Day Twenty: The hill tribes of Bunderban

Day Twenty February 10th, 2009

Rather than spend another day at the beach we made plans to head north to the countries hill region, Bunderban, where you will find tribal groups that do not speak Bengali and practice Buddhism rather than Islam. The area is also home to a once dangerous group that was fighting for autonomy. Still today to the Bengali army has a strong presence. Upon entering the area, all foreigners must register with the army checkpoints along the road. All across India and Bangladesh have been unsure of how people will receive me for being a westerner and furthermore an American. In general, the response has been pleasant. All of the army personal in this case were very warm and friendly. Zubair's brother in-law who is in the Navy was also traveling with us, he made many kind attempts to show that he was happy to see Americans in his country.
After lunch, we rented a truck to take us deeper into the hill country for a thrilling ride on thin country roads. We passed many small villages containing members of the hill tribes gazing back at us with either extreme disinterest or curiosity. Judging by the foreigner log that we had to fill out, they have about one foreigner a day go through the area, I would assume that most are there with an NGO or an Eco-tourist group.
As the sun set, we made the treacherous 9-hour drive back to Dhaka. Driving at night is not a fun task for anyone. The roads are filled with slow moving trucks. This means that if you want to drive at a normal speed, you must constantly be passing, accelerating and decelerating. As a general rule, all oncoming traffic chooses to blind you with their brights. It also seems that the number of speed bumps increases at night waking you up every time you are lucky enough to doze off.