Far Side of the World

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***** Photo uploading having a problem, ill try to fix it this evening ****

Hello All!

I have safely arrived in Bangladesh from America and I have started wandering around the city with Nabil and Nabil's family.

My trip to Bangladesh went very very smoothly. I had a nice seatmate for the trip to London and he and I talked for a while until I tried to eventually get to sleep. It turns out his kid is a member of an indie-rock group Annathallo that I have heard of. He is going to send me a CD when he gets home to America. He is a hospitality professor and we had a whole range of interesting discussions. My layover of 6 hours in London went fine and I dont think I will have any problems on the way back with a layover of 2 hours. While I was sitting at the airport I took a look at the photos on my camera and found that I have what certainly appear to be UFOs in the picture. Now I am certainly a skeptic of the existence of UFOs, but i have to say that I have no better explanation for the things in the picture below. We thought maybe it was a plane, and it really has to be, but now I understand why people think they see UFOs.

Once I stepped onto the plane and departed for Bangladesh the trip really began for me. Going to London is almost second-nature for me now, but taking the trip to Bangladesh brought it home for me. On the way to Bangladesh we flew over India, and I saw the most impressive sunrise of my entire life. I tried to capture it with the camera, but suffice to say that the real deal was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The Himalayas peeking though the clouds and a rainbow-colored sky... absolutely beautiful. Arriving in Bangladesh was also smooth, when I arrived at the airport my bags were waiting for me and going through customs was a breeze. Nabil and his mother were waiting for me when I exited to my great relief.

Surprisingly I was quite awake when I arrived after my marathon voyage. I took a shower and we had a very American breakfast of sausage omelette and a wide selection of other things. I think they are trying to make the transition easy on me. After eating we went for a drive - I will never get behind the wheel of a car in this city. Traffic is a nightmare and I see why people hire drivers as it is a very skilled profession. Perhaps I will try to take some photos and show you why it is a nightmare. We had ice cream at Movenpick, a Swiss ice-cream shop, though pretty much all other ice cream is not safe to eat unfortunately - food poisoning alert.

Much has been written about the poverty and begging situation in Bangladesh, and I feel I must put in my two cents too. As I remarked to Nabil's family, I feel like I am walking through the National Geographic. I've been to all these places before, but being here is something else. The beggars are the hardest part of this trip. As we pulled into their gated community the first time a man stuck his face on the window and yelled out to us. This was my first exposure to the beggars in Dhaka and unfortunately it is far from the last. It is heart-wrenching to see the level of destitution in Dhaka city. I feel on the verge of tears when a woman comes up to me with a wide-eyed baby and asks for spare change. Even though she may have stolen the baby to improve her begging odds, it is still painful to have to say no, sorry, I can't help you. Nabil has helped me break some of the larger bills so that i can do my part, but you cant help everyone.

We drove around getting reservations for the trains and planes that will get us to and around India in the coming weeks which gave me a nice tour of the city. I think we are all set for India now.

We spent some time yesterday afternoon installing an air conditioning unit and it made a big difference. The unit wasnt terribly compatible with the window, but with a little bit of ingenuity we made it work. Today we wired up the vent to the grate so it wont go anywhere if it gets knocked around.

I had a nice trip to Nabil's friend Issam's house and we looked down on a shanty-town on the edge of a lake. We saw two young kids on a hand-made boat of a sheet of styrofoam that they went cruising around on. It even had a canopy made from a light cloth. It began to rain so we went back inside. Everyone has been very welcoming of me and I am having an incredible experience.

Last night we had dinner at Pizza Hut and I was falling asleep due to about 3 hours of sleep in almost 2 days. Im amazed that I lasted that long. We got home and crawled into our mosquito nets and I promptly fell asleep.

I have taken some photos but I plan on taking many more. Some of the photos are posted here.

We went to the market today. Friday is the holy day of the week and the market is a sensory overload. In the meat section of the market are freshley slaughtered goats and cows and in the vegetable section are every variety of fruit and vegetable. It smells very very pungent. Most of the smells are coming from the rotting slime on the ground, which can't possibly be sanitary. All of the kids working at the market wanted their photos taken and we obliged for many of them. We got the photos developed and are going to give the photos to the kids this afternoon.

Tomorrow or tonight I hope to write an essay about my internal ethical discussion about photography here and post it to the site. Until then, enjoy the photos and hope everyone is well.

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Comments

[Duncan]

Photos?
thought you'd like to know that some of the photos are not viewable. Perhaps the resolutions was too great? Only pix I can see are the first view from the airplane and the installation of the air conditioner. Perhaps the UFOs have attacked your camera? Love hearing about your trip. I'll be interested in your comments about the ethics of taking photos. Dad

[Basha]

wow
fyi: i can see the pics fine on my mac, so i enjoy your photos as always. i like your mosquito protection and the views we dont see on the travel channel. what does nabil and his family think about the poverty situation?

[Anita]

cool pics ian =) sounds like you're having a blast! keep posting entries -they're fun to read!