Saint Martin is a picturesque island with a blue sky and a vast expanse of blue water, rows of kayabagans, palm trees, coconut trees, algae, pebbles, rocks, oysters and corals. The locals also call it Coconut Ginger. It is located in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar district. Who doesn't want to go to the place where thousands of tourists from home and abroad flock every year from November to April?
So one day, with a very short time plan, I took two friends on an AC bus of St. Martin's Transport to the blue water.
After traveling all night, the bus entered Ukhia in the morning. That's when the bad part of the road started. There was a back seat, I could feel the fun of sitting on it. The joints of the body were almost separated! I reached Teknaf wharf with great difficulty.
I have heard the name of the ship named Kerry Sindabad a lot. I went to his office first. I went there and saw that all the seats had been booked in advance. Now just standing means there are some tickets to stand. Thinking about how to stand with a bag tag, someone came and said, "Brother, do you need a ticket?" I said, "Yes, I need to." At first I thought Blacker.
Later when he said, "We are supposed to go in a group of 29 people, but since three people did not come, there are three tickets left. You can take them if you want." And wanted to sell tickets at the original price, then I realized that they are tourists like us. He refused to give us two tickets at first but later gave us one and sold one to another. We also breathed a sigh of relief.
Arranging the ticket, I saw that I still have two hours left. From the wharf I took a CNG straight to the town of Teknaf, eight kilometers away. Before going there, I found the ATM booth. I picked up the money and went to a hotel for breakfast. After breakfast, tea, I went back to the wharf. The gate has already been opened there. I went on the ship with the other passengers.
The ship was floating along the Naf River. Myanmar on one side, Bangladesh on the other. That scene is wonderful. The Kerry Sindabad ship has two decks called Main and Open Deck, with chairs and fixed seats. There is standing outside. We sat in two seats according to the main deck ticket. I sat there for a while, left my bags there and went outside. Basically all the passengers stand outside and go to see the nature. We were going too. Once the ship crossed the Naf River and went to sea. Heading towards St. Martin across the sea of blue water. Gangchil was seen in large numbers on the way.
Tourists were throwing food and chips and gangs were trying to catch them. Although these are forbidden works. Also, many were throwing packets of chips, water bottles into the river and the sea. But they were repeatedly refused to do so on the ship. Although there were large dustbins on each deck, many were throwing out food packets and water bottles. Seeing all this, I was thinking, when will we actually be a conscious and clean nation?
St. Martin stopped at exactly two hours and fifteen minutes after departure. Fifteen more minutes passed before many people got off the crowd. It took a total of two and a half hours to reach.
It is believed that Arab merchants came to St. Martin's Island about 250 years ago. They mainly used the island for rest. It is known that they also named it as Jajira (Jinjira). Some Bengalis and Rakhine people started living on the island in the 1890s. They were basically fishermen. Although the island already has keya and palm trees, the coconut tree once became the main plant of the island, so the locals started calling it coconut gingira.
The island was annexed by British India in 1900. The island is thought to have been named after a Christian priest named St. Martin. But since no church or clergyman was found there, researchers believe the island was named after Martin, the then British deputy commissioner of Chittagong.
St. Martin is a small union in Teknaf upazila, covering an area of about eight kilometers. There are also primary schools, high schools and colleges, mosques. Most of the residents here are fishermen and fishermen. However, due to the large number of tourists, many of them make a living by building businesses and small cottages. Its inhabitants are accustomed to a simple and ordinary life. Due to the presence of military and law enforcement forces and the good use of the island's inhabitants, safe movement on the island is quite smooth.
There are seven / eight ships to go. Apart from ships like MV Greenline, Kerry Sindabad, Kerry Sindabad Cruise, Atlantic, MV Farhan etc., speedboats and trawlers can also be used. Although going through them is a bit risky. With many resorts, hotels, cottages and locals' houses to stay in, adequate restaurants to eat, vans, bicycles, motorbikes and trawlers on the sea, speedboats, its residents and tourists can easily roam the entire island. Although there is no electricity on the island, almost all hotels have generator facilities. But the hope is that recently rural electricity has started connecting there.
I went to St. Martin and started looking for a hotel. Turning to many hotels is a choice, even cheaper. Name Island Resort. I got a new resort, double bed room, attached bath with only one thousand rupees. The main attraction of the island is also close to the west beach. You can walk in two minutes. I was tired of walking around with bags and looking for a room. Still, without wasting time, I took a bath and went to the beach. I wandered around for a while and left. I was very hungry till then. I went to a hotel and had lunch with seafood, potatoes, vegetables and pulses. Then I decided to go to Chheradwip.
There are several ways to get to Chheradwip. Trawlers and speedboats can be reached from the wharf. Most tourists go that way. But being a little adventurous, we thought, let's go a little differently. Bicycle rental auction at the rate of 40 rupees per hour. I cycled along the beach to Chheradwip to enjoy all the wonderful beauty. As there was no water at low tide in the afternoon, it took about an hour to reach the mainland of Chheradwip by bicycle. Many years of unfamiliarity with cycling and the extra energy required to paddle on the beach sand made it very difficult. But the intoxication of adventure made me forget all the troubles.
Chheradwip is an isolated island in St. Martin. Only one family lives there. The fishermen are also there. The three small isolated islands located side by side are basically called Chheradia or Chheradwip. It doesn't take long to get from St. Martin by trawler or speedboat. It takes a while to get on the bike. It took us about three hours to get there and back. However, motorbikes can be used very quickly, although it is harmful to the environment, but many people go. Like many others, we went to see the sunset on the island of Chhera. This is the main attraction of this place. That scene is very captivating!
I returned from Chheradwip and returned to my room with two bicycles. I went there fresh to enjoy the sea at night. There are some shops in front of Samudrabilas, the home of fiction writer Humayun Ahmed, where you can find dry goods, Burmese pickles and various fancy items. As well as fresh sea fish, fried crabs and fish barbecue. The fun of eating fish, crab and barbecue while sitting on the beach is different. I tasted all the fish. I didn't eat rice that night, I just ate fish. There were various species of fish including Sundari, Tona, Coral, Rupchanda, Hilsa, Salmon.
Then I spent a long, quiet night on the beach in St. Martin. Although it is forbidden to make noise on the beach, I heard many people singing loudly. There is a great lack of awareness among the people. I came back to the cottage after ten o'clock at night. I spread the tired body on the bed. I went to the land of sleep, the land of dreams.
The night before, the next day's cycling and the journey - all in all, I was very tired. The result was great sleep. After waking up, the body felt very clean. After a fresh breakfast, I took a vacation at the beach-adjacent hotel. After eating parota, dal, egg fry and tea, we went to the west side of the beach. Some tourists have already left. The tide was late, so I took the opportunity to soak my body in the blue and icy water of St. Martin. I spent some time submerged.
Suddenly I looked at the clock and saw that it was eleven o'clock. As the checkout time at the hotel approached, I went straight to the room. After taking a bath, I packed my bags and got ready to go. After completing the payment, I left the bags under the care of the cottage and saw that it was half past twelve in the afternoon. Went to the beach again. Since our ship would leave at three o'clock, we had about two and a half hours.
I decided to do a one hour beach photo session and spend the remaining one and a half hours on lunch and other activities. So I went to the beach and hired a professional photographer first. Each selected picture costs three rupees. There are very few photographers in St. Martin, again the business is four-five months, so the rate is a bit higher for them. Cox's Bazar is much less than that. Anyway, it was nice to take pictures and hang out. I sat in a tong shop on the beach, drank tea, looked at the pictures, selected them and transferred them to my mobile. An hour passed.
Went to the cottage again. From there, I packed my bags and drove straight to St. Martin's Market, a hotel near the wharf, for lunch. Rupachanda, hilsa head, rice, vegetables, aluvarta, pulses filled the stomach was great. After eating, we paid our bills, went for light shopping and walked around the beach. After two and a half hours, people started getting on the ship, along with us.
The moment of departure is very difficult, but there is no way back to a busy life. On arrival I came to see the sea and Naf river in the morning, on the way I reached Damdamiya Ghat in Teknaf to see the beauty and sunset in the afternoon.
At the beginning I went and looked for a bus ticket to return to Dhaka. Not getting any other bus at the present time, I took two tickets of non-AC bus of Relax Paribahan. 900 each. With half an hour left to leave the bus, I had a light breakfast at a hotel on the side of the road. Then I got on the bus, the bus left a little late. But as it was a Rohingya-occupied area, it took about an hour or two for the BGB to check the buses one by one and leave.
Of course, we had no objection to suffer so much for the sake of the security of the country. The bus started moving past the check post. After a journey of about twelve hours, the bus reached Saidabad in Dhaka at 7.30 pm and stopped at 7.30 am. Leaving behind a strange whirlwind journey, I came back to the mechanical painful life, in the pursuit of survival.
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Is this in the Caribbean islands?