A day for respite

What can be more fun than playing pranks with kids and friends in four-feet deep water, with your feet dipped in soft mud? Well, eating the fresh Hilsa fish from the great Padma river, of course!

At the Padma Resort you can swim back to your childhood fun, plus have great food. Located in a shoal on the mighty Padma river in Louhajang, the Padma Resort was developed by Mohammad Ali, a local businessman only two years back. The number of resorts where you can make a day trip with your family and have solid fun is very few. The Padma Resort is one such latest addition to the rare kind.

You might want to spend a night there, or just drive back home in the evening. The resort attracts a good number of tourists from locality as well as from Dhaka.

Reaching this resort takes about a one-hour drive from Dhaka, through the old Dhaka, via Keraniganj connected by a bridge and straight to Louhajang. The road condition is fairly good and the traffic flow is relatively thin on Fridays. Once you reach Louhajang, you can see signboards indicating to the direction of the resort.

The direction will take you to a small jetty where you will take a short boat ride to the resort on a shoal across a narrow strip of the Padma river.

The resort was built on the shallow part of the river on the shoal. About a dozen duplex wooden cottages built on pillars and connected by a long unbroken wooden balcony provide residential facilities complete with fresh water supplies in the toilets and electricity.

The main stream of the wild Padma river is on the other side of the shoal. The birth of the shoal has divided a side of the Padma leaving a 250-feet wide "narrow" strip of river. The shoal is all green with paddy and wild grass and it's a home for many farmers.

After you toss your baggage in one of the cabins, which are reasonably priced, you might get into something more water-friendly-- because its no fun if you don't get wet here. The resort has hordes of rafts. If you don't know how to swim-- relax, there are plenty of lifejackets for you and your kids. Plus, you have the choice to have fun in the water within the inner perimeter of the resort or in the "narrow" strip of the Padma.

The resort people will discourage you to go to the main river on the raft, as the Padma can be too strong for a safe ride.

Whether you play water polo in the waters inside or outside the resort area, it's solid fun and safe as long as you are sticking to a 5-feet deep zone. The muddy riverbed in the outer perimeter of the resort can be very thick-- and it might spook you a bit. But it's safe.

When you are done with the water sports, you will experience hunger like no other time. The resorts cafeteria, also on a wide wooden platform supported by stilts, is where you grab great food -- including fresh Hilsa.

If you are looking for a quick holiday break with friends and family, give the Padma Resort a try.

Story: Sharier Khan
Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain

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