Thursday, July 12, 2018

Vimruli Guava Market: The only floating market in Bangladesh


The biggest guava garden in the Asian continent has grown along the borders of three districts- Jhalokati, Barishal and Pirojpur. This guava garden has been formed on 31,000 acres of land across 26 villages of these districts. Around 20,000 families of these places are directly involved in guava cultivation. Besides, Banaripara Upazila of Barishal is also famous for cultivating guava.
Vimruli floating market is located in Jhalokati district, which is in the southern part of Bangladesh. Though this market is operated throughout the year, it becomes active during the season of guava. Trading goes on from morning to evening every day of the week over the small zigzag canal, which is 15 kilometers away from Jhalokati city. Hundreds of boats are loaded with guava. Sellers search for buyers there on the canals. Most of the buyers are wholesalers. They come to the bazaar with a big engine-run boat. They buy guava from small boats and send it to Dhaka or any other big cities. 
Vimruli market sits in an estuary of canals. Three canals from three sides have joined here. In this estuary, fruit farmers, on fruit-loaded boats, search for buyers. There are many guava gardens in all the villages surrounding Vimruli. From these gardens, farmers take guava directly to bazaar by boat. There is a small bridge over the canal at the northern end of the floating market. From there, market is seen clearly. The interesting thing is that size and design of all boats coming here are almost same. It seems all boats are made by the same artisan.
The busiest time of Vimruli market is from 12 O’clock at noon to 3 O’clock in the afternoon. During this time, the number of boats exceeds a few hundreds.

How do you go there?
There are many ways to go there, but the best way is going by launch.

What is the way of going to Jhalokati by launch?  
From Sadarghat, ‘MV Tipu’ and ‘MV Sundarban-2’ leave for Jhalokati at 6 O’clock in the evening. Rent of double cabin is Tk. 1,800 and single cabin is Tk. 1,000 while the rent of the deck for per person is Tk. 200.

What is the way of going to Jhalokati by steamer?
BIWTA’s rocket-steamers- ‘PS Mahsud’, ‘PS Ostrich’ ‘PS Lepcha’ and ‘PS Tern’- leave from Sadarghat, Dhaka at 6 O’clock in the evening. Steamers are left for Jhalakathi one after another during the weekdays. Rent for each person in the first class cabin is Tk. 1,250 while rent in the second class cabin is Tk. 760. Rent for each person in the third class deck is Tk. 190.

What is the way of going to guava market through Hularhat by launch?
From Sadarghat in Dhaka, you can aboard a Hularhat-bound launch. Every day from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., 3-4 launches leave for Hularhat. Board any one of them. Tk. 100-180 will be taken as rent for deck (depending on crowd). Rent of single cabin is Tk. 900 whereas double cabin costs Tk. 1,800. Next day at 6 O’clock in the morning, you will reach Banaripara. Get down there so that you enjoy the view of the river as well.   
Soon after getting down at Banaripara, hire a big trawler. Fix the rent between Tk. 1,500 and Tk. 2,000. Tell them to install a roof. If you tell the trawler driver, he will directly take you to Vimruli because it is the biggest floating guava market in this region. It will take one and half hour. Going to Vimruli, roam around the place for an hour and experience the guava trade. Leave the place at 1 p.m. Then tell the boat driver to take the boat to the boat market near Atghar school. Going there, stop the boat and take shower. 
Afterwards, go to Kuriana bazaar. Eat lunch there and get into the boat. Now, tell the boat driver to drop you down at Banaripara/Nesarabad. You will get Barishal-bound bus in both places. Get into a bus and get down at Guthia. Take a look at the Guthia mosque. Then, take an auto to go to Durga Sagar Lake. After that, go to Barishal by bus. From Barishal, take a Dhaka-bound launch leaving at 8:30 p.m. The last launch leaves just before 9 p.m.

Those who want to go by bus
From Gabtoli in Dhaka, Sakura Paribahan also offers AC bus service to Jhalokati. Rent is Tk. 800 per person. Apart from this, ‘Druti’, ‘Eagle’, ‘Surovi’, along with ‘Sakura Paribahan’, provide non AC bus service with fare in between Tk. 350 and Tk. 450. Besides, to go to Jhalokati from Saidabad, Dhaka, there is a bus service from Sugandha Paribahan. It takes around half an hour to go to the market from Jhalokati district sadar by bus. And it takes an hour to go by an engine-run boat which can be rented from Jhalokati launch ghat or Kathpatti. Rent of a boat suitable for carrying 10 people for a whole day trip is Tk. 1,500-2,000. For this journey, engine-boat is much better than motor bike.
From Barishal
From Rupatoli bus stand in Barisal, get into Khulna-bound Dhanshiri transport. Ask the bus conductor to drop you down at the Kirtipasha intersection, having crossed Jhalokati. Tk. 60 will be taken as fare. From there, you can go to Vimruli by shared auto, which will cost you Tk. 20-30.

Where do you eat?
Go to Kuriana bazaar after visiting Vimruli. There is a restaurant named Sokal Sondha, which is locally known as Boudi’s Hotel (বৌদির হোটেল). Its food is very tasty. There is no need to inform earlier if you are 5 to 7 persons in your group. But for a larger group, you must inform the restaurant beforehand. Eat rice with fresh fish sitting at the restaurant.

Where do you stay?
After traveling whole day, you can return to Jhalokati. If you want to stay then ordinary hotels in the city are your only hope. Some hotels of this city are ‘Dhansiri Rest house’ in Kalibari Road, ‘Arafat Boarding’ in Batasa Patti, ‘Halima Boarding’ in Sadar road etc. Rent is Tk. 100-250.
Besides, you can also stay in Hotel Ifty at Miar Hat in Swarupkathi. Staying in this ordinary hotel built along the banks of the river will be an experience. But if you want to stay in good quality hotel, you will have to go to Barishal sadar (city), which is 20 kilometers from Jhalokati.

When do you go?
July, August and September are the months of guava season. After the end of guava season comes the season of hog plum. In this region, the cultivation of hog plum is also ubiquitous. And finally comes Areca nut.

Sources-

2 comments:

  1. Wow! Such an amazing and helpful post this is. I really really love it. It's so good and so awesome. I am just amazed. I hope that you continue to do your work like this in the future also damnoen saduak floating market tour

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is very helpful and informative. Thank you so much.

    ReplyDelete

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