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Chittagong, Bangladesh
Thursday, Apr 20, 2006

Where The Ships Go

David Murray
2007-02-23 23:11:26

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Since the test series had started, we had been hanging out with a few more Aussies who were doing the Waving the Flag tour. Peter, Mel, Paul and Bernie. They were good people from N.S.W. And Victoria, so once the test had finished, we grabbed a prickshaw and went sight seeing, well, just the ship wrecking yards as they are the only thing to see in Chittagong.

Finding three prickshaws was hard as the strike had pulled most of them off of the road. Once we had some, a price was negotiated and off we went. It didn't take long before we needed directions. This took less than five minutes, and within ten, we had lost Bernie and Paul !!! Along the way we needed petrol, so Andrew, Peter and myself, had a quick game of street cricket with some kids. Once back on the road, we knew we were getting close as the shops on the side of the road were selling life jackets and all sort of shippy things. But still, our prickshaw drivers had no idea !!! We did eventually find a guy, who pointed us in the right direction. So we went down a road, and through a fence, we could see these container ships, slowly being stripped. We tried to get in one gate, but was refused, so Lucy and Bernie tried another. Pete, said fuck this and asked to speak to the boss, and a couple of minutes later, we were in. There were a few ships, cut in half, just sitting there, stuck in the mud, and another, the Regina, a fresh one, waiting its fate. Spread all over the ground were the remains of the ships. Chains, panels, anchors and propellers were everywhere. We walked around taking it in, and decided to go to the next yard. There were no ships here being wrecked, but out of the old materials, new ships were being made. Quite scary actually. The workers here said no photos and asked us to leave. So we took photos and slowly moved on to next yard. Straight away, we were told that we were not allowed in. So we asked to see the boss. We really wanted to get into this one because in the distance, we could see an old cruise liner being stripped. At the gate, the guard would not let us in. We spoke to a few people, but we were still outside. We kind of guessed why we were not allowed, as the workers had seen whiteys, they had stopped work and were just looking at us. After about twenty minutes of trying, we went back to the yard we were in originally. Once back, the tide had come in quite a way, and in the water, there were now some flags. We asked a worker why, and he said a ship was coming in at seven, to be beached. To late for us, but in the distance, we could see a ship coming in. We asked the boss, and he rang the ship, and said it would be at five. Still to late for us, we decided to leave. On the way back, this time we managed to stay together. We were overtaking each other, and it was like a Bangers version of the Italian Job, except that we were in prickshaws, and they were all green.

Later that night, we spoke to some other Aussies, and they said they had been there when the ship had beached, it had been around 1/2 past four. It was a pity that we had missed at, but it was a great place to visit. So far on this trip into Bangers, this has been the highlight of the trip so far