World's most amazing places

Srimongol,

Tea forest

Sylhet, the tea capital in Bangladesh is one of the places in and around the valley of Sylhet which the travelers coming from different parts of the world like to visit. The long stretch of green that is going to greet to you as far as you look gives a soothing feeling that is hard to forget. The lush green mountains covered with rich tea-plantation are a relief from the concrete jungle that we get to see in the cities. Srimongol, Sylhet famous for its tea-gardens is visited by travelers form all over the world as you rarely get to see such a beautiful sight. The velvet carpet of the tea-plants enhances the beauty of Srimongol in Sylhet. The travelers can also take a look at how tea is processed at the Tea Research Institute. A huge quantity of tea is produced by Bangladesh and also exported to different parts of the world. Srimongol is all the more well-known as most of the tea-estates that you get to hear about in Bangladesh lies here as a result of which it has earned the epithet of 'The Land of 2 Leaves and a Bud'. Srimongol also famous as the 'camelia' houses the largest tea-estate in the world.

Tea forest

Cottage

The terraced tea-gardens along with rich vegetation of rubber, pineapple and lemon plantations form a stunning landscape which is hard to find. As you enter the tea-gardens the sweet smells of he tea-plants will greet you along with spectacular beauty. Those of you who wish to get a better view of the tea-gardens can prefer to stay at the garden itself as there are hotels placed conveniently here. The experience of staying amidst tea-gardens is so deep that it will keep lingering in your minds long after you have left the place.We had a week off in April, and
I decided to stay in Bangladesh to see more of the country. It was the right decision; I'm really glad that's what I did! We spent about half the week in Srimongol, a nature preserve in Syhlet division (famous for its tea plantations), soaking up some fresh air. The other half of the week we spent in Dhaka seeing the sights and eating American food (i.e. real coffee and pizza!). LB and I traveled around the country by train. It was really comfortable and much less nauseating than the bus, which weaves through traffic at an alarming rate. On Day One we arrived half an hour early to the Chittagong train station, the first people on the train. A man sat down next to us and helped us get into the right seats. Then he asked the usual questions that we answer 15 times a day: What is your country? What is your job?, etc etc. It was 7am and we weren't in the mood. Next question: Do you speak Bengali? We said no. Then he called someone on his cellphone and proceeded to talk about us on the phone in Bengali! We couldn't hold in our laughter and he got up, embarrassed. He sat back down about 10 minutes later when the Koran was being read aloud on the loud speaker and said ascerbically "You know Koran?" Needless to say we did not make a new friend.

Cultivating

Between the chop shop across the street, CNG motors, rickshaw bells, howling dogs, huge trucks, blaring horns, burning garbage and car exhaust, Chittagong is incredibly noisy and polluted. Arriving in Srimongol at our guest house-- about a 20 minute ride past tea plantations and into the "jungle"-- was incredibly refreshing. My lungs ached from the fresh air and my ears were ringing from the quiet! That first night, the power went out, the fan turned off, and my ears were ringing so loud that I couldn't sleep. I actually heard my stomach growl for the first time in months.
We stayed at the guest house of Christian NGO that does a lot of health work in the area, especially with leprosy. The whole missionary thing was a little awkward, but we're used to it by this point (not the first guesthouse of that type we've been at this year!).