrachari.

We started our excursion by roaming around the Rangamati city. The city isn’t a big one, but it is really beautiful. It had stores run by tribal people with their locally manufactured products. We saw the beautiful parks in the city as well. Then we went for the Kaptai Lake boat ride. The boat ride was wonderful. The lake was so calm and clean at that time. With the sunny sky and wonderful ambience, it felt ethereal. The boat ride lasts for about 3-4 hours. The boatmen will take you to some spots, where you will be able to enjoy the beautiful hills of Rangamati. After visiting these spots, we went on to have our lunch.

After having our lunch, we visited some other interesting tourist spots before calling it a day. As the sun was setting, we started our journey towards Bandarban, where we had planned on staying the night.

Bandarban is probably the most hilly district of the three districts we had visited. It has the highest peaks of our country and the road was a bit bumpy. To be honest, Bandarban was a bit of a scary trip for us. As the peaks were really high, the journey seemed a bit dangerous to me. However, it was really adventurous as well. We drove through the clouds and it felt like we went past the sky!

We visited a few famous tourist spots at Bandarban. Nilgiri was one of the most beautiful ones there. It felt as if we were on a different planet with beautiful houses. The picturesque beauty of Bandarban really mesmerized me. It made me realize how beautiful Bangladesh really is.

We visited local restaurants at Bandarban and had some local dishes. They were different but really delicious!

Khagrachari is similar to Rangamati. Though Rangamati has Kaptai Lake as the core attraction, Khagrachari has caves and relatively higher terrains. We visited some famous spots at Khagrachari and had tribal cuisines as our lunch.

We visited the Alutila Cave at Khagrachari. They also have a park reserved for tourists so that they can have a mesmerizing view of the beautiful city and the landscapes from a higher altitude. This reminded me of the feeling from Bandarban the previous day.

After visiting different spots, we visited the tribal villages in Khagrachari and bought some locally knitted clothes from them. They were really unique and had a specific design language. 

We ended our trip with Khagrachari and headed back to Dhaka. The trip was really adventurous and a bit tiring because of the jam-packed schedule. However, we really enjoyed it. It was a really fun experience and a very beautiful memory for us which we will cherish forever!