it was not so tough job to reach such a higher point. but its rainy season now and that made the situation bit harder. we were a group of 21; 19 boys, 2 girls. 2/3 of us are going there for the second time. they are our primary guide. we started for 'bandarban' by a s.alam bus. the journey was wonderful. we reached bandarban by the very first morning of 11 may. some of us were watching mountains for the first time. but it was exciting for everyone. after 1.5 hour break we again started for 'ruma bazar' by a 'chander gari' (a jeep without roof). its was exciting too. it was a 48km journey on mountain track. then more than 2 hours on a boat... burned by sun, wet by rain. but still exciting. ruma bazar is a very small town (its like a village market, but it has a town status). you might not get running water in bathroom or electricity in your room but the charge real cheap... $0.8 per person. there is an army camp and you have to inform them all about you... where are you from, why you are here, how long you'll be here, where you'll go from here etc. but they are really helpful. they will tell you something that is really very important to travel this place. our next destination was 'boga lake' a nearer base camp to keokradong. but the weather didn't want to support us. we hired another chander gari and it could able to cover us 15km way of 18km. it was raining heavily and the chander gari stacked by mud. we have to walk another 3km. first it seemed quite impossible. but there was no other way. we started singing... sometime dancing. first one hour was ignorable. it was painless, just fun. but when we start climbing a big mountain we start realizing how hard job we are doing. it seemed endless... we climbed, we climbed and climbed... the way was going higher and higher. one of the girl started crying but soon she recovered and start walking again and we didn't realize what excitement was waiting just few hundreds feet from us. there is another army camp on the top of the hill. besides it there is a big... very big lake! its really astonishing! how it happened? all of our tiredness suddenly came to zero. they called it 'baga lake'. we had to report to the army camp. they gave us some very essential guidelines like wearing full shirt, full pant and use mosquito protection cream. because this place is a danger zone for malaria. and they asked us to be careful about the 'leech'. there are 8-10 families live in baga lake area. we rented one of their home. it was a nice home. no electricity, no urban facility. the only drinkable water was the lake's water.

the next day was the day to start for keokradong. we were excited. our guide was a 'bom'. he gave a brief speech about the way of keokradong. it was a very sunny day. so we took lot of salaine, water. we got two water stream on the way to keokradong. it was really amazing. we had to walk almost 14km to reach the highest peak. there was a tiny village just 1km before the highest peak. they called it 'darjeeling para'. 3-4 families live there and we came to know that we may stay there if we want to. there are few rooms for rent. it started raining when we start from darjeeling para. the way became very slippery and we had to walk very carefully. it took some more time than usually. but we reached it at last. i started singing our national anthem when i was climbing the last steps of the highest peak. it really was an extraordinary feelings that i've never been felt. it was raining on the highest peak, but we could see some other lower peak where it was sunny at the same time. the rain traveled to another place some minutes later. we started taking photos. it was going to be our one of most favorite memory. so we wanted to take as much pictures as we could. we walked almost 4.5 hours and we stayed on the peak for more than half an hour. we didn't want to come back, but we had to. its another 14km down way. i thought it'd be easier to walk down track. but soon i realized how hard it could be. the way was too slippery and after one hour i could realize that i don't have any control of my feet. its quite impossible if someone want to walk all this way alone. he/she'll lose his/her hope. but we were in a group. we tried to help each other all the time. so it became easier. certainly we all are thankful to each other.

it was raining all through the night, till next morning. it was our day to get back. our guide told us that the jeep that stacked on the way of our coming is still staying on the same place. so we started again with the hope that may be we could travel next 15km by that jeep. but another one group reached the jeep before we do. they were a group of 8. so there was place for only another 10-12 person. so 10 of us decided to walk and another 11 went by the jeep. i was one of 10 walker. it was really amazing. the mountain has bunch of beauties. i didn't see ocean but i think mountains are more resourceful. nothing seemed impossible when we reached ruma bazar by walking. i start believing i could travel all around the globe just on my feet. we stayed ruma bazar next 2 hours. then again started for bandarban. we were heading to catch the bus of 8:00 pm to dhaka. we took another journey by boat, then a chander gari. it was raining hardly and 7 of us were traveling on the roof of the jeep. it was very risky but exciting too. we made it at last. we reached bandarban by 7:00 pm and some of us got few minutes for shopping. next morning when we reached dhaka, it seemed we just awakened from a dream with full strength in our body and soul to travel any tough place around the world.

if you want to learn more about our group or want to see more pictures, you can visit our site www.fineart9batch-du.com