With winter holiday coming up, a lot of you may be scouring the net for vacation plans, perhaps looking across national boundaries. While spending foreign currency may be the thing for you, Bangladesh has slowly been building up her wares in terms of tourist facilities that will enable more and more tourists to explore this land, and the Grand Sultan Tea Resort and Golf in Srimangal seems a worthy addition.
The region of Sylhet is possibly the richest Bangladesh has to offer in terms of natural beauty and tourist attractions. A drive from Sylhet city to the small township of Srimangal in Maulvibazar takes you through tea gardens, the manicured green splendour of which soothes the soul.
There are many other attractions in the region -- such as Jaflong, Madhabkunda, Lala Khal, Lawachhara rainforest to name just a few -- besides the beautiful hills with pruned tea bushes, all standing three and a half feet tall to give the landscape a lush, carpet-y feel.
The humble tea bush encapsulates the feel of the region, a slice of its rich history and last but not least, its importance to the Bangladesh economy.
The soft opening of the Grand Sultan Tea Resort and Golf took place on October 25. Its chairman Khwaja Tipu Sultan, whose vision over the last five years made it all possible, held a press conference in the resort's ornately designed Naomi Manzil banquet hall where Managing Director of Grand Sultan Sohel Hossain Ibne Botuta, Technical Director BKS Inan and General Manager Tony Khan were also present. There he revealed his vision, which is to make the most of Sylhet's natural bounties and uplift the region economically through the various scopes for tourism. He urged others to follow his footsteps and invest in the region.
Although the soft opening was held last week, the rooms -- 145 of them spread across the nine-storey hotel -- will not be open to the public until after the grand opening in the last week of December, according to Tipu Sultan.
In fact, the rooms were not on view for the soft opening, leading one to speculate about their readiness, but there is still time for that before the proper launch. What is ready however, are the grounds outside.
BKS Inan, while designing the resort, did his best to leave the natural landscape undisturbed. The result is a nicely contoured setting with an artificial lake running through, flanked on one side by the hotel and on the other side by the nine-hole hilly golf course, with a mini tea garden as backdrop.
This is where Grand Sultan scores top marks. Forget the tennis court, 50-metre swimming pool, enormous banquet hall, three fine dining restaurants and a top-class cafe, and even the 44-seater 3D movie theatre. You can get those elsewhere, although the combination is pretty impressive. What steals the show is that the 13.6-acre compound actually has hills lined with tea bushes, to this writer's knowledge the only resort in Bangladesh to adopt this obvious but visually delightful decor. The Grand Sultan has the potential for all the trappings of a five-star hotel -- spa, sauna, Jacuzzi, etc. -- which it has set out to be. The resort is actually known as 'five-star' by the locals, so if you land up there at the end of the year during the children's holidays, that is what you will have to ask for when asking for directions.                 -the daily star