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Blogs from Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Asia - page 5
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June 28th 2008
The first thing I did on arriving in Dhaka was throw up against a wall. Considering I’ve been wanting to visit this city for eight years, it wasn’t really the entrance I was expecting to make. The bus from Kuakata had taken eleven hours, and we had travelled through the night. It was a great journey. All of the stars were out. ‘The Plough’ - that great saucepan of the sky - was the most prominent (quite appropriate for the subcontinent, I think.) The headlights lit up the endless rows of bushy trees, which appeared bright green momentarily then whooshed out of sight. Big grasshoppers kept jumping in through the window and landing on me. I know they bite (a bad experience in Agra four years back…) so I always just wait for them to move. ... read more
June 24th 2008
I’ve been staring at the water for some time now. The burning sun is hazy and doesn’t reflect much off the calm brown water. All of the sudden I see an animal jump. “A dolphin!” I say to my friend next to me. “Did you see it?” She looks at me, “A dolphin? I don’t think river dolphins come up this far.” “It was shiny and gray and arched out of the water?” “Well, I guess it was a dolphin then,” she shrugs and takes out her camera for photographs of some boys playing along the riverbank. I’ve taken a boat trip with some friends and acquaintances. It’s guided and so it’s effortless, which was probably the best part. We were driven west out of Dhaka to yet another wide, slow-moving river. The boat is ... read more
June 20th 2008
It’s been awhile since I’ve done much because I got pretty ill. And I thought salads were supposed to be good for you…Truth be told I do know that this is an unsanitary place and you’re not supposed to eat produce that isn’t peeled or cooked thoroughly. But I’ve had some salad and fresh veggies and fruit because really, it’s the only consistenly good food Bangladesh has to offer. Sometimes I guess you get reminded arrogance can bring you to your knees, quite literally. So after all the vomiting and fevers finally stopped, I’ve begun to recover though I still have only left the apartment to go to the grocery store down the street. Sooo now I know why people come back from South Asia so skinny. One of my roommates also came down with ... read more
June 16th 2008
To get to work, I am picked up and dropped off by a van in a large traffic circle, which is a 15 to 20 minute walk to my home, depending on how long it takes to cross the road. I tend to take a rickshaw in the morning because it’s so early and in the evening I walk home since I’ve been sitting all day. I often get children, mothers with babies, disabled people, old people calling “Madam! Madam!” and running up to me for money. Usually I’m trying to avoid attention from everybody so I keep walking. On Monday I was feeling a little different because I had a good day at work and had also given to a beggar for the first time that morning—a mango to a mother. So sure enough, ... read more
June 14th 2008
Kairul claims he is 18, but it is highly unlikely that he is over 15. His waist is not much wider than the bicycle seat that he hovers over, and his legs are barely long enough for him to reach the pedals while seated. He spends most of his work day peddling standing up. His pre-pubescent looks aside, Kairul’s boyish curiosity and fascination with the world also give away his age. As he peddles down the streets of Dhaka, avoiding gaping potholes and confidently pulling u-turns in the middle of oncoming traffic, I often catch him letting his eyes wander around and up. Airplanes capture his attention fairly consistently, and he is fond of pointing out architectural curiosities. “Khub shundar,” he announced one evening as we curved around a traffic circle featuring a modern silver sculpture ... read more
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June 13th 2008
Tomorrow marks two weeks from my arrival in Bangladesh. Everything has happened so quickly, and already I feel that I’ve come a long way from my first days in the country, when I was positive that my body would never adjust to the heat and that I would never figure out how to say “dhonobad” (thank you) properly. I landed in Dhaka at 6 am on a Saturday and was met at the airport by Elizabeth—the girl whose position I am taking—and a wall of hot sticky air. We hit the ground running, and after a full day in Dhaka we loaded a launch boat on Saturday night, headed down river to the field site where our research is done. In Barisal, a rural district crisscrossed by waterways, we conducted site visits and checked in on ... read more
June 12th 2008
I finally left Dhaka. I suppose it was about time since there is an entire country and continent that is left to see outside this metropolis. I planned to spend two nights in Matlab, though I ended up shortening it to one night for various reasons. The trip started early at 7:00AM when a car came to my apartment to pick me up. From that I switched to a van, which jostled and honked its way out of Dhaka’s morning commute. After about an hour and a half, we stopped in this little town. A few boys around nine years old rushed to the van to carry the passengers’ belongings but I insisted on carrying my own. This country has been a confusing twist of needing to be very independent and yet let others do menial ... read more
June 10th 2008
Hi all, I swapped onto this flight. Its not a very popular one and after doing it I cant really see why- yes it is busy and hard as most travelling dont speak English but all the passengers are lovely x I was unsure as what there was to see/do in Dhaka as most crew tell you that its the best places to buy copied dvds but I was looking for a bit more than that!!!! I had heard of an orphanage you could visit and had come armed with crayons, pencils and drawing books hoping that some of the crew would join me. I enquired at the reception, who organised me a taxi and also got 3 other crew to join me!!!!! The journey was amazing to see- the roads were muddy dirt tracks with ... read more
June 8th 2008
Friday I found myself going past car-packed white mosques to a centuries-old quiet church. Located in the heart of Old Dhaka, the Armenian church is a remnant from a forgotten past when the Armenians (bizarrely enough) become powerful landowners in Bangladesh. Being the oldest of Christian societies, the Armenians brought their religion with them over the Asian continent and built this church centuries ago. It stands as one of the few churches left in Dhaka among thousands of mosques. It’s not easy to find if you come to Dhaka. Old Dhaka is low-lying along the windy and wide Buriganga River. What one’s initial visual (and visceral) image of Dhaka is Old Dhaka. It’s third world, overpopulated city life at its purest. The streets are narrow, winding, unmarked, and unpaved. There is nothing but people, animals, ... read more
June 5th 2008
The world changes when you’ve got a man around. Our third flatmate, Luke, began work at ICDDR,B in the clinical division working on a cholera surveillance project. So yesterday I began to commute with someone else, which was a welcome relief after a disastrous trip home on Tuesday. I’ll drop my feminism a bit and admit that I never feel vulnerable when I am with a man here. Even when we have an adventure like figuring out the ridiculous bus system. But on Tuesday, I picked up a rickshaw after work whose driver told me he could take me to Gulshan. Great, I thought, and hopped on. He took me through alleys and small streets, which in heavy traffic is the way rickshaws avoid the congested main roads. These alleys and small streets are still ... read more
