Traveling Bangladesh's longest sleeper bus route

"Is there a chance the bus could get stuck in floodwater?" I asked the Cox's Bazar counterman over the phone.
Before booking my ticket for the nearly 700km journey across Bangladesh, I needed to inquire about road conditions in Cumilla and Feni. Massive floods had inundated parts of the two districts, cutting off villages and marooning thousands.
The counterman said things had improved somewhat, but parts of the Dhaka-Chattogram highway were still flooded. "The bus that left yesterday has reached Palashbari. You can make it through, hopefully."
I was not entirely convinced but was determined to hit the road anyway. For months, I had been planning this trip from the southern coastal town of Cox's Bazar to the northernmost Rangpur division as part of my excellent travels. It is Bangladesh's longest sleeper bus journey. I booked the ticket online for Tk 2,500.
The next day, August 28, I left Cox's Bazar's state-of-the-art train station at the Dolphin intersection. I had arrived in Cox's Bazar from Chattogram, where I stayed at my uncle's house for a few days.
With the bus scheduled to depart at 4 pm, I had over four hours on my hands. I walked to the beach, where a refreshing sea breeze relieved me from the autumn heat. After having seafood for lunch, I returned to the counter, only to learn that the bus had broken down in Chattogram.
My options were to stay the night in Cox's Bazar to catch tomorrow's bus or switch to Shah Fateh Ali, another sleeper operator with a cheaper ticket. Since I had no salaried job and was travelling on a tight budget, I chose the second option and got Tk 200 back.

The bus stood not far from the counter, its body painted in pink and tinted windows larger than typical AC coaches. I walked around it before boarding. My first impression was that it was clean.
The luxurious bus had a dual seating system, with spacious business class seats in the lower part and bunks in the upper part. The narrow aisle was carpeted, and functional wooden steps led to the bunks on both sides of the aisle.
Climbing the semicircular steps with shoes in my hand was tricky. Once in the bunk, I lay on the comfortable mattress and adjusted the AC. The pillow and maroon blanket were soft. The pillow cover and bed linen were the same multi-coloured striped fabric.
Near my feet was a wall-mounted box where my shoes went. My toes were almost touching the wall. A woman and her two kids were in the bunk across from me.
I closed the ornate, stone-blue curtains on the aisle side and opened those on the window side, which provided me with complete privacy and an outside view.
We departed 11 minutes late. As the afternoon light peered through my window, the bus rolled up the gentle Dolphin intersection slope. On the Chattogram-Cox's Bazar stretch of the Dhaka-Chattogram highway, we moved past buildings, paddies, and markets, veering north at the Ramu bypass to head to the port city.
The Dhaka-Chattogram highway, the country's main artery, is part of the ancient Grand Trunk Road, which stretches over 2,500 kilometres from present-day Bangladesh to Afghanistan via India and Pakistan.
For centuries, traders transported goods like textiles and agricultural produce on the route, which continued to be a key economic corridor after Bangladesh's independence in 1971.
Most of the sleeper buses that are taking a moment in Bangladesh may ply on this highway. Shanto Travels and Shah Fateh Ali are the only sleeper services on the Cox's Bazar-Rangpur route. This is a night service, meaning enjoying the daytime views is impossible, no matter which end of the road you start from.
By now, I noticed it was an annoyingly bumpy ride. I was struggling to remain steady, which puzzled me. Sleeper coaches promise added comfort, but the jerks I endured were far from that. It reminded me of the horrible sleeper bus journeys in Vietnam I had read about on Western travellers' blogs. My Bangladeshi experience partially matched theirs, at least for this bus.
Darkness descended. The illuminated bus interior looked dazzling. The supervisor gave every passenger a complimentary water bottle. I tried to use the onboard Wi-Fi, but it was spotty and slow. At 8:55 pm, we had our first break for 34 minutes. I had rice, chicken, and lentils at the restaurant for Tk 290.
Contrary to my expectations, I fell asleep on the bumpy ride and woke up before the second break at 2:32 am at the well-known Hotel Noorjahan in Cumilla. Most of the buses plying the Dhaka-Chattogram highway have their breaks here.
Situated on the banks of the Bangladesh-India transboundary Gomati River, Cumilla has been ruled by kings and emperors for centuries. A 10-minute drive from Hotel Noorjahan takes you to Shalban Vihara, the archaeological site of an 8th-century Buddhist monastery. Cumilla today is best known for the delicious Ras malai, with Matri Bhandar selling authentic Ras malai since 1930.
"We would be very late," I heard a passenger say. Several others discussed last evening's gridlock near Chakaria. It was 8 am, and we were in Savar, much later than expected because of the gridlock caused by a political rally. One passenger grumbled about the public suffering caused by such street programs.
The northern districts need to catch up in socioeconomic development. Monga, a seasonal phenomenon of poverty from September to November due to the lack of farm work, was once a severe challenge.
The situation has improved, but poverty persists. The lack of education, better economic opportunities, and infrastructure development prevent northerners from catching up with their better-off peers.
The Bangabandhu Bridge, built on the Jamuna River in 1998, largely solved the north's need for faster connectivity with Dhaka.
The Dhaka-Bogura bus journey time, including ferries, is halved from 10-12 hours. I gazed at the vast expanse of water while crossing the 4.8km bridge, on the other side of which was the Rajshahi division.
At Sirajganj's Hatikumrul interchange, the gateway to the north, the bus swerved to take the Dhaka-Rangpur highway, where a significant upgrade from Tangail's Elenga to Rangpur's Modern intersection was underway. The project aims to cut the Dhaka-Rangpur travel time further and improve regional connectivity with India and Nepal. I could see the construction of flyovers, underpasses, bridges and the resulting traffic jams.
We had our final break at midday in Bogura. The district's fame rests on its curd, which has an unmatched taste and earned praise beyond Bangladesh.
The curd factories are concentrated in Sherpur, 20km south of downtown. Bogura's Mahasthangarh contains vast ruins of the ancient Pundranagar city built along the Karatoya River's western bank in the 3rd-4th century.
In Palashbari, Google Maps showed the destination was an hour away.
I asked the well-dressed supervisor whether the driver had been changed at Hotel Noorjahan. He replied the same driver from Cox's Bazar was still behind the wheel. Seeing my surprise, he said, "They are used to it."
The landscape slowly shifted from villages and paddy fields to markets, houses, and narrow roads dominated by rickshaws, autorickshaws, and motorbikes. At 4:11 pm, the driver pulled into the Kamarpara bus terminal, ending the 24-hour journey. For the first time, I set foot in the northern city known for tobacco cultivation, the shatranj weaving method, and delectable Haribhanga mangoes.

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