Before diving into the five wonders of Sylhet, which we visited during our two-day trip, I want to tell you more about the city. I promised to share you how I experience Bangladesh and it would feel wrong to share only one part of it. If you are more interested in getting to know these five wonders of Sylhet, then you may want to scroll down a bit.  

Sylhet and the business behind tea production and stone crushing

Sylhet is a metropolitan city located in northeastern Bangladesh, which lies along the right bank of the Surma River. It has a population around half a million people and its known for things such as its cane products and its tea production. When you google ‘Sylhet’ you find many pictures of these beautiful tea gardens. However, something so beautiful can be also extremely deceiving. One of the biggest problems in tea production are the low wages and the harsh working conditions of tea workers. According to article of Daily Star, tea workers earned on average Tk 85 a day in 2018, which is a bit less than 1 euro per day. In 2019 the tea production increased due to favorable weather which may have increased the average salary as it was noted in this article. However, I did not get to chat with tea workers, thus cannot tell their personal view of this story.

While driving through Sylhet you may see also lots of stone crushing mills. According to the environmental justice atlas the stone crushing mills have affected Sylhet in many ways: causing threats to the local environment, affected negatively the tourism and jeopardized the health, safety and wellbeing of the local people. I didn’t find much information how these problems are tackled these days; however, I did find one article which said that in June 2019 there were still about a thousand unauthorized stone crushers in Sylhet. I truly hope that the government is trying hard to tackle both the environmental and social problems to improve the quality of the locals, because without the locals Sylhet would be nothing to be honest. No restaurant, no hotels, no tea production, no stone crushing…

Sylhet has several beautiful natural wonders worth a visit, however the air is quite dusty and polluted in the city and near the stone crushing mills. I saw several people wearing dust masks and holding hands in front of their faces to prevent them breathing the polluted air. We were planning to stay around three to four days in Sylhet but ended up spending two days there. During these two days we saw lots of amazing things. One of the highlights was a boat trip in Lalakhal during which we saw fireflies. There’s a nice story behind it, but I will write about it next time.

Here five wonders of Sylhet which we covered in two days:   

Day 1:

Ratargul, Swamp forest

Ratargul swamp forest is a freshwater swamp located at the Goain Ghat area of Sylhet. Local Monsoon season is the most optimal time to visit this place. There’s lots of water in July-August which makes it easier to explore it by boat.

Tea Garden

There are many tea gardens in Sylhet. We visited the oldest tea garden of Bangladesh called Malnichhara which was established in 1854. We did not go deep into the garden since it was getting late. However, we did saw a beautiful sunrise and had a nice short walk.

Day 2:

Shada Pathor (white stones)

Shada Pathor is a place where you may admire the beauty of hilly landscapes and a streaming water. The place is full of beautiful stones both small and big ones. The smaller ones were made for stone skipping. Make sure to check some boat ride prices beforehand, so that you won’t become overcharged when visiting the place.

Jaflong

Jaflong is among one of the most attractive places in Sylhet. It’s a bit far away though, around 60 km from Sylhet town. It’s located near to tea gardens and some waterfalls as well. What we went there to see was a beautiful view with a bridge and hills.

Lalakhal

We were mesmerized the most by the beauty of Lalakhal. We took a boat ride to a beautiful spot which is located at the border of India and Bangladesh. As a cherry on top, we saw fireflies when we were heading back to the place where we started the trip.

These five places covered above are all worth visiting. My personal favorites were definitely Tea Garden and Lalakhal. In addition to these, there is much more to see and experience in Sylhet. In the city of Sylhet, we had an amazing dinner at Pach Bhai (Five brothers) restaurant (pic on the left) and a filling breakfast at Zafran restaurant (pic on the right), who had one of the best Parathas I’ve ever tasted. Would recommend these two places anytime!

Best,

Johanna

Copyright © 2019 Johanna Ahtiainen, All rights reserved.