Known for
- 1
Where three rivers meet.
Chandpur town stands at the Boro Station mohona, the point where the Padma, the Meghna and the Dakatia come together into one enormous width of water. The evening on the mole head, with launches coming in from Dhaka and the hilsa boats unloading, is the reason to come.
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Hilsa.
This is the hilsa district: the fish market by the ghat sells the morning's catch, the restaurants fry it, and in the season (roughly August to October) the whole town smells of it. Outside the town, Faridganj's Lohagar math and the Hajiganj mosque are the old buildings.
Best season
GoodFairAug–Feb
August to October is hilsa season, with the river high and the ghat at its busiest. November to February is calmer, cooler and better for the mole head at sunset and for the outlying places. The monsoon river is dangerous for small boats; stick to the launches then.
Getting there
Launch
Dhaka Sadarghat
3–4 h, ৳150–600
Several a day, morning and afternoon; cabins on the bigger boats
Bus
Dhaka
3 h
From Sayedabad via Cumilla
Train
Chattogram
4 h
Meghna Express via Laksam
The classic way is the launch from Sadarghat in Dhaka: three to four hours down the Buriganga and Meghna, several a day, landing at the Boro Station ghat. Buses from Sayedabad take about 3 hours via Cumilla. Trains run from Chattogram and Cumilla to Chandpur. CNGs and buses reach Faridganj and Hajiganj in under an hour.
Local food
Fried hilsa with roeMust try
By the piece at the Boro Station restaurants
Shorshe ilishMust try
Mustard hilsa, the home style
Hilsa in every form: fried with the roe, in mustard, in a thin jhol, smoked. The restaurants near the Boro Station and Kalibari serve it by the piece. Chandpur also claims the best fish-paste (ilish pitha) and a sweet or two; the Hajiganj bazar is known for its misti.
Places to see
River, lake and haorDelwarHossain · CC BY-SA 4.0Boro Station Mohona (Mole Head)
The point of land where the Padma, Meghna and Dakatia meet, with the launch ghat and hilsa market behind it: Chandpur's evening promenade and the widest river view in the country.
Mosque and shrineMahbubPathan · CC BY-SA 4.0Hajiganj Boro Mosque
The great mosque in the middle of Hajiganj bazar, begun in the 1930s by the Haji family who gave the town its name: a wide prayer hall, a tall minaret and a madrasa complex around it.
Hindu templeMahbubPathan · CC BY-SA 4.0Lohagar Math
Three tall brick spires on the Dakatia bank at Lohagar in Faridganj, the memorial temples of the Lohagar zamindars, the only maths of their kind in the district and the subject of grim local legends.
Park, eco park and picnic spotArifHossain.ED · CC BY-SA 4.0Mohanpur Tourist Centre
A riverside park on the Meghna at Mohanpur in Matlab North: lawns, a jetty, boats and a wide view of the river, reached by launch from Chandpur or by road from Matlab.
Rasti Shah Mazar, Shahrasti
The shrine of the 13th-century saint Rasti Shah, after whom Shahrasti upazila is named: a mazar, a mosque and a yearly urs that draws crowds from the whole region.
Fort and palaceMahbubPathan · CC BY-SA 4.0Rupsha Zamindar Bari
A 250-year-old Muslim zamindar estate at Rupsha in Faridganj: a gateway, the main two-storey house, outbuildings, a mosque and the family graveyard, still partly lived in.
Sources 2
Times, fares and opening hours change. Check before you go.
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