Thanksgiving Trip to Sreemongal

Although I have seen it spelled several different ways, Sreemongal is what comes up on Facebook whenever we checked in over the weekend.  No matter how you spell it, Sreemongal was absolutely beautiful!  We took a van from Dhaka to Sylet/Sreemongal and stayed in an Eco-villa with some great friends and had an outstanding time.  Very busy, but fun time.  We got picked up Thursday, Thanksgiving morning, and got dropped back off Saturday evening.  30 minutes after we got out of the van and settled into our room, we were getting on a bike and going for a bike tour of the local tea plantations and surrounding area.  On our way back, we stopped and had a Bangladeshi style Thanksgiving dinner.  Stuffed, we got back onto our bikes and rode the rest of the way back to our villa where we had a few cups of hot local tea before going to bed.  The next morning we woke up early and went for a four hour hike through the hills to a very cool waterfall that gets visited by many locals and tourists alike.  It was definitely a challenging hike, but well worth it.  The hike began in a local village where we were greeted by some children selling bamboo walking sticks...for $0.25 each so of course we bought them.  And we did give them some extra...even if it was because they didn't have change.  HA!  During the hike we had to cross a few "ditches" by some pretty sketchy bamboo bridges.  One was collapsed on our way back through!  After our mega hike, we went back to the villa to freshen up and then off to dinner and 7-Layer tea!  7-Layer tea is exactly what it sounds like, it is 7 layers, each of a different flavor tea.  Reminded us of a warm cider of sorts.  Very good and highly recommended if you ever get the chance to try it.  Saturday morning, we woke up and after another amazing Bangladeshi breakfast of eggs, fruit, roti bread, and tea we were off for another hike.  This time we were in a national park and in the jungle.  We had the unique opportunity to see a family of Gibbons and even got to meet some local jungle 'tribal people' according to our guide...who was AMAZING!  In all, Sreemongal was an excellent trip.  Can't wait for our next Bangladeshi excursion.