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Notes on Cox’s Bazar – the longest beach in the world

March 21, 2018 By James Clark 9 Comments

Fishing boat

Cox’s Bazar is the pride and joy of Bangladeshis. Everywhere I went people would always say to visit their famous beach. I had already planned my Bangladesh trip to end at Cox’s Bazar, and after being in the big cities I was looking forward to filling my lungs with sea air for a few days.

Even before I knew anything about Cox’s Bazar I was intrigued to visit. It seemed, bizarre that a place in Bangladesh would still have a colonial-era name, of a person no less.

Cox’s Bazar is the name of the city, the surrounding district, and the name of what is the longest unbroken length of beach in the world. I’ve read it’s between 120 to 155km. Whatever its length, it’s a big-ass beach.

Welcome to Cox's Bazar

At the top end of the beach is the city of Cox’s Bazar, which is where the airport and most of the hotels are. The first thing I did after I had checked in was to get a glimpse of this legendary beach. It’s a wide and sandy beach in front of the hotel area. The water colour is more of a “Bay of Bengal Brown”, as I liked to call it.

Bay of Bengal Watch

When I was booking a hotel I was having a hard time finding any decent rooms. It turns out I was there during a national holiday, so the beach was even more crowded than usual. At times the beach resembled a waddle of penguins. I imagined that if an alien spaceship came to earth they might come here to study our species, just as we head to Antarctica to study Emperor Penguins.

Holiday crowd

It seemed like half of Bangladesh was here, and like my experience in Chittagong I was swamped with selfie requests.

Beach crowd

When I go to the beach I usually spend my time walking along the waters edge, which is what most people were doing here. It seems like I have found my beach people.

Flip-flop Shore

The good thing about Cox’s Bazar is that most of the development is centred on one area. You only have to walk a kilometre and the crowd thins out fast. By then you end up in beach cricket territory.

Beach cricket

And beyond there it thins out to the point where you have the beach to yourself. I had considered renting a bike and going out to explore more of the coastline, but I was perfectly content with just walking a few kilometres away from the hotel zone. Part of me wanted to see every kilometre of this beach, as if to confirm that it is indeed the longest beach in the world. Then I realised that as long as I get a bit of solitude on this stretch of beach I don’t need to see it all.

Empty beach

Most of the activity beyond the hotels are fishermen. Look out for these charming little fishing boats.

Fishing boat

Cox’s Bazar is near the Myanmar border, though crossing has been closed for foreigners for years. One thing that was disturbing about being here was knowing that not far from here are refugee camps, where life is not a day at the beach. Over half a million Rohingya refugees have poured in from neighbouring Myanmar into Cox’s Bazar District.

Burmese Market

As with Dhaka and Chittagong, there are very few signs of the globalised world in Cox’s Bazar. On the main beach road a KFC stands alone as the only internationally recognisable brand.

KFC Cox's Bazar

Why eat at KFC though when you can get a curry with a freshly-made paratha bread.

Paratha

At this point of my trip I was hoping to find some more cafes. I found one cafe that served espresso coffee and was suitable to do some work in.

Cafe 14

Another good cafe is Mermaid cafe, which is a popular expat cafe by the beach. I saw more foreigners at these two cafes than in all of a week of travel in Bangladesh. My guess that most of the foreigners were working here, perhaps involved in the nearby refugee camps. I also saw the same three British guys walking along the beach at sunset every night.

Mermaid cafe

Apart from the foreigners in their NGO 4WD’s there are very few international visitors here. The only flights here are from Dhaka and Chittagong and there is no indication of an international tourist market. While wandering around I soon realised there were no international currency exchanges. Usually beach resorts are awash with currency exchanges. With 163 million in the country, the domestic market is certainly large enough to sustain a tourism industry here.

There appears to have been a building boom several years ago which then came to a halt.

Unfinished building

The most prominent building is the Radisson Blu project which is currently a concrete shell.

Abandoned Radisson project

There is concern about over development, which the abandoned constructions sites stand as a monument to. On the other hand I would actually prefer it if they just developed the crap out of the city, and then left the rest of the beach as is. This would be better than having the 100+ kilometres of beach being over developed.

Before they go ahead and build more hotels, more work needs to be done on the basics. Rubbish is a big problem here, with people dumping rubbish in empty lots.

Dumping garbage

The back streets also have an abundance of rubbish.

Back street rubbish

And the back roads that serve hotels also need to be sealed.

Dirt road

One thing that surprised me was that electric tuk tuks are used here.

Beach Road

Given that Bangladesh is a conservative muslim country it’s always going to struggle to attract international visitors looking for a fun beach holiday.

Womens swimming zone

That doesn’t mean though that it couldn’t become an international destination. If the roads and rubbished were fixed up, they could turn the city into a pleasant place to live. A good idea would be to have a long beach promenade, something like The Rambla in Montevideo. This walkway is 22km long and is an attraction in its own right. Cox’s Bazar is promoted as being the longest beach in the world, so why not offer an accessible (and environmentally friendly) way to experience it by having a broad walking and cycling path.

Morning light

A train is planned from Chittagong to Cox’s Bazar, and before the Rohingya crisis there had been talk of a Bangladesh-Myanmar connection. My dream is to one day be able to get the train from Bangkok to India, so who knows, maybe I will be back here again in my lifetime via a train.

Filed Under: Travel Blog Tagged With: bangladesh, beach, coxs bazar

Comments

  1. Alipal says

    March 21, 2018 at 8:41 am

    Thanks for taking me inside a country i will never be able to explore for myself.

    Reply
  2. Simon says

    March 22, 2018 at 6:14 am

    What an amazing blog. Loved it throughout. The clicks are beautiful.

    Reply
  3. Phillip Birt says

    March 22, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    Hi James – really like the way you present your travel blogs: a good mix of reality photographs and cryptic text. It would be extremely useful if you could quote some basic cost of living data reference food, alcohol, transport and accommodation for the places you visit.
    I am a retired widower working to a budget but spend 5 in every 12 months travelling SE Asia.
    Best wishes, Phillip

    Reply
  4. Lillie says

    March 25, 2018 at 10:01 pm

    What a fascinating article! Thanks for creating it, and for your awesome email newsletter!

    Reply
    • James Clark says

      March 26, 2018 at 1:09 am

      Thanks Lillie!

      Reply
  5. Alwyn says

    May 7, 2019 at 5:25 am

    Hi There,

    There is a possibility that I might land a job in Cox’s Bazar as a Construction Engineer. How would you describe the general living conditions. Are there some decent houses up for rent, because I could not find any on the the net.

    Reply
  6. Jack says

    December 22, 2019 at 6:30 am

    Good read James, I’m heading to Bangladesh myself next month to travel and I’m looking for inspiration. How long would you recommend spending in CB? I’m hoping to find a place to kick back for a few days but they seem rather few and far between in Bangladesh!

    Reply
    • James Clark says

      December 23, 2019 at 1:18 am

      It seems like the place where people go to kick back. You time there would depend on how long you are in Bangladesh overall.

      Reply
      • Jack says

        December 23, 2019 at 10:47 am

        I’ve got the best part of a month, so no rush at all!

        Reply

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Welcome to Nomadic Notes

James Clark from Nomadic Notes

Hi, I’m James Clark, and I've been travelling the world since 2003 while running a location independent travel business. Nomadic Notes is a travel blog featuring travel guides and notes from my travels.

I’m currently based in Vietnam, writing about transport and infrastructure in Southeast Asia.

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