Blogs from Bangladesh, Asia - page 22

Mollie's birthday, yet another Scavenger Hunt. Anyone would think we would be sick of these by now, but it's such a fun way to interact with the locals. They love seeing us do stuff that to them is just their everyday lives, but to us is crazy. The winners of this hunt was determined by everyone voting on the best picture for each task. It was our first loss. We are now 2 for 3. ... read more

Yesterday was fairly uneventful, which can be good and bad. Uneventful leads to not being overexerted and homesick but it can also lead to overthinking and homesick. Not that I feel homesick necessarily. In the morning I did the first level of a work-out video I bought in the States and it was actually really great and kicked my butt a bit. The first work-out video I’ve taken a liking to, I think. Then a car from ICDDRB, my work, came to pick me up. ICDDR,B stands for the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, but it’s locally known as the Cholera Hospital. It was started a view decades ago as a cholera hospital, which treated the large amount of cholera patients Bangladesh saw (and continues to see) throughout the land. They instituted a ... read more

I’m in such a good mood. Work kind of sucked, as observed by my ramblings above, as well as freaking myself out about the H5N1 virus having its first human victim in Bangladesh. This place is fantastic and like nowhere else in the whole world, I think. I’ve been very nervous to do much on my own because the upper class is driven absolutely everywhere. I was somehow afraid I’d step on the street and be swept up by a killer. Or at least have my bag stolen and harassed. But anyway, so my driver took me to have my photo taken (for my work ID card) at a studio but I had to wait an hour and a half for it to be developed so I told him to bring me home. After I ... read more

Today was my first full day in Dhaka, but I don’t know if you can call it that since I slept until 2:30PM, which in my defense is 4:30AM in New York. I also had not had a full night’s sleep since Sunday. I was very tired in Dubai and I know I usually do not cope so well with being very tired, yet I could not sleep because I could not get too comfortable in the vinyl lounge chairs they provided, clutching my heavy backpack, ignoring stares by people, and especially under the Persian sun. So my layover in Dubai was not particularly pleasant though I felt quite safe and it was plenty air-conditioned. My flight to Dhaka was nothing short of awesome. Coincidently (or not so?) I was seated next to the only ... read more

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