"Do you really know where you live? Do you know the ins and outs of every street, and every seemingly unknown path? Take a minute and explore the unknown. Say hello to a complete stranger and ask them to show you around... and I'm pretty sure you'll be amazed at what you can find, even in your own backyard."
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This was the caption from my instagram post last weekend, which was hands down the 2 most amazing days I've had here. Normally I can't be bothered to get up and do anything on my days off. Friday is my sleep-in day, and I routinely sleep in until noon. Then the next couple of days I usually laze around and catch up on things "around the house" - I do laundry, clean my room, meal-prep, and rug up in bed while I sip coffee and watch hours of Netflix. Last weekend, however, I made the decision to get up early, go outside, and set off on an adventure.
Best decision ever.
A couple hours south of Cox's Bazar is a place called Teknaf. It's supposed to be a stunning drive down there, and it's somewhere I've been wanting to visit since I arrived. Unfortunately I hadn't had the opportunity - despite the fact that there's many camps down there, we don't work in them so there there's no reason to go down there for work during the week; and on the weekends our whole team shares 1-2 base vehicles, which means taking one of them for a whole day wouldn't fly.
But then on one of our drives back from camp the conversation turned to surfing, and the next thing I knew we were planning a surfing road trip down to Teknaf. I wasn't stoked on getting up at 7:00am on a Friday after what I knew would be a late Thursday night (as we had already planned to venture out to our local watering hole), but the excitement of the chance to escape the city for something other than going to camp, explore somewhere new, and go surfing was more than enough reason for me to suck it up and endure a little sleep deprivation for a day or two.
I always look forward to Thursday nights. It's so great to just sit down for dinner with everyone and enjoy a cold beer. And to make that Thursday night even better, my friend Katherine was in town. I met Katherine in 2016 when we were both in Haiti responding to Hurricane Matthew. I don't really know why (maybe it was all the days we spent cooped up in hibernation in rural Haiti sharing wine, picking bacon out of the scrambled eggs, eating prunes (then elbowing each other in a mass rush for the bathroom the next morning), or the many ridiculous poolside frappacinos in Port au Prince, or composing AWD songs in the smiddle of the road while hunting cholera), but for some reason we clicked... and we've stayed in touch these last few years. She's such an awesome girl and I was stoked when I found out she was going to be working here for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately she wasn't able to join us for the road trip down south, but you better believe we owed that dance floor on Thursday night.
So back to our Friday surf trip....
It was an early start, but we loaded up the surfboard into our rented van (amazingly it fit), put on some chilled reggae tunes, and set off down the bumpy road out of town. It was a perfect bluebird day, and the morning sun cascading through the trees and reflecting off the water made for some stunning views. Though our main goal was searching for a good swell, we stopped periodically to check out the views and grab a few photos along the beach. The drive down to Teknaf really is stunning. The road runs parallel to the ocean, so you have the beach on one side, and impressive mountains and greenery of the national park on the other.
We finally settled on an area that looked good, and camped out on a desserted beach for a few hours while we took turns trying to catch a wave. It'd been a few years since I'd been on a surfboard, but somehow I managed to get up on my first wave. It felt so good to be out on a board again, and even better to float in the warm water, feel the hot sun on face, and watch Esteban and Eric's surf attempts while yelling out encouragments ("paddle, paddle, paddle!!!! Stand up, stand up, stand up!!!").
We didn't want to leave, but hunger forced us to pack up and head into Teknaf town for some eats. Teknaf turned out to be quite small, but our driver recommended a good little hole-in-the-wall place to eat (see bottom two photos below) before we started our venture back up the coast.
Bangladesh has these really cool "moon boats" (named for their crecent shape) all along the coast down south; and because of their amazing picturesque colours, we decided to stop along the way home so we could get some cool photos. We were also lucky enough to find a large group of fishermen bringing in a catch not far away from where we stopped, and they happily let us stand by and watch (and take a few photos) as they hauled in a huge net full of fish. It's really cool what you can find when you take the opportunity to explore. There were so many moments that had me smiling ear to ear that day... so many amazing things we got to do and witness... and so many precious moments of time together with some amazing friends.
But why just stop at one day when the first was so incredible... why not make a weekend out of it?
So we did.
The three of us hung out all weekend and decided to go on another adventure the next day... this time closer to home.
There's a lighthouse not far from where we live. It's high up on the top of a hill, and we were pretty sure that it not only had some nice views, but that it would also be a great place to watch the sunset. So that afternoon we set out walking from our place. What started as walking down familiar roads quickly turned to foreign paths as we went up the wynding roads behind our house. We walked past a group of kids playing cricket in an open field, past vendors selling packaged goods, kids playing badminton in the middle of the street, workers throwing bricks up to each other on the roof, and then we ventured off down some back alleyways.
Getting lost and exploring the unknown is truly incredible. It's when you get the chance to really get to know where you live, where you are, meet new and interesting people, and become familiar with the unfamiliar. We tried to ask the local women, in broken Bangla, how to get to the lighthouse on top of the hill, but were largely unsuccessful... every path we tried to take was a dead end. Finally we decided to go staight to the original source of all adventures: a kid. This one's name was Faisel. And he didn't disappoint.
We started by taking an obscure sandbag staircase between houses, walked down another crumbling set of brick stairs, came to a main road, then quickly dipped off the road up a hillside before we found ourselves navigating through bushes, head-high grasses, scaling up crumbling walls of dirt, and fending off the pokey-things that kept getting stuck to our clothes.
But it was worth every second because when we got to the top the view was simply stunning. There's really no words to describe how I felt when we got to the top of the hill. I had no idea that something so stunning has been here all along. The way the sun sparkled off the ocean waters... the way the greens looked even more brilliant than normal... even the existence of a small little clearing in the middle of nowhere at the top of this hill was more than I could fathom. It was simply one of those moments that takes your breath away. I could have stayed up there all evening, savouring every moment as I watched the sun set.
The whole weekend was like an in-country R&R. The peace and tranquility I felt by just forgetting everything and taking the time to spend a whole weekend adventuring with two of the best guys... even if I didn't understand everything these two rambled on about in Spanish, and had to put up with their male ridiculousness, it was still one of the best, most refreshing and reflective weekends.
Every now and then you need to get off the beaten path and explore the unknown. You need to forget about the worries and stresses of the week. Go on an adventure instead. Make friends with a stranger. Spend time exploring the unknown.
And, as Eric told me, "don't do your laundry on the weekends."
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