The sky has been cloudy since morning. It will rain profusely at any moment. Well, how would it feel to be inside of this black cloud? I plan to go to Meghalaya, India every monsoon to get this feeling. Year after year is passing, but I can't go to touch the cloud for various excuses!
One day I saw in a friend's Facebook profile that he went to Sajek and had been inside of the cloud! After seeing all such tempting pictures I was just amazed. But fate must be auspicious! It must be a rainy day if you want to be inside of the cloud!
So one morning I saw the serious sky just like today and hurried out for Sajek. At the end of about 3 hours journey from Chittagong, we reached to Khagrachari, a small city on the Chittagong Hill Tracts. We visited various caves, Risang Waterfall and Lake in Khagrachari. Khagrachhari is one of the most beautiful and hilly districts of Bangladesh. I will tell the story of Khagrachari another day.
I spent the night at the hotel and very early in the morning I went out for Sajek by "Chader Gari" (one kind of jeep). Due to various tribal disputes, tourists still have to go to Sajek with Army protection. It is better to say that the whole Sajek Valley is under the supervision of the Bangladesh Army.
The closer I get to Sajek, the more natural beauty strikes me with its unearthly beauty. There is no pain in this injury, there is peace! After zigzagging and crossing the high and low roads, I reached Sajek after about 3 hours.
I reached Sajek at 10 a.m. The blue sky, the green hills, the beauty of the milky white clouds will fascinate anyone. But a feeling of frustration was working inside me. I came to cut through the rain and clouds in the mountains. I will stay in Sajek for barely two days! If I can't touch the clouds in these two days, I will have to go back home with a lot of frustration.
Sajak Valley is a small village or locality that established on the hills. There are very few people living in Hateguna, it seems that the army and tourists are more than the local people. The locals are enough social and friendly. I can spend hours and hours talking to them.
Another great thing I noticed is that everyone here has a dog. Not a regular dog, just like the dogs British people have. Pardon me as I don't know much about the breed of dogs!
And everyone is educated enough, to be honest, I never imagined that a mountain locality, which is so far from the city, will give me so many surprises. The whole Sajek is surrounded by solar panels, even at night, there are street lights. There is a clubhouse, a mosque, a church, a small school; And there are all the arrangements for tourists, including hotels, restaurants. If you want, you can do hill camping with the permission of the army.
On this two-day tour, I ate a lot of pineapple and banana. Mostly for free! Sajak Valley surprised me in every moment.
We stayed in a cottage named "Meghpunji". You have to cross a wooden pool to enter the cottage. I was standing on the pool for a minute after seeing the cottage and its surroundings. The same amazing beauty!
No pictures of this travel blog is edited. Think about it, what would it be like to capture this beauty with your eyes?
The rooftops of the cottages are made of thatched roofs, the walls are made of wood and bamboo fences. There are some modern resorts in Sajek, but I have come to taste nature. So I ignored modern hotels and choose to stay with the nature! Just like the house of my imagination. The picture above was taken from the bed. The mountains you can see little far are not the part of Bangladesh. They are in the Indian state, Mizoram.
Sajak is an island-like area of mountain peaks, surrounded by no more settlements as far as the eye can see. Green and green!
We went to eat at the restaurant, but what else to eat! I was full by swallowing the beauty!
The cottage has a hanging porch. I came to the verandah and stopped breathing, maybe happily. I did not realize that nature would change so soon. Clouds were rushing towards us. That's why I came to Sajek!
I kept waiting!
Didn't have to wait long. In a short time, the whole area was covered with black clouds.
Within a few moments, our cottage was surrounded by clouds. The drizzle started. And it became strangely cold all around. It's quite a soggy feeling! I can't express that feeling in language!
The curly white cloud loves the sky;
It stays up there—so high, so high,
Until the earth sends up a call,
"I'm thirsty, cloud, O, fall, please fall!
-Annette Wynne
The rain stopped in the afternoon. However, it is difficult to decide the noon or evening in this environment without looking at the watch. The whole time in the black clouds was like evening. After the rain stopped, silence fell all around. I got soaked in the clouds. I quickly changed and went out to see the rain-soaked Sajek Valley.
Although the rain stopped, the clouds did not diminish. In the meanwhile, I was walking and seeing this small town surrounded by greenery. The town is slowly becoming more self-sufficient with the tourist business. Houses and hotels in both sides of the streets, restaurants everywhere have a touch of aesthetics.
I noticed another interesting thing. Almost all the restaurant owners and employees are young and there is a fair amount of musical instruments including guitar, Cajon in every restaurant. We like the lunch at the restaurant which was on the opposite side of our cottage. So I went there again to order for dinner. They prepare food only when they get the order. I was fascinated to see the guitar in the restaurant, and requested them to play at dinner time!
I saw the main playground a little far away. A group of teenagers was playing football in the clouds.
By the way, we didn't listen to any live music that day. At night everyone ran towards the clubhouse to watch Croatia vs France World Cup final! We went too. Clubhouse was filled with tourists, locals, and Army personnel. Everyone was shouting for their own team.
I watched the football World Cup final in a small place far from the locality, the feeling was different. Croatian supporters were upset as they lost, but we were surprised to see the fireworks by France supporters.
I never really imagined this much of amusement, from a place that was so far from modernity. Sajek kept surprising me! At the end of the game, some children sang mountain songs together.
The next day, I got up very early. The purpose was to go to "Konglak Para" and watch the sunrise. As soon as I got out of bed, I saw that the clouds were still playing hide and seek around the mountains.
Konglak is the highest peak of Sajek! There are very few houses here. But you have to climb a lot of hills. There is no road for jeeps.
We got some sticks to climb the hill. But in front of my eyes, I saw the local kids were climbing up without any help. I felt very embarrassed.
It was good to see the little children in the neat school dress walking to Sajek's school from such a high hill village. The light of education is spreading everywhere!
Bird's eye view can be seen from the top of Konglak Para. From here full Sajek Valley can be seen!
I did not waste too much time on Konglak. We have to go back today. From there I went to the "Rock Garden", which is a small park built by Army.
It was nothing special! Compared to the nature that I have seen around for the last two days! Though I passed some quality time in the garden.
I left for home at noon. Leaving this stunning beauty and on the way to the same boring city.
As soon as I left, I decided to come back again. It is impossible to stay away from the nature!
If I could take a brush and paint the mountains and the moors,
I would splash the hillsides yellow and cover them in gorse.
I'd take the finest needle and the darkest thread of green
And sew a line of bracken along the landscape. In-between
-Lesley Elaine Greenwood