The FAQ Series: Best Activities in Srimongol
Posted on 07. Apr, 2009 by Mikey Leung in FAQ, Free Travel Tips
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More FAQs! We’re giving away some free tips here at Joybangla.info, especially for our most frequently asked questions. If you’d like to challenge us with your stumper of a question, e-mail it to faq@joybangla.info and if we’ve written about it, you get a free snippet of the guidebook to get you going. But you’ll need the book for all the information in one place, sorry! (aha, of course there was a catch!)
#1: Lawachara Reserve Forest, home of the Hoolock Gibbons
For exploring Lawachara, we suggest you take the services of a Nishorgo-trained eco-guide, who may not have stellar English but can certainly see more wildlife than you and indicate where to look. Especially if you want to see the gorgeous Hoolock Gibbons that inhabit the forest.
Nishorgo Eco-Guides (www.nishorgo.org) Nishorgo was a USAID-funded program that helped to develop the nature guiding skills of several locals in the Srimongol area, some of whom come from the indigenous communities around the forest. If you check the Nishorgo website you will find a list of their guides at the various Nishorgo protected sites around the country, as well as information on the protected areas and Nishorgo’s work. Each guide has suitable English, so if you want the most amount of interaction, then these young locals would be the way to go. Consider it a free Bangla lesson too. You can try Mr. Dhiraj Shing (mob: 01190 270716, Manipuri) or Mr. Benedict Daring (mob: 01723 760499, Garo), both of whom are members of Srimongol’s indigenous community. They would also be good sources of information if you wanted to know about indigenous festivals of the area or wanted to see a cultural performance of the Manipuri people.
#2: Get on your bike
For bicycles, it’s a bit difficult to source them from the eco-cottage. But if you would like bicycles, you can either look for them yourself in town or convince Razu at Classic Tours and Travels to prepare them for you in town, with his guide Sablu’s help. Bikes rent for Tk150-200 per day, depending on the quality. If you call yourself a cyclist but don’t have your own bicycle up here, do remember to give the brakes a good check before you set off — there are hills out there! Full listing follows.
Classic Tours and Travels (Dhaka: Ste 313, 2nd flr, Taher Tower, Gulshan 2, mob: 01556 360566, speak with Razu; Srimongol: Railway Station Office, mob: 01718 155492, speak with Sablu; e-mail: info@classictours-bd.com; www.classictours-bd.com) While many other tour operators offer trips to Srimongol, Classic Tours is only operator that maintains an office in Srimongol with a full-time local guide/staffer from the region. While the office itself is stuffed into the back of a tiny store, the people here do know Srimongol better than many of the other operators. Single female travellers or groups would probably benefit most from their services. They can hire bicycles, organise transport and make accommodation bookings and you will benefit from the relationship they have with the local contacts, useful when you want to see something interesting.
