Essential Tricks

Send passport details to the resort when booking and ask whether any registration is currently required for foreigners. Keep several photocopies of the passport and visa page, because checkpoints on the Thanchi road sometimes keep a copy. Without this preparation, a guest can lose hours at the first barrier.

Plan at least two mornings for sunrise. Clouds, haze or rain frequently hide the valley, and guests who stay one night often leave without seeing the famous sea of clouds. The best chance comes during and just after the monsoon, roughly from July to October, and in clear winter mornings.

About sickness on the road: take motion sickness tablets before leaving Bandarban and sit in front if the jeep allows it. The hairpins are continuous, and the open back of a chander gari exposes passengers to sun, dust and sudden rain, so a cap and light rain jacket belong in the day bag.

Order bamboo chicken in the afternoon so the kitchen has time to prepare it properly for dinner. It is slow food, cooked over fire inside green bamboo, and arriving hungry at eight and requesting it on the spot rarely works.

Cash in Bangladeshi taka is needed for jeeps, entrance fees, village handicrafts and tips. ATMs exist in Bandarban town but nowhere on the hill, and cards are accepted almost nowhere outside larger hotels. Bring enough small notes from town for the whole stay.

Book the balcony room if possible and specify Sangu View at reservation. The difference between waking up with the valley and the river in front of your bed and looking at the service yard is the difference between an ordinary night in the hills and the reason people travel to Chimbuk.