Tomal Islam

Tomal Islam

Articles written by Tomal Islam

Culture

The Real Bangkok Where Locals Actually Live and Eat

Bangkok hits you first with the smell. Not a bad smell, exactly. A mix of grilled meat, diesel fumes, jasmine, and the wet heat that hangs over everything. You step out of the airport and it wraps around you like a blanket you did not ask for. The city has twelve million people, give or […]
Culture

A Day in the Life of an Old Dhaka Rickshaw Puller

The call to prayer from the Baitul Mukarram mosque drifts through the narrow lanes of Old Dhaka just before dawn. It is still dark, and the air is thick with the smell of damp brick and frying paratha. On the corner of Bangshal Road, a rickshaw puller named Abdul wipes the dew off his seat […]
Bandarban

Why Travelers Keep Coming Back to Sajek Valley

Sajek Valley sits high in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, a place where the clouds roll in low and the hills stretch out in layers of green. I first saw it on a damp morning in November, when the fog was thick enough to taste. The road from Khagrachari is rough, a two-hour climb on a […]
Destinations

The Unfolding Disaster of the 2025 Bangladesh Floods

The floodwaters rose slowly at first, then all at once. By late June 2025, rivers across northern and eastern Bangladesh had breached their banks. The Brahmaputra, the Meghna, and the Surma swelled beyond any recent memory. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes. Key Takeaways The 2025 Bangladesh floods submerged over 30 districts, displacing […]
Chittagong Division

The Real Cox Bazar What Works and What Does Not

You step off the bus in Cox’s Bazar and the first thing you notice is the humidity. It wraps around you like a wet towel. The second thing is the noise. Rickshaw horns, bus horns, vendors calling out prices for sunglasses and coconut water. This is not a quiet beach town. It never was. The […]
Rangamati

Rangamati Travel Guide for Lakes

The boatman doesn’t hurry. He lets the engine idle as the Kaptai Lake opens up in front of you. The water is dark green, almost black in the deep spots. Hills rise from the edges, covered in bamboo and banana trees. You smell wood smoke and wet earth. This is Rangamati, and the lake is […]
Bandarban

Hills and Scenic Landscapes

You step off the bus in Sajek Valley, and the first thing that hits you is the quiet. Not the silence of emptiness, but the deep hum of wind moving through pine trees. The hills roll out in layers, each one a different shade of green, fading into a blue haze at the horizon. Key […]