St. Martin's is a beautiful island with a blue sky and a vast expanse of blue water, rows of kayabagans, palm trees, coconut trees, algae, pebbles, rocks, oysters and corals. The locals also call it Coconut Ginger. It is located in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar district. Every year from November to April, where thousands of tourists from home and abroad flock, who does not want to go?
So one day, with a very short time plan, I took two friends on an AC bus of St. Martin's Transport to the blue water.
After an overnight journey, the bus entered Ukhia in the morning. That's when the bad part of the road started. There was a back seat, and I could feel the fun in it. The joints of the body were almost separated! We reached Teknaf wharf with great difficulty.I have heard the name of the ship named Kerry Sindabad a lot. I went to his office first. I went there and saw that all the seat tickets had already been booked. Now just standing means there are some tickets to stand. Thinking about how to stand with a bag tag, someone came and said, "Brother, do you need a ticket?" I said, "Yes, I need to." At first I thought Blacker.Later when he said, "We are supposed to go in a group of 29 people, but since three people did not come, there are three tickets left. You can take them if you want." And wanted to sell tickets at the original price, then I realized they are tourists like us. At first he refused to give us two tickets, but later he gave us one and sold it to another. We also breathed a sigh of relief.
Arranging the ticket, I saw that I still have two hours left. From the wharf I took CNG straight to the town of Teknaf, eight kilometers away. Before going there, I found the ATM booth. I picked up the money and went to a hotel for breakfast. After breakfast, tea, I went back to the wharf. The gate has already been opened there. Went on the ship with other passengers.The ship was floating along the Naf River. Myanmar on one side, Bangladesh on the other. That scene is wonderful. The Kerry Sindabad has two decks, the Main and the Open Deck, with chairs and seating. There is standing outside. We sat in two seats according to the main deck ticket. I sat there for a while, left my bag and went outside. Basically all the passengers stand outside and go to see the nature. We were going too. Once the ship crossed the Naf River and went to sea. Heading towards St. Martin across the sea of blue water. Gangchil was seen in large numbers on the way.
Tourists were throwing food and chips and gangs were trying to catch them. Although these are forbidden works. At the same time, many people were throwing packets of chips, water bottles into the river and the sea. But they were repeatedly refused to do so on the ship. Although there were large dustbins on each deck, many were throwing out food packets and water bottles. Seeing all this, I was thinking, when will we become a conscious and clean nation?
St. Martin stopped at exactly two hours and fifteen minutes after departure. Fifteen more minutes passed before many people got off the crowd. It took a total of two and a half hours to reach.
The island of St. Martin is thought to have been visited by Arab merchants about 250 years ago. They mainly used the island for rest. It is known that they also named it as Jajira (Jinjira). Some Bengalis and Rakhine people started living on the island around 1890. They were basically fishermen. Although the island already has keya and palm trees, the coconut tree once became the main plant of the island, so the locals started calling it coconut gingira.
The British annexed the island to British India in 1900. The island is thought to have been named after a Christian priest named St. Martin. But since no church or clergyman was found there, researchers believe the island was named after Martin, the then British deputy commissioner of Chittagong.
St. Martin is a small union in Teknaf upazila, about eight kilometers wide. There are also primary schools, high schools and colleges, mosques. Most of the residents here are fishermen and fishermen. However, due to the large number of tourists, many of them make a living by building businesses and small cottages. Its inhabitants are accustomed to a simple and ordinary life. Due to the presence of military and law enforcement forces and the good use of the island's inhabitants, safe movement on the island is quite smooth.
There are seven / eight ships to go. Apart from ships like MV Greenline, Kerry Sindabad, Kerry Sindabad Cruise, Atlantic, MV Farhan etc., speedboats and trawlers are also available. Although going through them is a bit risky. With many resorts, hotels, cottages and locals' houses to stay in, adequate restaurants to eat, vans, bicycles, motorbikes and trawlers on the sea, speedboats, its residents and tourists can easily roam the entire island. Although there is no electricity on the island, almost all hotels have generator facilities. But the hope is that recently rural electricity has started connecting there.I went to St. Martin and started looking for a hotel. Turning to many hotels is a choice, even cheaper. Name Island Resort. I got a new resort, double bed room, attached bath with only one thousand rupees. The main attraction of the island is also close to the west beach. You can walk in two minutes. I was tired of walking around with bags and looking for a room. Still, without wasting time, I took a bath and went to the beach. I wandered around for a while and left. I felt very hungry till then. I went to a hotel and had lunch with marine fish, potatoes, vegetables and pulses. Then I decided to move to Chheradwip.There are several ways to get to Chheradwip. Trawlers and speedboats can be reached from the wharf. Most tourists go that way. But being a little adventurous, we thought, let's go a little differently. Bicycle rental at the rate of 40 rupees per hour. I rode my bicycle along the beach to Chheradwip to enjoy all the wonderful beauty. As there was no water at low tide in the afternoon, it took about an hour by bicycle to reach the mainland of Chheradwip. Many years of unfamiliarity with cycling and the extra energy required to paddle in the sand on the beach made it very difficult. But the intoxication of adventure made me forget all the troubles.
Chhera Island is an isolated island in St. Martin. Only one family lives there. The fishermen are also there. The three small isolated islands located side by side are basically called Chheradia or Chheradwip. It doesn't take long for a trawler or speedboat to get from St. Martin. It takes a while to get on the bike. It took us about three hours to get there and back. However, motorbikes can be used very quickly, although it is harmful to the environment, but many people go. Like many others, we went to see the sunset on the island of Chhera. This is the main attraction of this place. That scene is very captivating!
I returned from Chheradwip and returned to my room with two bicycles. I went there fresh to enjoy the sea at night. There are some shops in front of Samudrabilas, the home of fiction writer Humayun Ahmed, where you can find dry goods, Burmese pickles and various kinds of fancy goods. As well as fresh sea fish, fried crab and fish barbecue. The fun of eating fish, crab and barbecue while sitting on the beach is different. I tasted all the fish. I didn't eat rice that night, I just ate fish. There were various species of fish including Sundari, Tona, Coral, Rupchanda, Hilsa, Salmon.
Then I spent a long, quiet night on the beach in St. Martin. Noise on the beach is forbidden, but I heard many people singing loudly. There is a great lack of awareness among the people. I came back to the cottage after ten o'clock at night. I spread the tired body on the bed. I went to the land of sleep, the land of dreams.The night before, the next day's cycling and the journey - I was very tired. The result was great sleep. After waking up, the body felt very clean. After a fresh breakfast, I took a vacation at the hotel adjacent to the beach. After eating parota, dal, egg fry and tea, we went to the west side of the beach. Some tourists have already left. The tide was late, so I took the opportunity to soak my body in St. Martin's blue and icy water. I spent some time submerged.Suddenly I looked at the clock and saw that it was eleven o'clock. As the checkout time was approaching at the hotel, I went straight to the room. After taking a bath, packing my bags and getting ready to go, I checked out. After completing the payment, I left the bags under the care of the cottage and saw that it was half past twelve in the afternoon. Went to the beach again. Since our ship would leave at three o'clock, we had about two and a half hours.
I decided that what I really needed to do was learn how to do it right. So I went to the beach and hired a professional photographer. Each selected photo costs three rupees. There are very few photographers in St. Martin, and the business lasts for four to five months, so the rates are a bit higher. Cox's Bazar is much less than that. Anyway, it was nice to take pictures and hang out. I sat in a tong shop on the beach, drank tea, looked at the pictures, selected them and transferred them to my mobile. An hour passed.
Went to the cottage again. From there, I packed my bags and drove straight to St. Martin's Market, a hotel near the wharf, for lunch. Roopchanda, hilsa head, rice, vegetables, aluvarta, pulses filled the stomach was great. After the meal, after paying the bill, we went for some light shopping and wandering around the beach towards the ghat. After two and a half hours, people started getting on the ship, and so did we.
The moment of departure is very difficult but there is no way to return to busy life. When I arrived, I came to see the sea and the river Naf in the morning. On my way, I saw the beauty and sunset of the afternoon.
At the beginning I went and looked for a bus ticket to return to Dhaka. Not finding any other bus at the present time, I took two tickets for the non-AC bus of Relax Paribahan. 900 each. With half an hour left to leave the bus, I had a light breakfast at a hotel on the side of the road. Then I got on the bus, the bus left a little late. But being a Rohingya-occupied area, it took about an hour or two for the buses to leave after checking one bus after another at the BGB check post.
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