SYLHET

Sylhet

Sylhet is the land of tea garden in Bangladesh. The northeast part of Bangladesh is Sylhet division. It has an area of twelve thousand and five hundred ninety-six sq. km. It is a sound population, which is more than seven million. It is a natural hilly, forest area with ox bow lakes and famous shrines. One of the main places to visit in Sylhet are the tea plantations. There are many tea plantations around but the Lala Khal Tea gardens are the most beautiful ones to visit. To get here you will need to take a little boat trip across the river and once you walked pass the gate you can make your own way around the tea plantations. Like all tourist attractions in Bangladesh the experience is real! There are no museums here or places where they make you taste their tea and try to sell you something. The main source of income is tea leaves and not tourism. Wander your way up to the top of the tea gardens and find hidden local villages in the hills. In the Jaflong area you can witness the stone collecting business from the water, the main source of income in this region. On the Lala Khal side you will float on the river alongside tea plantations, river beaches and local life all the way up to the Indian border. For a real local experience make sure you don’t miss the local market in Jaintiapur, which is held every Wednesday and Saturday. This seriously is one of the best things to do in Sylhet as more authentic than this is it won’t get. 

Lastly what about visiting an indigenous tribe ruled by women? Welcome to the Khasi tribe. The Christian Khasi population in Bangladesh resides on a tiny peninsula on the India border surrounded by the Goyain River. Visiting the local village is an incredible experience where you can get dressed up in the local attire and feel like a prince.

 Lowachera national park

This wonderful patch of tropical semi-evergreen forest, around 8km east of Srimangal, provides some lovely forest walks and also your best chance of seeing the endangered hoolock gibbons in the wild. These are the only apes in Bangladesh and there are only around 200 left in the country, some 60 of which live here. Protected as part of the government-run Nishorgo Network, the park now has walking trails as well as knowledgeable eco-guides who charge Tk 400 an hour.

Apart from the hoolocks, a further 19 mammal species have been identified here including capped languor, macaques, the delightful slow Loris, orange-bellied Himalayan squirrel and barking deer. There are also some 246 bird species and 20 varieties of orchid.

Remember this is a dense forest, so sightings are not guaranteed and are completely contingent on luck. One thing you won’t miss, though, are the enormous orb spiders – black, red and yellow monsters that hang from Spider-Man-sized webs between trees and are supposedly completely harmless.

There are three walking trails (30 minutes, one hour and three hours), with maps on wooden signboards marking the way. A guide will be able to take you off-track without getting lost. These days, an armed guard will also likely accompany you into the forest ostensibly for your security.

Mind the railway line that runs right through the jungle; trains have a tendency to creep up on unsuspecting humans while they're immersed in photo-ops. There’s a tea-and-snack stall by the visitor centre.

You can get here from Srimangal by bus (Tk 20) or CNG (Tk 100). Note there are two gates to the park. The first one, as you come from Srimangal, is on the right-hand side of the road and is mostly unmanned and unused. The main gate is about 2km beyond this (on the left-hand side of the road.