Sunrise and Sunset at Kuakata: A Day on the Beach That Watches Both

The night bus from Dhaka crosses the Padma in the dark. If you are awake, you feel the long, smooth run of the bridge and see nothing but a line of lights stretching ahead; if you want to know what you missed, our page on the Padma Bridge, Jajira End has it. Then come the southern roads, river after river, bridge after bridge, through Barishal division and down through Patuakhali to the end of the land.

You arrive in Kuakata in the small hours or at first light, stiff from the seat, smelling salt in the air before you can see the sea. Good. You are just in time.

Before dawn

The beach at Kuakata faces south and curves along the coast, and that simple fact is the whole magic of the place: from its eastern end you can watch the sun rise out of the sea, and from its western end you can watch it set back into it. Very few beaches in this part of the world offer both.

So you do not go to bed. You find a motorbike with a rider near the beach, agree on where you are going and when you will come back, and set off east along the firm sand with a torch in your pocket. The air is cool and damp. The surf is a pale line on your right. Here and there a small fire burns at a fishing camp, and dark shapes move around it.

The rider stops where the locals say the sunrise is best this season; it shifts through the year, so it is always worth asking. You stand on the wet sand and wait. The sky goes from black to indigo to a thin band of orange along the horizon. And then, on a clear morning, the sun lifts out of the Bay of Bengal, red at first and then gold, laying a bright road across the water straight to your feet. On a hazy or cloudy morning, especially in the monsoon, you may get only a soft glow. Either way, the beach is waking up around you.

Boats at the tideline

Fishing boats are coming in. Men wade out to meet them and haul the nets up the sand, and the catch is sorted where it lands: silver fish flickering in baskets, crabs scuttling for the edges. Birds work the tideline. Further along, racks of fish are already laid out to dry into shutki, and the smell, sharp and salty, travels a long way on the morning breeze.

By the time you ride back, the main beach is filling with walkers and tea sellers, and the first green coconuts are being hacked open with a few swift strokes of a blade. Have one. It is the best breakfast drink on the coast.

The well and the temple

Kuakata’s name comes from the Rakhine people, who settled on this coast from Arakan in the late 18th century. Tradition says they dug a well, a kua, for fresh water. In the Rakhine area near the beach an old well still stands, along with a Buddhist temple with a large Buddha statue, and you can see the local handloom weaving in the shops nearby: shawls and cloth in bright, dense patterns.

In the late morning, take a battery auto-rickshaw or motorbike out through the villages to Misripara. The road runs past paddy fields, ponds and village homes, and then you are at a temple in the Rakhine style, home to a very large statue of the seated Buddha. It is a living place of worship, not a museum, so dress modestly, take off your shoes where asked, keep your voice low and ask before photographing anyone.

The long middle of the day

Midday on the beach is bright and hot. If you swim, stay near the main beach, only in calm conditions and in shallow water: the currents can be strong, and there may be no lifeguards. Many people simply find shade, eat rice and fish at a restaurant near the sand, and sleep off the night bus.

If the weather is calm and the season right, you might spend the day on a trawler instead. Boats go from Kuakata to the mangroves of Tengragiri (Fatrar Bon) and to the quiet sand of Shubhosandhya Beach across the water in Barguna. Check the current arrangements locally, and never go out when a storm signal is up.

Sunset in the west

In the late afternoon, ride west. The beach grows emptier the further you go, until there is just the sand, the sea and a few figures walking at the water’s edge. The light turns gold and long, and every ripple of sand casts a shadow.

Then the sun begins to sink, and if the sky is clear it goes all the way down into the sea, swelling and reddening as it nears the water, until only a sliver is left, and then nothing but colour. Watch the tide on these remote stretches, and start back before it is fully dark.

Fried fish under the bulbs

After dark, the fry stalls near the beach come alive under strings of bare bulbs. Fish and crab are laid out on ice or on trays, and you choose what you want and agree the price by weight before anything goes into the pan. A few minutes later it comes back crisp and hot, with onion, chilli and lemon. Shutki bhorta with rice is on the menu at many restaurants too, if you want to taste the morning’s drying racks.

You eat with sand still on your feet, listening to the surf you watched the sun rise from fourteen or so hours earlier. Tomorrow, if you stay, you can do it all again.

Plan this trip

• Best time: October to March, for clear sunrises and sunsets and a calmer sea. Around Rash Purnima, the full moon of Kartik (around November), pilgrims bathe at dawn and a fair is held; book well ahead then. In the monsoon the sea is rough: stay out of the water and off boats when a storm signal is up.
• By bus: buses from Dhaka run through Patuakhali to Kuakata in roughly 6–8 hours; a night bus arrives in time for the sunrise. Search buses to Kuakata. You can also take an overnight launch from Sadarghat to Patuakhali and continue by bus or CNG.
• Getting around: motorbikes with riders for the far ends of the beach and the villages; battery auto-rickshaws around town.
• Read more: our Kuakata travel guide, beaches in Bangladesh and the Patuakhali district guide.