City and landmark, Bagerhat
Mongla and the Pasur riverfrontমোংলা ও পশুর নদীর তীর
- Time needed
- An evening, or a night as the base for the forest.
- best months
- Nov–Feb
- Cost
- An hour's engine boat on the river is a few hundred taka; rooms from about ৳800 in town to ৳2,500–3,800 at the Parjatan motel.
Bangladesh's second seaport, a frontier town on the Pasur where cargo ships, fishing boats and Sundarbans launches share one wide brown river.
Plan your visit
- Best time
- Dusk on the river; November to February for forest trips.
At a glance
- Port
- Founded 1950 as Chalna; 48 km south of Khulna
- River
- The Pasur, about 100 km above the Bay of Bengal
About
Mongla is where the road ends and the forest begins. The port was founded in 1950 as Chalna, moved downstream to its present site, and now handles the second-largest share of the country's sea trade after Chattogram; the ships that call anchor midstream, a hundred kilometres up from the Bay of Bengal, with the Sundarbans on the far bank. The town itself is small and workmanlike, a ferry ghat, a bazaar, a few hotels, the Parjatan motel on the water, and you come here for one of two reasons: to get on a boat, or to watch the river.
The watching is worth it. From the ghat or the riverside path, ocean-going ships slide past fishermen in dugouts, the forest wall is a kilometre away across the water, and at dusk the whole thing turns copper. An hour's evening boat ride on the Pasur is the cheapest Sundarbans experience there is. The forest is Mongla's real business: every Sundarbans cruise from Khulna passes this way and most day trips start at this ghat, with Karamjal half an hour downstream and Harbaria about two hours. Saint Paul's church and school at Shelabunia, on the edge of town, are the grave and life's work of Father Marino Rigon, the Italian priest who translated Tagore and stood with the freedom fighters in 1971.
Getting there: 50 km south of Bagerhat town (about an hour by bus) and 48 km from Khulna; direct buses from Dhaka's Sayedabad take 5 to 6 hours. A commuter train from Khulna opened in 2024; ask whether it is running.
Things to do
- Take an hour's boat on the Pasur at sunset.
- Hire a boat for Karamjal in the morning.
- Visit Saint Paul's at Shelabunia and Father Rigon's grave.
- Eat river fish at the bazaar hotels; ask what came in that morning.
Good to know
- Carry cash; boatmen and small shops don't take cards or bKash reliably.
- Agree the boat price and the route before you step aboard, and check the life jackets.
- Buy Sundarbans honey from the forest office or a cooperative, not from the ghat.
