November 13, 2010
Brahmanbaria by bus
via Comilla
While my plans are loose, I don't think I'd have got more ground covered than I actually have. There's the whole North to do yet and with just a month-long visa, skipping some bits of the country is required and this includes riding north to Comilla.
Overnight it seemed best to get a bus, so after getting packed up I head back to Feni's bus area on the Highway and catch one to the city that's about 60 km away.
Comilla is straight up the Highway, en route to Dhaka, and Feni's bus terminal is the usual frenzy of shouting, chaos and diesel fumes. I get on the first bus - at the back of a tail - and immediately realize my mistake: it's empty and won't be going anywhere until it's two-thirds full, which takes nearly an hour. We set off at just after 10:00.
The leisure and comparative laid-back ambiance of rail travel is better, but with train services infrequent, and this being a short journey, I might as well just get it over with and looking at my map on the bus journey, it now seems like a good idea to make for Brahmanbaria, the town closest to the India border crossing point. No doubt there'll be other buses heading there and once off I simply get directed to 'cantonment', wherever that is up the Highway.
This strip of highway tarmac is something I do not want to ride on and after a couple of kilometres, I opt to make a right and head off east towards Comilla. It's soon a jam of rickshaws as usual and after an hour or so I've only ridden 11 kilometres but got pretty stressed out.
Mercifully a young cyclist rides alongside and starts chatting as I'm pedaling around looking for the right bus company and when I tell him what I want he helps me find the correct terminal. There, my bike quickly gets loaded onto a roof and after paying another 100-or-so taka - it seems they want a bit for transporting the bike, which is fine with me - I'm off.
Looking at my guidebook, there're a couple of sights to see in Comilla and one of them is right near the cantoment, where my bus parks up for ten minutes, and once we're mobile again I manage to take a snap of the British WW2 cemetery that looks immaculately kept.
This second journey is longer - almost double at two hours - and the bus's suspension is absolutely shot and there's zilch knee room. My backside gets more and more numb and my bike up top - banging against metal - is probably getting damaged. When it's unloaded one water bottle has gone and also a bar-end plug - but believe it or not I'm carrying a spare one of those. Shame about the bottle though.
Thankfully apart from being dusty, the bike itself is fine and from the Highway drop-off point, it's just a short ride into Brahmanbaria, where the streets are remarkably vehicle-free and comparatively blissful - only rickshaws here with their jingling bells, because I guess of the narrowness of the winding lanes. It's got a nice feel about it.
I find a double room in a hotel called The Wet Rose. It's basic, with a squat toilet and a cold tap for showering (the usual plastic bucket and ladle affair) but the staff are super helpful and there's AC and the manager has kindly put my bike in his room for safekeeping.
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From here it's only 20 km to the border, so I'll be in India by lunchtime tomorrow, with my plan being to make a loop and re-enter Bangladesh north of the city of Sylhet in a few days' time.
Today's ride: 13 km (8 miles)
Total: 475 km (295 miles)
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