While maps make it seem like the most obvious way to get around, boat travel down the length of the Bangladeshi rivers Jamuna (Brahmaputra in India, Tsangpo upstream) and Padma (Ganga) from their entry points into Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal is not possible. There is no regular service to take the traveller the full length.
The Jamuna and Padma, Bangladesh's two principal arteries, collide in the country's torso before shattering into thousands of distributaries that descend south toward the sea, in the process forming the world's largest delta. Bangladesh's north is given over to road and rail, but its south, with its fingers of land and thousands of mangrove islands amidst the silt-laden mesh of watercourses, is boat travel territory. If you come to Bangladesh to cruise its waterways, it is easiest to start at their exit and work your way up. One approach is to start southeast of the delta, at the southern city of Chittagong along the Bay of Bengal.
Built on the northern bank of the Karnaphuli river and home to three million people, Chittagong is the country's second largest city. It is also Bangladesh's largest port, with more than 4.5 million tonnes passing through it annually. The city's history dates back to at least the 16th century, when European traders, mostly Portuguese, established a commercial foothold on the Karnaphuli and began building Chittagong's clustered old town. Today, the metropolitan area is a curious blend of domestic tourist destination, regional commerce engine and transportation hub. Patenga beach, 24 kilometres to the southwest of the city, is a scaled-down version of Bangladesh's 130 kilometres of 'uninterrupted' southern beach around Cox's Bazar, touted by the local tourist industry as the longest in the world.
Bangladeshi holidaymakers flock to the sands after the monsoon, and women in dhotis or purdah stroll along the sea's edge with families amidst the whiskey-sale cries of entrepreneurial pubescents; the sale of alcohol in Muslim Bangladesh is legal only in Chittagong, although it is sold illegally in many places. With its air connections to Calcutta in India and its bustling port, Chittagong is unique among the country's cities outside the capital metro for its extensive ties to the outside world. Media reports also highlight the port's role as a major trafficking point for narcotics and weapons. In October, Time magazine charged that Al-Qaeda was making use of the under-regulated harbour to transfer wanted militants. But whatever crimes occur in Chittagong transpire under the façade of a sprawling port town considerably less frantic and seemingly less impoverished than Dhaka.