A memorable trip to Padma Resort

Farzana Afroze ZerinIt was Saturday, a sunny morning when started our journey towards “Padma Resort”. The destination was Louhojong at Munshigonj. I was so excited to go there because few days before I read an article about the resort in a daily newspaper and saw some beautiful photographs of the surroundings. Inspiring from that article and some memorable experience of my dad (who was invited by the owner, Mohammad Ali, on an ifter party about a month ago), Nari o Shishu Kollan Prishad (a community based association) organized a tour of 1.5 days on Padma Resort.Louhojong is about 52 away kilometers from our community (mirpur-11). We hired a 24 seated bus from a tourism company for the up & down trip. The journey started at 7:15 a.m. As it was a weekend, the city roads were totally traffic jam free. We crossed Dhaka City by passing the ‘Babubazar Bridge’ over Buriganga River. Leaving the city we get the pleasure of lovely “Kash Forest” on both sides of the road. And as it was a weekly holiday, the roads were totally free of traffic jam. After passing the Dhaleshwari Bridge we reached at Munshigonj. Louhojong was a few kilometers away. The beauty of villages on both sides of the roads was just awesome. Exactly at 9 a.m. we reached at Mawa ghat. Get to know that we have to cross the river line through a trawler (Owned by resort) to reach to our destination. The 7 minutes journey by boat over Padma River put out the tiredness of our bus journey. Reaching on the island we see a widest walking road in the middle of “Kash Forest”. There were some chairs and umbrellas there. It was nice to enjoy the fragrance of the nature sitting over there.
Walking for a minutes, we reached at the entrance gate of the resort. It’s a wooden build resort. The cottages are two-storeyed and named after the Bengali months. Three cottages were booked for us named Kartik,Agrahayan & Poush. Each cottage can accommodate four to five persons easily. There were a living room, a balcony, veranda on the front side; tiles fitted washroom and a double-bedded bed room. After getting some fresh coconut-water, we realized that we are hungry. The dining was totally ready to serve us a heavy breakfast. The name of dining cottage is “Sheet”. It is quite large than any other cottages. There was also a big wooden platform. Guests can take their meal over the platform.
After having the breakfast, we visited the small island to take photographs and to watch various birds. We saw migratory birds from snow-falling countries have just started coming and start living in their new home.
Taking bath in the River Padma was a great experience for me. Though I have taken bath in the greater Padma at Rajshahi, but here it is different. We can enjoy the other side of the river & see many fishing trawlers in there. Suddenly I saw a Big Moyourpankhi Shampan standing on the side. I was so delighted thinking that we will travel on the river through it. But then I got upset because the Shampan was in repair so we can ride on it other than just taking photographs. Then I saw another shampan, not as big as the Moyurpankhi one, but quite spacious and colorful, on the other corner. Then I asked, “Is it also in repair?” The resort staff smilingly answered me “No, It is totally ready to give a ride”.
We took our lunch with the yummy national fish Hilsha and other fishes of the river. Now it was the time for River Crouse. It was a two-hours ride on the Shampan. The sweet shaking wave of Padma and the charming gave me a great pleasure. We enjoyed the sunset in the river. The shampan took a turn from the middle space of Greater Padma and the narrow Padma. When we returned to the ghat, it was almost evening. After having some snacks we went to the riverside to have a walk. It was a moonlight night the stars was glittering in the sky. In far away, it seems like the sky has come to the ground and touches the river Padma at the end. I thanked the organizers to arrange such a wonderful trip there.
On the next day, we were on our way to come back to the busy life of our dearest city, Dhaka. Just before the journey, we took huge fresh fishes of the river from the nearby fish-markets. Those were totally free of formalin and other chemicals. On the way back to home we were reminding the sweet memories of the trip. Suddenly, I decided that I will come here back with a new trip again.

(The author is the Editor of Greenwatch Dhaka)

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