The only freshwater swamp forest and wildlife sanctuary in Bangladesh, located at Gowainghat in Sylhet. The forest area is 3,325.61 acres, of which 504 acres were declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1983. It is one of the few wetlands in the world. This forest has been conserved under the Forest Department of the Government of Bangladesh.

This evergreen forest is located on the banks of the Guinea River and connects it with the Chengir Canal. Karach trees are the most grown here. During the rainy season, the forest is submerged under 20-30 feet of water. For the rest of the year, the water level is about 10 feet. During the monsoon season, the forest is flooded for four months. Then the small canals become footpaths. And then the water is sheltered in the dug bills of the forest department. That’s where aquatic animals take refuge. (Source: Wikipedia)

Travelogue: –
September 14, 2016
There were 4 of us. From Sayedabad bus stand at 11:30 pm I bought a bus ticket and started my journey to Sylhet.
The car reached Kadamtali bus stand in Sylhet by 5:30 am (Kadamtali is the last bus stop in Sylhet). Then we sit at the counter for a while and get the washroom done.
★ Bus fare (Dhaka> Sylhet / Sylhet> Dhaka) 450 × 2 = 900 TK (per person)

Amberkhana left the counter at around 8:30 with a CNG.
Rent for 6 people is 20 rupees.
After going to Amber Khana, I saw CNG standing on all the lines. We rented a CNG from there for 1200 rupees (4 people). But they wanted 1600 TK from us.
We started our journey to Ratargul with CNG. We reached Ratargul by 8:30 in the morning. It was raining heavily then. We had breakfast there.
★ Breakfast 50 TK (per person).
Now it’s time to rent a boat. I told the CNG driver to call someone and then a boatman came. We negotiated and finally agreed to 1500 TK. Here we were and a group of 2 people took them with them.
★ Boat rent 1500 TK 6 people.

Then I took the boat and entered the forest at night. The boat kept going through the branches of the trees and it started raining drizzle. The green trees all around and the trees in the rain water became more green and looked pretty good.
We slowly got off the boat and went up to the Watch Tower. After climbing the Watch Tower, I saw the true beauty of Ratagul. It looked very beautiful, very captivating.
I got off the Watch Tower and got into the boat. I told the middleman I will get into the water any problem?
Didn’t say, it might be a joke. Anyway I jumped into the water and started swimming. I swam for a while and came to the Watch Tower. By the grace of Allah there was no problem. But it was very difficult to swim because swimming in fresh water is a little difficult.
Then from there we came to the dock. I changed my dress and started my journey for Bichanakandi.

We reached Hadarpar launch dock between 12 noon and 12:30 pm. Here we had lunch with duck meat from a hotel.
★ Lunch 700 rupees 4 people. Test 5/10.

This time we rented an engine driven boat to go to Bichanakandi from here.
★ Rent 2200 rupees for 6 people.
I reached Bichanakandi in 30-40 minutes. Bedding is full of incomparable beauty. Clouds, mountains, rocks and spring water are mixed together. Clear water like glass. Everything can be seen from the top to the bottom of the water. And if I didn’t take a bath in the water, maybe I could feel how peaceful, clean, beautiful and captivating Bichanakandi is.

After staying in Bichanakandi for about an hour and a half, we went to Hadarpar launch dock. We had to wait for CNG there. Then we came to Amber Khana by 5 o’clock. Nearby is the shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal (RA), the shrine of the protagonist Salman Shah. We looked around the shrine. Then I bought a return ticket from there in a 12 o’clock car. We still have about 5 hours of time. At this time we took a rickshaw and walked around Surma river, there are 2 bridges nearby, 2 more bridges and we looked around. Then at night I ate from five brothers restaurant in Sylhet and went to the Amberkhana bus counter and sat down. I left the car at 12 o’clock at night and reached Dhaka in the morning.