A Break from the Usual: Prelude to Another Trip and Thoughts

It's been a while since I wrote something other than a story or a travel description here. I have some other blogs where I usually put in my current thoughts. But this is my most favorite blog, and I feel like interrupting the story and writing a few words here. As Eid holidays are approaching, the excitement is increasing within.

We are going to Saint Martin's island on the 5th! We will reach there on 6th, and we are expected to return on the 8th. I will hopefully reach office on the 9th. This will be the third journey with my school and college friends. We went to Netrokona and Coxsbazar on last two occasions. I did not finish writing the story of Netrokona, but I wrote a huge, 12 entry account of the Coxsbazar trip. This will be a short trip, but I expect it to be an illustrious one, like the previous two. This time we don't have Murshid with us, and Sujit can't make it due to official commitments. Yes, he'll be working during the holidays. And of course, Afzal is in Germany, so he can't come as well. This left us with a small, 4 member group. Fortunately enough, Sajal agreed to join at the last moment.

We bought Bus tickets for Teknaf. The price for a direct bus journey from Dhaka to Teknaf cost us Tk 420 (What a dubious price!). We will hopefully reach Teknaf at around 9 AM, on 6th November. The journey starts at 10:30 PM, from S.Alam's bus stand at Komolapur. S. Alam is the name of the bus service we will be using. This bus stand is just opposite Komolapur rail station, the very same place from where we started our Coxsbazar trip. The place brought memories, lots of them.

We spent almost 2 hours in search of bus tickets, a few days back. We were extremely lucky to get the tickets.

From Teknaf, a 2 hour naval journey will take us to St. Martin. The vehicle is unsure till now. We can either avail a luxurious ship called Keary Sindbad, or we can avail a Government operated Sea Truck. As a last resort, we have trawlers operated by local fishermen. According to Pintu and Murshid, the Trawler journey is severely painful, and frightening. But I am not afraid, nor is Tushar.

We had to face a lot of resistance. Apparently, only me and Tushar seemed excited about the journey. Others were trying to discourage us from the very beginning. Murshid and Pintu toppled the ranks among the most activate discouraging agents! Murshid is going to China for a training on the 4th, and hence he stopped discouraging. But Pintu still looks hesitant and a bit disturbed at the proceedings so far. However, I am sure he will be happy when we do end up in the island paradise.

After we reach St. Martins, we plan to stay overnight and enjoy the scenic beauties. I just received two banglalink T-Shirts today, which will come handy during our trip. A friend of Ashique and Pintu helped us in booking a hotel room. We booked a single room, where two beds will be joined together for accomodating four. We are five, but there is thin chance that any one of us will sleep. We plan to spend the night in the beach.

Sajal is a very old friend, and I am delighted to have him with us in this tour. It took a lot of pursuading, though, to make him agree. But that is an inseparable part of any tour. Only the Netrokona tour was made possible without much coaxing. But that's a different story..

I turned 25 last month. Yes, I am only 25 years old. And also, with the aging process, I am just on the brink of completing 2 years of full time working. I have been working continuosly, from November 6th, 2003 till today, with few holidays. In GP, I took maximum 5 days leave, and in banglalink, I only took leave for a day last month.

I quit GP on 27th July, and joined BL on the 28th. So it makes 2 straight years of working. What have I achieved so far?

A lot.......

Friends, please wish me luck for the trip and the days ahead.