Blogs from Dhaka, Bangladesh, Asia - page 12

My trip to Bangladesh last December 2007. I landed in Chennai, India first, coming from my country and from there i went to Kolkata. Stayed only a day in each city then i flew to Dhaka on the mythical Biman ! First i had to spend nearly 10 hours in Kolkata airport as the (in)famous Biman announced some hours delay. A second announcement was made and while all passengers was about to say "ouf !", a sweet voice announced once more that we will have a small delay again ! WTF !!! We finally took-off at around 22:30 while the initial departure was scheduled at around 12:30. So i reached Dhaka a bit after midnight and went through immi and customs procedures. Backpack loaded on my shoulders, i made my way out to look for a ... read more

Everything thinks their daily life is pretty boring (us included) but I always want to know details of how other people live so I thought maybe someone else might to... Here are a selection of photos from our life here in Dhaka. Warning: they are almost exclusively of us and our students so if you are not interested in our professional life, switch to another blog pronto!! ... read more

hello there friends. its official--i have spent nearly 24 hours in our new country! for my spring holidays i decided to sneak a peek into the crystal ball and figure out why everyone is raving about dhaka. no...wait...i guess by everyone i mean me. and "raving" may not be the best choice of words. anyway, without getting into a semantic migrane, lets move on. i wanted to see what life was holding for jen and i next year. i wanted to visit the school. i wanted to visit my good friends justin and kelly. as a seasoned traveller i know that pinning all hope on first impressions is a terrible thing to do. however, i must say that this place, even though i could be on the surface of mars, really has a quirky laidback charm ... read more

Although living in Dhaka can be tough at times, there are some great things about it, for me. I fully realise some points in the list below can't be enjoyed by everyone in B'desh whether as a tourist or a resident, but there you have it. I'm well aware I'm incredibly lucky to be in this country and enjoy so much of it in ways many millions of people here can't due to not being British/white/able to earn a half-decent salary (I work at a local school and earn a local salary, but I know it's still more than the majority)/other factors I'm well aware of. I'm just trying to defend myself a bit here as I've had a few comments about this particular blog entry along the lines of how I sound elitist/prejudiced/patronising etc etc, ... read more

Blogger Becca A few thousand bricks, a local community keen for a new house, and about 12 munchkins desperate to show off their ENTIRE wardrobe - that's our Habitat for Humanity experience here in Dhaka! Mum, Dad and Owen are here and they wanted a real "Dhaka experience". So, instead of the normal Christmas, our family decided to do a service based Christmas instead. We chose a Habitat for Humanity build in a Christian community outside of Dhaka. A group of families within the community get together and helps build each other's new homes. I didn't know this but the local families actually have to pay back the cost of the materials used in the build: I always assumed that the new house was a donation. We left Dhaka city early-ish after a quick breakfast ... read more