It was my winter vacation 1999. My family decided to have a trip to Shunderban. I was so delighted hearing about the idea to have a visit to a forest, as for the first time.  I felt that I am going to be very close to the nature.

     We decided to start for Shunderban on the 18th of January. On the very day, we woke up at 6.00 am to start for Khulna. We reached there in the evening. There we stayed in a hotel for one night.

     The very next morning, we started again for Mongla. It didn’t take long to reach to Mongla - it took about 3-4 hours. Mongla seemed to me a nice city. The density of inhabitants seemed to be very low – they were friendly as well. Previously, my father had hired a fiber boat called ‘Fariha’. In the afternoon, we boarded and started our journey to Shunderban.

     The boat seemed to be very nice. About 7 people could easily sleep in the cabin. It had a very clean toilet and a very nice kitchen. We had a cook as well in the boat. There were also 3 helpers to serve us and to show us around the forest. It became dark around after 3 hours and I could not see anything through the window of the cabin. But I was feeling a kind of excitement inside – I just couldn’t wait to see how the forest would look like. As there was nothing to see at night, I went to sleep.

     In the morning, I heard my sister jumping and shouting on the deck. I opened my sleepy eyes and tried to look through the window. What I saw was a scene that I’ll never forget in my whole life - a scene like this is usually seen in English movies! Our boat was steady on the water and many beautiful trees were surrounding us and there were fogs all around! I quickly had a change and went up on the deck. I heard the bird creeping, saw monkeys on the trees and deer hiding themselves into the small trees. Suddenly I noticed that we were the only human being in the forest as far as I can see .

     Then we decided to get off the boat and go into the forest. At first we found sticky mud all around us. But when we walked more into the forest, it was very dry and we could see a lot of deer around us. I saw a wield pig which had a skin like black leather and monkeys here and there. The forest seemed to me a natural zoo where the animals don’t cry to get out of the cage. We walked through the forest for about an hour but without one or two wield cats we couldn’t see more.

     We then came back to the boat at around 12.00 PM and had our lunch which of course includes tasty sea fishes. Then our boat again started to go to another side of the forest. I went up the deck to see the beauty of the forest. Suddenly I noticed some crocodiles lying on the edge of the water. I shouted in joy and called my sister to share this unique scene. When we got to the other side of the forest, I saw a boat there. I also saw some tourists catching fishes – the idea seemed to be very interesting. I also decided to catch fishes and the give those to the cook to cook for our supper. At 6.00PM I sat on the edge of the boat to catch fish. It was very cold around. Though I sat there for about 3 hours but unfortunately I couldn’t catch a single fish. Finally I gave up and went down to the cabin and asked the cook to cook whatever he likes for the supper.

     One of the helpers of the boat informed me that, the next morning we will be going to a sea beach called ‘Kochikhali’. I was so surprised to know that there could be a sea beach in a forest. The next morning we started to see the beach. I just couldn’t imagine that how it would look like. We had to reach there by crossing the middle of the Bay of Bengal. When to reached in the middle of the sea, I could see only water and water around us – there was no sign of a piece of land anywhere. It seemed to me a great adventure.

     After few hours, we get to see the beach. It was very unusual but it was really a sea beach like Cox’s Bazar but have deep forests around it. I took off my shoes and got off the boat. I felt the damp sand – It was real sand! I picked up some seashells and saw some scorpions here and there. I was so delighted that it can’t be expressed in words. I swimed in the sea for sometimes and went back to the boat.

     On the very day we started to come back to Mongla – it was the end of our forest trip. When we were coming back, we chose another way to reach Mongla. We came back through a very narrow way like the canal, which was extremely beautiful to me. The branches of the big trees seemed to cover the sky and made the whole way dark. Sitting on the deck, I felt like I am going through a cave and for about 2 hours, I enjoyed what the nature had to show me. In the evening, I went back to the cabin and packed my belongings preparing myself to get back to the busy city full of black smokes, Dhaka.

     The next morning we reached to Mongla and then Mongla to Khulna. We stayed in Khulna for one night and on the next day we came back to my city, Dhaka. I came back baring some beautiful moments in my heart. For the very first time in my life, I learn that the nature is a beauty that I never knew and still I wonder, how many people in this city know what natural beauty is! I think people should know what is the real picture of nature made by God as a blissful gift to them.

By SAMI
sami@bttb.net.bd