Hello guys hope all of you are doing good.
Today, a vacation lasting for a day was experienced by me. It was a journey that lasted for 14 hours and 30 minutes.
As you can see by the title, I took a cruise journey to Chandpur, just for visiting. The trip was comprised of my family and friends.
I woke up reluctantly at 5 am. I was called. The threatening cold was harsh compared to my soothing warm bed but had to get up to avoid the sweet talks of my mom. Took a painful shower during this cold winter and had set out for the ferry docks located at Shodor-ghat. The ship was to set it’s sail from 7:20 pm.
Now, we were ready to head out but one problem rose after another. First, no Uber was ready to take us to the dock. The docks is infamous and even has an idiom of it’s own. No wonder. 7 Uber drivers had rejected us due to the destination. The time was 5:50 am. Secondly, my brother had an online exam then. He gave it mid-road. We picked up a CNG and went for place. Time was 6:10 am. The road to the dock was jammed! We walked towards it, the friends of my parents aboard the ship phoned and asked us our location and by then it was almost 7:10. We were a few minutes of walking distance away. We quickly got out of the CNG and went forward.
A classic scene of the titanic was set. We were running in the busy street filled with auto and civilian. We ran across the terminals and were a few feet away from the cruise. We were a minute away from catching our ship. All of my parent’s friends were present by the edge of the ship, hands on their head as they left the docks. We had missed our ship. They, then sent a trolley ship to take us in but the distance of the small ship and our position above the above was like the Grand Canyon for me. We couldn’t have possibly made that jump and leave without leaving any holes, either in our legs or in the small boat.
Note: We turned into a golden goose for opportunists.
They witnessed our failure to catch the ship and were shouting at us, calling us to theirs. Of course, the price had skyrocketed as it was high time for the other ships to set sail and were taking in passengers rapidly. We then boarded a ship that was going tot the same destination but it would head out 40 minutes later meaning at 8 am. My parents had cash on an online account and the guys at the registration desk would only accept cash.
Quickly, my mom called to check if any other people were also late or not as to go together. Surely they would accept from the account. Luckily, there was a couple who was also late and had cash and they boarded the same ship as ours! We were thrilled to see them as a little ray of hope had shone on us.
They got onboard and took a cabin. We headed up stairs and quickly and contacted the party on the first ship.
This was the Buriganga river. The most polluted river that I have ever seen. The water, as you can see, is completely black. The smell of piss, shit, and garbage made an unholy combination of pure suffering. The smell that I was numb to after long exposure to it, from the dockyard to getting into the open sea, I got this insufferable odour.
Then, once our baggage was set, I finally got to rest in the cabin. I took in the 💤 that was due. I had slept for 3 hours. We almost reached the destination: Chandpur.
After I woke up, the crew gave us tea which tasted great considering that I didn’t eat for 4 hours! The ocean view was a splendid one as I sipped the tea and enjoyed the salty breeze.
As soon as we embarked, a plethora of people were rushing out of the ship.
We pushed forward and landed out.
A new name of an area got inside my skull as we made our way to the nearby shack where the first company were: Raipur.
I cannot exaggerate when I say this, the whole area was filled with auto drivers who were shouting for passengers for Raipur. A name that was playing in my head for quite a while.
My family joined them and quickly left the spot as we had a lot of grounds to cover.
They set up a squad of auto and asked them to cover our destinations in the short time we were there for and would be paid after the trip was over. We got on and on we went to the first location where we would eat.
The ride was a thriller, we were moving in a such a manner that a single wrong move could end up into an accident, but none of the autos were touching each other.
We had ordered first as we were a group of 15 people. A hefty amount of food had to be prepared beforehand by the small restaurant, the bill was to be paid afterwards.
We got on the rides that were there.
This was the Ferris Wheel. A rather modest one.
If you see this clearly, the two kids by the sides of the ride are the ones in charge of conducting the rides. The nagor dola(this ride) is manually operated. The people have to seat in such a manner as to be balanced in weight. This ride goes in circles so an even weigh is crucial.
This ride is also manually conducted. The kid in the above picture is the who sways this boat. Gradually, this rose upward. This is the Santa Maria.
My favourite was the Santa Maria as it made my heart pump more than the other rides. We were there for a good 30 minutes.
A few view from the Santa Maria and Ferris Wheel as to witness how high we had gotten.
Some view of the other side of the mela.
The rides were over and we went to a statue of a hand holding a gun, I forgot the name but I think that it was called Hasan Alir maath.
Here, I saw a couple of local children diving from the handles and into the water. Honestly, the water looked unhygienic for swimming.
A child even climbed up to the statue for diving but he got cold feet in the end.
We, then headed to a bridge. This bridge was very long and had brittle railing. I was under the impression that the bridge might collapse but I withstood💆.
The view from here was equally beautiful not to mention the sweet breeze.
Then we headed to the restaurant for lunch. I didn’t get any pictures of it as I was famished. There was a potato mash, a fried hilsha fish(darne cut), a mash made of fish tail, rice, yellow lentils, and chicken curry. I loved the chicken.
Right after, we went for the sweet shop and had myself 2, a kalo jam and a white mishti.
We were enroute toward the dockyard as this was the end of our trip when we were met with a terrible accident. An accident between our auto, the auto behind us, an incoming auto and an empty ভেন. ভেন is basically a ride with no seat, only a flat surface best for transporting mildly heavy things. The diver of the ভেন went under his ride, the one I was in had no problem. The one that came towards us almost flipped over. My parents were in another one and didn’t see it. Fortunately, the ভেন driver was unscathed and so was everyone.
We reached the docks and regrouped once again.
Then we went over the connecting bridge. The view from here was also nice.
We got onboard and made to our rightful place, in the VIP cabin. Turns out, we had booked this spot the first time we came, now we are going to be on it finally.
It was time for some r&r again. All the exhaustion from the roaming and accident had to be displaced.
Before going to sleep I took a lot of pictures.
I slept for about 2 hours there. Then I came out for the breeze. It was amazing at how the wind was strong. Time was moving slowly, or that’s how it felt. As Albert Einstein said, “Time Is Relative” in his theory of relativity.
And this time I had charged my phone during my rest.
As night approached, I picked my phone and shot some more great ones(photos😅). This spotlight was a great one. It came to life when the smaller transporter boats were in front. It would shoot it’s light to the boats and then to another location as if to show where to go.
The guy here pulled the heavy ropes up where we would slow down. Didn’t know why, my knowledge about boats is limited😅🤷♂️.
The time for getting of the ship drove closer. I was excited to get off the ship as I wanted to come home as soon as possible. I wanted to play some games and also wanted to change my outfit, it had all the salty air.
This was connecting bridge that we were running, through the crowd.
This was the ship that we missed. How helplessly we looked at it when it was going away. Now we are leaving it behind😅.
As soon as we got out, we were bombarded with the horde of CNG. We got one and rode back home. A whole day of eventful activities were fun.
Here’s to hoping that I would go on another one, when the COVID situation would be under control, I hope.
Until again, thanks for reading the post so far and hope you enjoyed it.
-Signing off for now, peace.