If you ask people to pick between the sea and the mountain, most would go with the 'Mountains by the sea' response. Not me, though. It's the sea or nothing! When life gets me down, being by the sea is like an instant battery recharge and mind purge. Sadly, for the last couple of years, be it for time or some other recurring reason, I have been unable to visit my heaven on earth, Cox's Bazar.
Last week, I was enviously watching a resort plan to kick off their electronic music festival, Burning Crab, which I guess is a nod to America's Burning Man, and wishing I could attend. I had resigned myself to my fate when one of my school buddies called asking if I wanted in on a trip to Cox's (even attend the festival!) with friends. But there was a catch — I had to confirm within the hour.
I would like to sound cool here and say that I accepted immediately, threw office papers in the air, and ran out to celebrate while traffic stopped to celebrate my good fortunes as we see in movies! However, this is reality and the first thing I did was check my work calendar and see if I could spare the time, and if I could not, was it possible to work remotely (the nail-biting experience of being in your late 30s, right?).
I guess I had some unused good luck tokens for a while because it turns out I could go. It also occurred to me that while I made several trips to Cox's with other friends, colleagues, and so on, I never went there with school friends, so that was yet another thing to look forward to.
Next day, we were all present at a place where all good stories usually start — the airport terminal. I have this travel procedure — I refuse to eat or drink anything three hours before any journey and during the journey itself. That does not apply to my friends however, and soon we were standing in front of a booth ordering samosas and shingaras.
The best part of taking a plane anywhere is the take-off, which I love, and I enrich the experience further with Kenny Loggins's Danger Zone. Other than this short excitement, the flight, landing, and drive to lodgings was mostly uneventful, so let's skip ahead.
Our accommodations this time were somewhere quite new, and quite far — past Inani Beach. One look at the building and you could tell it would be a swanky 5-star experience, and it was, and then wasn't (more on that later).
After settling in, we sat down to plan, because we arrived on Wednesday and would leave on Friday afternoon, and Burning Crab, held at Mermaid Beach Resort, was happening for exactly the same days. So realistically, we could only attend for one day, and we had to pick between that night and Thursday, and we surmised that as Wednesday is still a working day, the real crowd would not show up until Thursday, so that's when we go.
As we arrived late on Wednesday, we decided it would be better spent to eat out somewhere, and maybe explore this area of Cox's. We were recommended Sun Dancer Café, but one of our friends went there with family, so we two decided not to intrude and instead went to try another café.
Perhaps, it was our fault in choosing, but the food was TERRIBLE (I ordered French fries, while my friend ordered loitta fry). We quickly paid, and found ourselves embarking on an adventure; going back to our hotel, and the eateries around it, before they closed at 2 AM.
We already started on the backfoot because we were setting off at 12:30 AM, with a slow electric rickshaw, and the Inani Bridge (Reju Khal Bridge) shut down at 11 PM for some maintenance work. Making matters worse, as an advertisement for electric transport, our vehicle ran out of juice just past Mermaid Beach Resort, with no other transport in sight.
We decided to walk the kilometre or so to the bridge, until thankfully, another transport popped up. We got off at the bridge, crossed on foot, managed to grab another and we were on our way. For the stargazers reading this, all I can say is on that road, with no light and a clear sky, the night and seas were illuminated by starlight!
We decided to stop, and just walk to the beach because these are moments you only read about in books or see on TV — a beach completely void of any humans, except us two bros, and of course our rickshaw driver, who was waiting on the road.
We managed to get back in one piece, (imagine how many times we'd be robbed if we attempted this in Dhaka), brought a couple of bottled sodas back to our room to go with the hefty snacks I bought from the airport.
This is where the 'wasn't' part of the 5-star experience shows up. We call the front desk and ask for a bottle opener. "Sorry Sir, we don't provide the service, but opening the bottle is easy. If you twist, the plastic will automatically give way," replied the unbothered concierge.
I quickly corrected him by saying we needed a bottle opener for a glass bottle while wondering how he connected a bottle opener and a plastic bottle. But its late in the night, so I let it go. "Sorry Sir, but we don't have a bottle opener," was his reply, to which I incredulously responded, "No bottle opener in a 5-star hotel?"
His response was that he would send someone over to sort it out. Thirty minutes later, someone appeared with something wrapped in a napkin, which we assumed was the fabled bottle opener. Jubilation turned to utter confusion when he unwrapped a knife. We knew his plan would not work, but we let him at it, and five minutes later, he came to the same conclusion and took the bottles to the kitchen.
Another 20 minutes later, after we were already done snacking, he comes up with the now-open bottles. We had to drink them if only to justify the hour and nonsensical conversations that led up to this moment.
Thursday morning started as it usually does during holidays, grumbling your way to a breakfast buffet, cursing the 7-10 AM timing logic. With that done, we headed to their infinity pool, which credits where credits due, had an incredible view of the sea.
While my friend, let's call him A, was ready to dive-bomb into the pool, me and my other friend, let's call him B, told him to ditch the pool because the sea was literally METRES away from us.
Begrudgingly, he obliged, but all that disappointment of his went away the moment the waves hit him. Pretty soon, three 37-year-olds devolved into 17-year-old brats, slinging mud and splashing sea water at each other, while laughing at lame jokes loud enough for the coast guard to take notice.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful; yet another forgetful lunch, and a monotonous afternoon, but things were about to pick up because we were gearing up for Burning Crab. We experienced all of the joy of school life, but now, we wanted that final experience; a class party excitement, sort of.
We were out by 10 PM, reached, got scanned in, made to wear a bracelet, and in we went to what was shaping up to be Bangladesh's first such EDM (electronic dance music) festival of its kind. There were other elements to the festival, such as art, and wellness, but that's not why I came.
The festival made good use of Beach Resort's vast front portion, housing two zones for DJs, many of them flown in from abroad and quite famous, to play their tracks, and listeners to vibe to. Interlaced between these zones were pop-up shops selling all kinds of food, albeit at astronomical prices!
We decided to forgo those and went to Mermaid Beach Resort's restaurant and ordered us a seafood platter for my friend and Kala Bhuna with tandoor ruti for me. I am a land mammal and I prefer to stick to food from the land, so not a lot of fish was highlighted on this trip.
Once dinner was done, we were back out to enjoy the music and just sink into the vibe that was this festival. I was particularly fond of the Zone 2. That was being held on a tiny island, with the DJ occupying one of Mermaid's iconic egg-shaped sitting areas on one end and the uninterrupted sea on the other where the listeners were.
To say it was a transcendental experience would be an understatement — the sound and feel of the waves lapping at your feet, the darkness pierced with light shows, and of course, the music! For an introvert like me, who always wanted to experience events like Tomorrowland, and A State of Trance, but never could because A. Introvert and B. Cost, this experience really hit the spot.
The rest of the night went by in a blur, and by 2 AM, we decided enough was enough (mostly because we would not get transport otherwise). We came back and I wanted to get rid of the bracelet. Unfortunately, I had another enlightening conversation with our hotel's front desk. This time, I called for scissors, and guess what? They don't have that either!
This was later solved on Friday morning, at the breakfast buffet egg station, where the chef, also without scissors, whipped out a gigantic knife and cut it off me.
After that, it was boarding another delayed plane, land in this urban depression prison we call our capital, and back to normal life. Like I stated before, I have travelled with others before, but never with school friends, and that's important because unlike with other people, you can cut loose without any worries or judgement. And if I were to sum up this trip, you could say this is going down as perhaps a death-bed-memory.
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