2022
Recently, a friend of mine invited me to his hometown, Cumilla. Even though I was born and brought-up in Dhaka, country's capital, literally 2 hours away from Cumilla, I never had the opportunity to visit Cumilla before. So, this time, I made a plan for a 2-day trip to ensure I don't miss anything there.
Date: 5-6 March 2021
Here are the places, I've visited -
Day 1 - Kotbari, BARD, Itakhola Mura, Rupban Mura, Magic Paradise, Water Paradise, Dinosaur World & Dharmasagar.
I was visiting Cumilla from Chittagong. So, me along with 4 of my friends started for Cumilla early in the morning. Around 10 am, we reached Cumilla and took a CNG to Kotbari. If you are planning to visit Cumilla, prepare to take local CNGs & Auto Rickshaws since these are the main means of transportations there.
Anyway, when we reached Kotbari, we looked for BARD, Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development.
We were under the impression that BARD was open for visitation. However, when we reached there, we learned that visitation privileges were revoked during COVID-19 pandemic. So, we decided to go to the next place, Itakhola Mura, which was only 2-3 minutes away on foot.
It was a buried Buddhist Temple discovered in an excavation. We took some photos and proceeded to Rupban Mura, a visually similar spot also discovered in an excavation.
Both of these places had visitation tickets.
Next, we took a CNG to see Magic Paradise Park. It took us around 30 minutes or so. Water Paradise and Dinosaur Park were inside Magic Paradise Park, so we took the whole package to see all three - Dry Park, Water Paradise & Dinosaur Park.
We enjoyed its water park the most. Unfortunately, the locker room was very crowded. But we still got through the day, and it was really fun. We spent the entire day and left for Dharmasagar around 5 in the afternoon. On our way, we stopped for a quick bite to eat.
We reached there late evening and to my surprise, the place was packed with people. It was so crowded that we couldn't manage to sit around the lake. Couldn't take decent photos too.
At this point, we were all tired. So we called it a night.
Day 2 - Comilla University, Nobo Shalbon Bihar, World Peace Pagoda Analayo, Mainamati Museum & Shalbon Bihar
We started the day a little late since we were tired from yesterday's Water Paradise visit.
We took a CNG and reached Comilla University around noon. It seemed very small, even though it wasn't. Maybe because I am studying at Bangladesh's biggest university, campus area-wise, University of Chittagong.
Even though it was a holiday, we saw visitors all throughout the campus. Some of them might have been the students, there was no way for us to know.
Next, we visited World Peace Pagoda Analayo & Nobo Shalbon Bihar. They were beautiful.
Our next stop was Mainamati Museum. Since it was a museum, we couldn't take many photos inside.
The place was rich with artifacts found in excavations throughout Cumilla. We stayed there for an hour or so.
We moved on to the last place on our schedule, Shalbon Bihar. It is undoubtedly Cumilla's biggest attraction.
After staying there for more than an hour, we took a return bus to Chittagong, concluding our trip.
I have listed all the places I've visited in Cumilla and more in a list. If you are planning to visit Cumilla soon, make sure to cross all the places in the checklist.
https://goo.gl/maps/zoeYMsnWiBKGnsF37
Enjoy Cumilla!
Department of Mathematics
University of Chittagong
