Now THAT's a beach

A couple of friends in Australia just got married and went to Fiji for their honeymoon.  They were very amused when they visited the self-proclaimed "world's 7th best beach".

Bangladesh's honeymoon capital (complete with advertising billboards for a particular brand of oral contraceptive pill using the slogan "Welcome to happy couple city, Cox's Bazar") is a beachside town on the Bay of Bengal which claims to have the longest unbroken sea beach in the world.  Now according to a reliable source, the longest (by another 100km or so) is actually in Brazil.  But, according to everybody here, Cox's Bazar is the most beautiful sea beach in the world.  No question about it.

My opinion - okay, but nothing special.  On another trip to Cox's Bazar recently with a fairly large group of other expat volunteers, one of the girls who'd organised our "programme" for the weekend had included a visit to a special, secret destination to chill out one afternoon between swimming at the beach and going out for dinner.  When we were trying to weasel out of her what and where this place was, all she would give away was that it was "really good... for Bangladesh."  This is a bit of a common theme - any other visitor here would possibly be a bit disappointed by many of the things that we get so excited about after 8 months of being here (and used to lowering our expectations).

It is nice to have a sea change, especially for people for whom it is so culturally entrenched to live close to the beach.  But - after taking Bren & Karen there when they visited - I don't think I'd take any other visitors there especially, cos it is pretty disappointing.  There are many wonderful things in Bangladesh, but if you want great beaches, go to Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia (or stay at home in Oz).

There's been a campaign recently to come up with a list of the New 7 Wonders of the World, including a category for New 7 Wonders of Nature.  Being so proud of their beach - and generally not terribly widely travelled to have seen other beaches to compare it to - the enthusiastic Bangladeshis nominated Cox's Bazar beach for one of the natural wonders.

Now, I know I wasn't there at the best time of year (it was pissing down with rain the whole time) but this is my picture of this "wonder":

Compared to the world's 7th best beach in Fiji:

Not much comparison, eh?

The funniest part of the story though?  There had been some dodgy websites set up or something, that were somehow rigging the voting system and so Bangladesh's entries got disqualified from the competition!  I think this is bloody hilarious, given the political history and current situation in Bangladesh (a national election due to be held on 18 December) where true democracy is looking like a bit of wishful thinking.  Happily for the Bangladeshis, they've been reinstated in the competition (I bet they tried to bribe someone to do it though!) and Cox's Bazar is currently #3 on the list... that's what happens when you've got a country with 150 million people voting.

So thanks to Dan for permission to use these photos here (well, I'm sure he'd give me permission if I ever get around to asking him).