Yup, my, myself, and I.
My ring. I splurged, 300 taka (about $4)
Why did I buy myself a fake wedding ring? Well, in a past entry I complained about the unwanted attention from men here and since then, it's increasingly grated on my nerves to be asked for my personal information or contact information by strangers on the street looking to be friends with the white girl. On recommendation from Neema who has been living here since last December, I decided to pick up a fake ring to parade around and pretend to be married. And sure enough, immediately after buying it another strange man tried making conversation with me and asked whether I was married. When I replied "Yup" and showed my ring, his entire demeanor changed and he just walked away. Success! So jokingly, I like to think of my weekend in Cox's Bazar as a little honeymoon to myself. And boy, how romantic it was!
Cox's Bazar is the longest natural beach in the world, and it's supremely undeveloped for tourism (especially tourism from abroad). Once you arrive in the beachside town you can see a couple huge hotels that cater almost exclusively to the Bangladeshi crowd. On the main beaches in town though, typical Bangladeshi modesty rules apply. No shorts, no tank tops, and definitely no bathing suits of any kind! Most women don't even get in the water (although I think that's because many Bangladeshi people I talk to never learned how to swim). What these people are doing visiting the beach then if they can't sunbathe or swim? I don't know. Honestly, it's a mystery to me. But hey, to each their own! While they hung out fully clothed on the beach, I headed out to the Mermaid Beach Resort which is about four miles outside town on a more private beach area. I chose this resort not just because of their affiliation with AUW (and discount for AUW staff) but because it's considered the western resort of Bangladesh and you can wear a bathing suit there! At least, I did. I didn't see anyone else wearing one but after the first day I was the only westerner staying there so that's not necessarily surprising.
After a rather peaceful five-hour bus ride from Chittagong to Cox's Bazar I arrived at the Mermaid Beach Resort. They sat me down with a coconut and some freshly cut tropical flowers to finish the sign-in. After the paperwork was over they took me off to my private bungalow!
This is the name of my Bungalow. All the names of these are a bit odd and charming - another friend who stayed at this same resort before stayed in a bungalow called Hot Water Ice Cream. You just can't beat that kind of creativity!
As adorable as it is that my Bungalow has a little sign out front with my name on it, it did occur to me that it's probably not the safest thing to have announced that "SINGLE WHITE GIRL TRAVELING ALONE IS STAYING HERE" but whatever.
The front yard of my little bungalow, the cute little fence is there more for looks than anything else. Local goats would step around and through the fence slats in the mornings while scavenging for things to eat. Adorable!
Aw damn, queen sized bed. Not a western mattress but still way more comfy than my mattress back in Chittagong!
Here's the view from the beach! There are tons of fishermen about on the boats tossing nets into the shallows of the giant tide lake (way bigger than a tide pool) that forms when the tide goes out.
The trees are on a little sandbar island in the middle of the lake that forms when the tide is out. It's really too far to walk so they pick you up on a little boat and ferry you across to get to the actual beach area.
View from the little ferry boat. You can see on the beach there's chaise lounges and behind that is one of the bungalows people stay at. Look at the cute little thatched roofs! Ahh I love it so much!
Fisherman walking home in the evening as the sun is setting along the beach.
Another tide lake in between me in the actual ocean here. It makes these beautiful little tidal pools and you can see a fishing boat off in the distance.
A final view of the sunset on my last day!
Wish I was there. We have rain and snow mix here
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