Unseen Bangladesh
Sylhet District · Sylhet Division · লালাখাল
Lalakhal travel guide
A river of blue-green water and tea gardens; boat trips.
🗓️ Best time to visitNovember–April (water at its bluest)
⏱ How long it takes3–4 hours
💰 Estimated costBoat from Sarighat ৳1,200–2,000 (return)
At a glance
- Location
- Jaintiapur, about 35 km from Sylhet city
- River
- Part of the Sari River
- Colour
- Blue-green water
- Best time
- November–April
History and details
Lalakhal is a stretch of the Sari River, which comes down from the Cherrapunji side of Meghalaya. Dissolved minerals and sand make the water an unusual blue-green in the dry season, unlike other rivers in the country.
About 45 minutes upstream by boat from Sarighat you reach Lalakhal Tea Garden and the zero point. Tea gardens, hills and sandbanks line both sides. Several resorts have grown up on the riverbank.
Things to do
- Take a boat from Sarighat towards the zero point
- Walk around Lalakhal Tea Garden
- Have lunch at a riverside resort
How to get to Lalakhal
In Jaintiapur; boats from Sarighat on the Sylhet-Tamabil road.
Sylhet is about 240 km from Dhaka; the journey takes 5–6 hours.
- 🚌 By bus: Green Line, Ena, Hanif, Shyamoli from Sayedabad/Fakirapul; non-AC ৳650–750, AC ৳1,200–1,600.
- 🚆 By train: Parabat, Joyontika, Kalni, Upaban Express from Kamalapur; fare about ৳375–1,100.
- ✈️ By air: Biman, US-Bangla, Novoair; one way ৳3,500–6,000, 45 minutes.
Where to stay
- Nazimgarh Riverside Resort (beside Lalakhal)
What to eat
Meat with satkora, bhorta-rice at Panch Bhai/Panshi restaurants, tea
Good to know
- Go in the morning, when the sun makes the water's colour most beautiful
- Don't enter the tea gardens without permission
More to see nearby
- Jaflong (20 km)
- Sreepur Tea Garden (15 km)
- Jaintia Rajbari (10 km)
More places to visit in Sylhet district
- Ratargul Swamp Forest — The country's only freshwater swamp forest; boat among the trees in the monsoon.
- Jaflong — The Piyain River, stones and clear water below India's Meghalaya hills; Khasia punjis nearby.
- Bichanakandi — Clear water flowing down from the hills over a bed of stones; most beautiful in the monsoon and autumn.
- Sada Pathor, Bholaganj — White stones and cold clear water from the hills at the mouth of the Dhalai River.
- Shrine of Hazrat Shahjalal (R) — One of the country's main spiritual pilgrimage sites.
- Malnicherra Tea Garden — The subcontinent's first commercial tea garden (1854).
- Panthumai Waterfall — A big waterfall coming down from the Meghalaya hills, seen from the river.