While explaining to my mom about couch surfing a sudden text popped up! A guy requested to stay for two days at my place! Well, not a bad idea to start something with a guest request. So, after going through his references I said ‘Yes’. However, we started planning to clean our store room and make it better for our first guest. There was excitement and anxiety that he might cancel and my mom might get crazy on me. After three days intense cleaning process we both finally redecorated our house and thrown all shitty things that my mom kept for many years. Honestly throwing things was really fun!
Our home was looking awesome and after my magical touch it became a heaven. Trust me!
I communicated him through whatsapp and instructed how to come. I knew finding location was really hard but he wanted to come by himself. I found it okay and shared my location. As usual on his way to my home, he got lost and I requested a passer to take him to the shared location. I saw him walking to me and tried to find similarity with his pictures that was given in his couch surfing.
He entered and we talked about our traveling experiences. We cooked together and shared Bangladeshi food on his first day. I instructed about Dhaka and unwanted hassle he might face during his journey. Next morning, I had plan with my friend and I told him to join since that was the ninth day of Puja, a festival of Hindu Religion. I also mentioned him about Shakhari Bazar where he could see proper puja celebration and can go to nearest places like Lalbagh Fort, Sadarghat and Ahsan Monjil. At the end of the day the traffic was crazy and I couldn’t meet him. But he explored and managed to go few places. Though he found that day a bit restless and didn’t enjoy. But this is how travelers start their first day in any countries.
He asked me about exploring Bangladesh and I suggested him to go to Sylhet. He took a train from Kamalapur railway station and went to Sylhet. Ratargul to Jaflong, Srimongol to Hum Hum Waterfall all were his destinations. He enjoyed and came back to Dhaka with a hopeful heart that he would explore Bandarban. That’s where his complications started!
Nobody could tell the actual procedure of foreigner’s permission to go to Bandarban. In that case I started volunteer and helped him to get his information. Still nobody could tell me specific information and we both ended up in Chittagong, Boddar Ghat, from where buses go to Bandarban. Bus drivers refused to take him since he did not have permission. We went to local police station and upazila office for seeking permission. Unfortunately, it was Friday and everything was closed.
After so much drama, we finally ended up in Cox’s Bazar, a town on the southeast coast of Bangladesh! Moving with a foreigner is not a pleasing experience in Bangladesh. People will always charge you more than you expect. However, my local friends helped and we had been to Sonadia Dip, Moheshkhali by speedboat, Himchari by auto to enjoy sunset. Later we went to Mermaid beach resort and had delicious seafood and later coffee at Salt.
Traveling inside Bangladesh could be really adventurous! Like the next morning we heard about a transport strike! Thank God, we didn’t purchased tickets earlier. Otherwise it might get wasted. Flight was expensive but we had no other options left. We checked out and went to Inani Beach, enjoyed the sea view! Later we took the flight and ended our amazing journey in Dhaka!
However, though the journey was over, I believe all of you want to know about the reason behind saying Yann a mean guy. well, he is a French and has an amazing accent! He couldn’t pronounce Bangladeshi properly and I loved to make fun of his pronunciation. He was sarcastic and enjoyed the mean version of mine. Those who knows me, they can easily relate! I am not very easy-going person with whom people can spend a lot of time without getting angry. But he did! He has a unicorn mask which he sometimes uses for getting more attention from people around him. Especially when there are other foreigners around him. He hates that!! He can make chocolate cakes that doesn’t taste good but he can force people to say that’s delicious. He can argue on illogical things and show excuses for anything. Though he can’t prove anything but still try hard to prove himself! Not only that, he scares people at nights and love to make fun of others accent, I guess like me. He snores (not loudly) and keep his mouth open while sleeping. He is polite and very smart to deal with people but sometimes gets annoyed by his over popularity among strangers. Yann is mean because he knows how to enjoy time, speaking with my mother with google translator and make good memories. I am sure he never expected me to write something good about him, but his short trip actually gave us some nice memories.
We will miss you Yann! See you somewhere in this world soon. Our couch will miss your presence.
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