Farzana Afroze Zerin
It was a sunny morning on Saturday when we started our journey towards “Padma Resort”. The destination was Louhojong at Munshigonj. I was so excited to go there because few days before I read an article about the resort in a daily newspaper and saw some beautiful photographs of the surroundings. Being inspired from that article and some memorable experience of my dad (who was invited by the owner, Mohammad Ali, to an iftar party about a month ago), Nari o Shishu Kollan Prishad (a community based association) organised a tour of 1.5 days of the Padma Resort.

Louhojong is about 52 away kilometers from our community (mirpur-11). We hired a 24 seated bus from a tourism company for the up & down trips. The journey started at 7:15 a.m. As it was a weekend, the city roads were totally traffic jam free. We crossed Dhaka City by crossing the ‘Babubazar Bridge’ over the Buriganga. After leaving the city we got the pleasure of seeing lovely “Kash Forests” on both sides of the road. And as it was a weekly holiday, the traffic load on roads was thin. After passing the Dhaleshwari Bridge we reached at Munshigonj. Louhojong was a few kilometers away. The beauty of villages on both sides of the road was just amazing. Exactly at 9 a.m. we reached Mawa ghat. We came to know that we have to cross the river by a trawler (belonging to the resort) to reach to our destination. The 7-minute journey by boat over Padma River removed the tiredness of our bus journey. Reaching the island we saw a wide foot path in the middle of “Kash Forest”. There were some chairs and umbrellas there. It was nice to enjoy the fragrance of the nature sitting over there.

Walking for a minutes, we reached the entrance gate of the resort. It’s a wooden build resort. The cottages are two-storeyed and named after the Bengali months. Three cottages were booked for us named Kartik, Agrahayan & Poush. Each cottage can accommodate four to five persons easily. There were a living room, a balcony, veranda on the front side; tiles fitted washroom and a double-bedded bed room in each cottage. After getting some fresh coconut-water, we realised that we are hungry. The dining was ready to serve us a heavy breakfast. The name of dining cottage is “Sheet”. It is quite larger than the other cottag. There was also a big wooden platform. Guests can take their meal on the platform.

After having the breakfast, we visited the small island to take photographs and to watch various birds. We saw migratory birds from snow-falling countries have just started coming and start living in their seasonal home.

Taking bath in the River Padma was a great experience for me. Though I have taken bath in the greater Padma at Rajshahi, but here it is different. We can view the other side of the river & see many fishing trawlers there. Suddenly I saw a Big Moyourpankhi Shampan standing on the side. I was so delighted thinking that we will travel on the river in it.

But then I got upset because the Shampan was in repair so we can ride on it other than just taking photographs. I saw another shampan, not as big as the Moyurpankhi one, but quite spacious and colorful, on the other corner. Then I asked, “Is it also in repair?” The resort staff smilingly answered me “No, It is totally ready to give a ride”.

We took our lunch with the yummy national fish Hilsha and other fishes of the river. Now it was the time for River Crouse. It was a two-hours ride on the Shampan. The sweet shaking wave of Padma and the charming gave me a great pleasure. We enjoyed the sunset in the river. The shampan took a turn from the middle of Greater Padma and the narrow Padma. When we returned to the ghat, it was almost evening. After having some snacks we went to the riverside to have a walk. It was a moonlit night the stars were glittering in the sky. Far away, it seems like the sky has come to the ground and touches the river Padma at the end. I thanked the organizers for arranging such a wonderful trip there.

On the next day, we were on our way to come back to the busy life of our dearest city, Dhaka. Just before the journey, we took huge fresh fishes of the river from the nearby fish-markets. Those were totally free of formalin and other chemicals. On the way back home we were remembering the sweet memories of the trip. Suddenly, I decided that I will come here back with a new trip again.

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