The stony bed
Clear water.
Syed Sajidul Islam — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ashraful71 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Syed Sajidul Islam — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fahad antar — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anup86 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Syed Sajidul Islam — CC BY-SA 4.0
Bichanakandi is a village on the Piyain River in northeastern Bangladesh, at the foot of the Khasi hills. Clear water runs over a bed of pebbles and coloured stones, tall green hills fold in from both sides, and cloud settles on the peaks. The village is in Rustompur Union of Gowainghat, in Sylhet District. Its name is said to come from the stones piled on the riverbed like a bed. The Piyain is a tributary of the Surma and rises from the Umngot River in the Indian state of Meghalaya. Many local people work collecting stone from the river, and quarrying and floods in the 1980s have damaged its course. You take a boat from the river landing to where the hills begin, then walk on the stones and sit in the clear, shallow water with the mountains and clouds all around. The village is about 31 km in a straight line north of Sylhet, and the Indian border is very close, so do not cross it. The river rises fast in the monsoon, and the UK warns of flash floods in the Sylhet region, so check the weather and follow the boatmen's instructions.
Clear water.
Green.
On the river.
Rustompur Union, Gowainghat, Sylhet District
By car from Sylhet, then by boat from the landing.
After the monsoon, when the water is clear.