Blogs from Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Asia - page 3

You heard me correctly - there were roaches on the plane from Kathmandu to Dhaka. It was a horrible airplane experience with a horrible Airline. Biman Airlines, I hope to never fly with you again. To start things off we sat on the tarmak for about a half hour apparently waiting for some VIP's to arrive. Once they boarded it seemed we would be on are way, the engines were going, we got the safety announcement, the VIP's even got some drinks. Minutes later the engines stopped and there was an announcement that they were having some minor technical problems. At one point they even got out what looked to be an owners manual for the plane. Let me say, we were a little uneasy. It was right about then that we saw the first of ... read more

Did any of these words manage to pique your interest? Well we certainly have had an interesting week here in Dhaka (is there such a thing as a normal week here?)! And before we fly off to Thailand for a week we thought we might leave you folks with something to chew on for a bit back at home. We are finally starting to enjoy the feeling of settling into a routine here. The apartment is painted, our shipment is here, our couch has been ordered and things at work are running smoothly. We have even recently gained membership at the oasis that is the American Club here, and life is pretty good! Things (and our stomachs!)were just starting to calm down a bit when one mango-daiquiri night (courtesy of the American Club) later I came ... read more

Diggin’ Dhaka So while Jake was away in Singapore I decided to get out and see more of Dhaka! We hadn’t yet ventured to central Dhaka since with traffic it can sometimes take nearly 2 hours to get there. So I hopped in the school van with a friend and we were off to explore more of the city! Our first stop was Dhaka University. Now this is normally the part of the city they tell foreigners NOT to go to, as this is where most of the riots, mobs and uprisings etc occur. BUT since the van driver actually suggested it, we figured hey- must be alright! And it was! The campus is actually very big but we just visited a tiny portion of it. The actual buildings are beautiful, architecturally speaking (most of the ... read more

We ventured to a little town called Sonargaon for the day with a few co-workers. We didn’t know much about the city beforehand, but were able to calculate two things- 1) that Sonargaon was the country’s first capital city, and 2) its about an hour away from Dhaka. We went by van, and it was nice to get out of the city scene and into a bit of countryside for awhile. We were surprised and pleased to see so much greenery, and impressed at how equally crowded these areas were in comparison to Dhaka. Even though things seemed a bit more spread out, there were still buildings and people everywhere. Everywhere you looked, there were people. People walking, people sitting and chatting, people selling, buying, and carrying food on their heads. We arrived in Sonargaon, which ... read more

Teaching in Bangladesh On June 1st Al flew off for a month of snorkelling in Indonesia and then more travels in Thailand while I flew off to Dhaka, Bangladesh, and 6 weeks of teaching nursing at IUBAT - International University of Business, Agriculture and Technology. IUBAT was founded in 1991 and the College of Nursing began here 4 years ago, started by some amazing Canadians from BC. Currently there are 65 nursing students enrolled. My first time to live and work in a developing country….what a lot I learned! I discovered wonderful welcoming friendly people. And MANY people; Bangladesh now has a population of about 150 million in an area about the size of Vancouver Island! The people and culture of Bangladesh is vibrant. There is colour. There is beauty. There is also a lot of ... read more