Tues, June 11, 2013
The time is flying by so quickly! This weekend our friend Margaret arranged a weekend getaway to the Hill Tracts area-a 4 hour drive just outside of Chittagong to Bandarban.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandarban_District
http://www.tourbandarban.com/
It's an area under government control and you need special permission, if you're a foreigner, to enter the area. Fortunately, we had someone on the staff who had good government connections and was able to get us in. Bandarban is a destination getaway for many local Bangladeshi, but is also home to the indigenous people of this area. We took treks out to see two of the tribes: the Bawm
and the Tripura,
http://www.bandarbantours.com/hotels-resorts/hill-side-resort/
The area is absolutely stunning! We stayed at a beautiful, rustic hotel called The Hill-Side Resort. Even though I was fighting a bad head cold (I know! Enough with the being sick all ready!), it was worth it just to get into all of that fabulous fresh, sweet air!
We all rented a car and went to the Bawm Village to take a look around and to purchase some of the handicrafts. This area is known for the tribal weaving in this area and I guess is the only place you can get this kind of work The next day Peter, myself and another instructor, Rebecca, hired a man who worked at the resort to take us on a walking hike to visit the Tripura tribe. He told us it was a half hour walk to and from there...now it theory it sounded like it would be a pretty reasonable walk; however, the reality of 90 temperatures in 90% humidity and intense sun...that's a whole other thing! We started up the road on the side of the mountain, then turned off onto a dirt road, past some boars and her piglets who were camouflaged in some mud that gave us a scare...then our guide had us take a "shortcut" through a rice field, down in a valley until we came upon this little remote village which we were told was the home of the Tripura people. It consisted of about 30 families and roughly 131 people. I felt a bit intrusive, walking through there with our cameras, basically through people's front yards.
The houses were built on top of bamboo poles and most of the roofs were made out of corrugated metal. The only building I saw that was built out of bricks was a local baptist church that stood on the edge of the village. Most of the people had converted to Christianity I was told. We found a woman who was at her loom weaving and we asked to see what she was making.. She was weaving some beautiful fabric and we asked if we could purchase something. She seemed to be more than happy and brought us out some very pretty pieces which Rebecca and I purchased.
The hike back was physically challenging, but so worth the effort. We all were drenched in sweat; a bit too much sun exposure and our clothes soaking wet when we got back to the hotel...I fortunately had a change of clothes... Peter...well, not so much :). We just had to set him out to air dry.
After that, we had showers and something to eat. We were there for a quick overnight-er, so we packed a lot into a day and half! On our way back to Chittagong, Meg asked our driver to take us to the Buddhist temple that was int he middle of the valley. It was a stunning temple which we could see from the terrace of our hotel. When we got to the top of the temple it was an incredible 360 panoramic view of the Chittagong Hill tract. The inside of the temple was locked up and we later discovered that about 2 months ago during the last hartal, a group of people came into the temple and destroyed some of the statues. The government had apparently given them some money to make repairs, so we assume that was what was happening.
Another nerve raking 4 1/2 drive back into Chittagong (more on the traffic later) and we were back to our apartments, getting ready to teach the next day. Peter to his art class and me, back to acting and stepping up the rehearsals for MEDEA.
The time is flying by so quickly! This weekend our friend Margaret arranged a weekend getaway to the Hill Tracts area-a 4 hour drive just outside of Chittagong to Bandarban.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandarban_District
http://www.tourbandarban.com/
It's an area under government control and you need special permission, if you're a foreigner, to enter the area. Fortunately, we had someone on the staff who had good government connections and was able to get us in. Bandarban is a destination getaway for many local Bangladeshi, but is also home to the indigenous people of this area. We took treks out to see two of the tribes: the Bawm
pictures taken by margaret kruszweska
and the Tripura,
pictures taken by peter zokosky
http://www.bandarbantours.com/hotels-resorts/hill-side-resort/
The area is absolutely stunning! We stayed at a beautiful, rustic hotel called The Hill-Side Resort. Even though I was fighting a bad head cold (I know! Enough with the being sick all ready!), it was worth it just to get into all of that fabulous fresh, sweet air!
We all rented a car and went to the Bawm Village to take a look around and to purchase some of the handicrafts. This area is known for the tribal weaving in this area and I guess is the only place you can get this kind of work The next day Peter, myself and another instructor, Rebecca, hired a man who worked at the resort to take us on a walking hike to visit the Tripura tribe. He told us it was a half hour walk to and from there...now it theory it sounded like it would be a pretty reasonable walk; however, the reality of 90 temperatures in 90% humidity and intense sun...that's a whole other thing! We started up the road on the side of the mountain, then turned off onto a dirt road, past some boars and her piglets who were camouflaged in some mud that gave us a scare...then our guide had us take a "shortcut" through a rice field, down in a valley until we came upon this little remote village which we were told was the home of the Tripura people. It consisted of about 30 families and roughly 131 people. I felt a bit intrusive, walking through there with our cameras, basically through people's front yards.
The houses were built on top of bamboo poles and most of the roofs were made out of corrugated metal. The only building I saw that was built out of bricks was a local baptist church that stood on the edge of the village. Most of the people had converted to Christianity I was told. We found a woman who was at her loom weaving and we asked to see what she was making.. She was weaving some beautiful fabric and we asked if we could purchase something. She seemed to be more than happy and brought us out some very pretty pieces which Rebecca and I purchased.
The hike back was physically challenging, but so worth the effort. We all were drenched in sweat; a bit too much sun exposure and our clothes soaking wet when we got back to the hotel...I fortunately had a change of clothes... Peter...well, not so much :). We just had to set him out to air dry.
After that, we had showers and something to eat. We were there for a quick overnight-er, so we packed a lot into a day and half! On our way back to Chittagong, Meg asked our driver to take us to the Buddhist temple that was int he middle of the valley. It was a stunning temple which we could see from the terrace of our hotel. When we got to the top of the temple it was an incredible 360 panoramic view of the Chittagong Hill tract. The inside of the temple was locked up and we later discovered that about 2 months ago during the last hartal, a group of people came into the temple and destroyed some of the statues. The government had apparently given them some money to make repairs, so we assume that was what was happening.
Another nerve raking 4 1/2 drive back into Chittagong (more on the traffic later) and we were back to our apartments, getting ready to teach the next day. Peter to his art class and me, back to acting and stepping up the rehearsals for MEDEA.
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