There is a saying that life is not measured by how many breaths we take; but by the moments that take our breaths away. And what could be more enjoyable than a fantastic motorcycle ride with a loving and friendly group consists of 24 bike loving people.
On 3rd May of 2013, BD Riderz Club, a respectable name synonymous with the pioneer of motorcycle touring in Bangladesh, arranged a grand group ride to Sreemangal, a place blessed with astounding natural beauties comprising curvy roads, shiny fountains and vast tea garden full of green. Sreemangal is 200 km away from Dhaka. In two days, we covered almost 450 kilometers after returning to Dhaka.
On May 3rd, our ride started at 7 am from Nikunja – 2, Khilkhet. It was a bright sunny day. At around 9 am we had our breakfast at Uzan Vaati restaurant.
At around 11:30 am we reached Sreemangal. It was a great feelings and all of us were in great mood. Everybody, beside the road, was staring at us and wondered who we are.
Actually the kind of attention we were getting was no less than that a celebrity gets. Every biker was a celebrity that day.
We checked in our pre-booked Sreemangal Tea Resort at 12:00 pm. After we laid off our baggage and cloths in our rooms, none of us could resist from the swimming pool waiting to welcome us with its blue splashes. We were busy doing fun, swimming and having photo-shoot for the next 2-3 hours.
At around 3 pm, we were literally starving; so all had to take a pause and head for Kutum Bari restaurant for the mouth-watering lunch. After the lunch, we all were set to do a little adventure in the Lawachara Eco Forest.
We managed the permission to ride inside the forest provided with that we do not use any horn to avoid disturbing the forest birds and animals. The forest ride was a challenging experience for each of us riding in the hair-pin type muddy and soft road of the forest. Actually most of the roads are not meant for a motorcycle riding.
That was a great challenge as well as fun. What made the experience much worse is the fact that inside the maze of the forest 7 motorcycles was lost their path. So among 17 motorcycles we were divided between 7 bikes’ team and 10 bikes’ team. There was no network of any operator so communications among us become impossible. Again, we were not allowed to honk the horn. The funniest part is that later we came to know that other 7 bikers thought we 10 bikers were actually lost. So while 10 bikes’ group was searching for the 7 bikes’ groups, the 7 bikes’ group was also searching for the 10 bikes’ group. After one hour’s hair-raising game show, all the bikers finally met together.
In the evening, we visited Madhabpur Lake. On the way to Madhabpur Lake, we enjoyed riding inside the tea garden’s super curvy narrow brick road. While we were passing through the gardens, we saw some monkeys jumping from one tree to another. Again we had to give a pause to capture the monkey moments in our cameras. Suvro vai offered us some special pineapples. Those pineapples were really mouth-watering; anybody visit Sreemangal should taste it.
It was almost 8 pm when we returned to Sreemangal Town. There we enjoyed the world famous 7 layer tea at Nilkantha Tea Shop. After having our dinner again in Kutum Bari we returned to the resort. At night, we had a surprise birthday party of our beloved little sister Tithy Reza. We all had fun nothing like anything.
However, there were still a lot of surprises left for us at the tea resort. At mid-night, there was heavy rainfall with blistering thunder. The environment started to become creepy. Saif vai and vabi discovered snake in the room; the fear of poisonous snake kept them awake the rest of the night. Many of us heard about the paranormal activities of Tea Garden Bunglows. That night some of us literally experienced that. Hasan vai and Murad vai saw some unknown figures in their bunglow. Suvro vai was so terrified by someone’s presence in his room that he practically fled by morning by his car on his way to Dhaka.
However, in the morning, five members went to visit the Hum Hum fountain and took good bye from us. We rest of the group members headed for Dhaka by 11 am on 4th May, 2013.
At the time of returning to Dhaka, we took the road of Satchari as suggested by Suvro vai. The view of Satchari was so astounding that we could not help but to pause and capture the scenario with great fun.
By the mercy of almighty Allah, we returned safely in Dhaka by 6 pm. I formally declared the ending of the tour in a smoky kabab party at Kabab Factory in Uttara. At last, I on the behalf of BD Riderz Club want to thank every participant to make this sreemangal grand tour so much enjoyable and memorable. Special thanks to Suvro Sen, Radbi Reza, Tithy Reza, June Shadiqullah and Anindya Roy for their outstanding photography. Long live brotherhood; long live BRC. Hell yeah!
–Russell Rider
