“Enjoy life sip by sip, not gulp by gulp.” – The Minister of Leaves
FINALLY! We are on the last day of our little trip to Sylhet. It's been quite a long streak.
But as always...
All the good things in life must come to an end.
On the last day, we had a change of plans. We weren't supposed to head out on that day. Instead, the plan was to stay indoors, and explore the inner parts of the city; if our bodies and health could keep up.
The first 3 days were so tiring, that it took a toll on our bodies. Yet, even though our bodies disagreed, our hearts were persistent, and we wouldn't give up.
So, around 11 AM we headed out toward one of the largest tea gardens in the Sylhet district.
It took us about 40 minutes to reach the estate, and a lot of walking and climbing was ahead of us.
As if the first 3 days of walking and covering 20 to 30 kilometers wasn't enough, right? From the clear waters to rocky, sandy, and muddy terrain, to now a field of green, from left to right.
This place was old, and quite reputable too. It's not just tea leaves and hilly areas here. Many families live here; who work for the tea estate and factory. We even got a sneak peek of the owner and his son, when they came to the estate's mosque for Friday Jumma prayer.
Malnicherra Tea Estate was established by Lord Hurdson in 1849 on 1500 acres of land.
And it's still going strong it seems.
That day was probably the hottest out of all 4 days we had spent in Sylhet. The sun was proudly shining all of its might and light on us. For the first 3 days, we got cooked, and on this last day, we were totally burnt to a crisp. I'm carrying a hat or cap during my travels from now on.
We also made the mistake of not carrying a water bottle, but luckily we found a little tea stall around mid-way. We sat there for a while, drank some tea, and got a bottle of water for the trek ahead
I surely wasn't expecting to cover this much ground. This place just went on and on, and we didn't even cover the whole estate. It's staggering, to see how one person/entity can own so much land.
ᴵᵐᵃᵍᵉˢ ᵃⁿᵈ ᵒᵛᵉʳᵃˡˡ ᶜᵒⁿᵗᵉⁿᵗ ᵃʳᵉ ᵐʸ ᵒʷⁿ ᵘⁿˡᵉˢˢ ᶦᵗ'ˢ ᵐᵉⁿᵗᶦᵒⁿᵉᵈ
Soon the sky started to turn dark, it started to growl a little bit too. And we got the message, we understood that it was time for us to leave. It was nature's call to us, saying that weren't welcome here anymore.
So, we started walking towards the exit, as our old, but athletic guide showed us the way.
The man was almost 80 years old he said, but he was doing much better than us when covering the distance. The man surely has had a lot of exercise and says that he has been working here for close to half a century now. That surely is a lot of time. His family and he all live here on the estate he said.
He's a fine specimen haha. A proper example he is, proving to us that age is certainly just a number.
As we neared the exit, we thanked him, said our goodbyes, and were on our way back home; just before the rain had started.
We had a lot of packing to do since we had to catch our bus back to Dhaka just 8 to 9 hours later.