Blogs from Bangladesh, Asia - page 8

The vegetable market is alive! In the early morning hours, in the crush of rickshaws and carts, characters and cauliflower, amongst baskets brimming with produce of sufficient variety to tantalise a distinguished chef, in the confinement of the rough laneway between Shaheb Bazar and the riverbank, Rajshahi plays its charade as a city much bigger than its actual size. The enthusiasm of sellers, energy of transporters and the discerning inspection of buyers is a strange antidote to the bustle of Dhaka, but its how a random weekend out of the capital begins. Like any such market in Bangladesh it’s photogenic, and there’s real milk tea from that seller on the main street corner to fuel the brief exploration, for though congested the market isn’t big. In some countries people mind it if you snap their picture, ... read more

There was enormous freedom when I was young, nine or ten years old. My friends and I, we’d dump our bikes in a park somewhere and head off into the bush for daylight hours, exploring overgrown tracks, spotting turtles, catching lizards, tadpoles and small fish called guppies. When we came back our bikes were right where they’d been left. Life was largely carefree. In northern Sydney there are patches of eucalypt forest everywhere; the topography is of small hills and contaminated orange-tinged creeks. We’d make mud jumps for our bikes; or slides down a muddy bank into the polluted water. We’d do dangerous things like exploring the network of large stormwater drains armed at best with a torch. It did for spelunking adventures. On weekends, our parents rarely knew where we were, expecting only that we’d ... read more

I’ve never been to Gaibandha, and yet I feel I know something of it. Dhakan days are filled with rickshaws and CNGs. Like for most of the rest, for me the As to Bs are best covered this way. Both transport forms are to be enjoyed, especially because each journey is so personal. Without getting hung up on the over-chargers or the ones who won’t take you where you want to go, there is so much fun to be had along the way and what’s more, it’s a great opportunity to learn something about Bangladesh, in particular the appreciation Bangladeshi have for humour. Commuting in Dhaka, despite the jams, is almost always a pleasure. It so happened that one evening I and five of my friends should go from Bailey Road to a friend’s place in ... read more

We were invited to a wedding celebration out in the village, just past Tongi. It took us a few hours to get there, but once we were there it was really nice to be out of the city and outside in the fresh air. It was our first time attending a local wedding and we were really excited! The traditions that go along with weddings here are so numerous and intricate that we are still learning about them all! We got to witness a few of these in person, including the eating of sweets and the wedding marching band. Mitu looked absolutely beautiful! Her family warmly welcomed us into their home and made sure we ate and danced as much as possible. We had a good time! We will try and post a video on here ... read more

For more of my photos, or to buy my book, please visit www.nickkembel.com Upon hearing ‘Bangladesh’, most people will naturally ponder various images, which come to them primarily from the media. I did once too. Natural catastrophes that take tens, even hundreds of thousands of lives, over, and over, and over again. The most crowded nation on earth. One of the poorest too. The country is viewed essentially as a write-off by much of the world, a forgotten land where human and natural suffering exist on a scale so grand that few of us can handle the burden of even imagining that we could in some way help, or even worse, actually want to go there. But I want to ignore those ideas, tell you a few things that you probably don’t know about the ... read more