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Published: November 26th 2009
Hi Everyone
It’s been a couple of weeks since our last update and we have been on some serious adventures since then so make sure you read. It’s worth it!
OK so Bangladesh. WOW. What an interesting country it has been. Its hard to understand why so few tourists come here being so close to South East Asia and India etc. Bangladesh is seriously off the beaten track and during our stay here we only saw 6 foreigners in the whole country. This made all our experiences that little bit sweeter.
First some random facts:
1. 32 people die in Bangladesh per day due to road traffic accidents. That’s 12 000 per year! The guide book suggests that during your stay in Bangladesh you will very likely be involved in an accident in one way or another. This was true!
2. Bangladesh averages 5 major ferry boat sinking’s every year with 100 people drowning!
3. Bangladesh has the 3rd highest population of Muslims after Pakistan and Indonesia
4. Dhaka is the most densely populated city in the world
5. There are thought to be over 600 000 cycle rickshaws working the streets of Dhaka
6. In the
Sunderbans, in the south of the country, there are around 200-450 Royal Benga Tigers which is the highest density of tigers in the world.
7. The Sunderbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world.
8. 120 people a year are eaten by tigers in Bangladesh whilst collecting honey in the forests.
9. There are many archeological sites in Bangladesh, described in guide books as “Indiana Jones-like play grounds” that you will have all to yourself.
10. One of the only places in the world where Otter fishing is still practiced.
So with this in mind we decided to go to the Sunderbans to hunt some tigers, use public buses everywhere, try and cross the road in Dhaka and get The Rocket (paddle steamer ferry) up the Padma river from Khulna to Dhaka. Travel insurance: Check!
We were only given a 2 week visa so it was a flying visit but seriously worth it. We arrived in the Indian/Bangladeshi border town of Benapole and hopped on a bus to Khulna which is the capital of the southern division.
Khulna
Upon arrival we were greeted by much starring and shouting from people in the street including “hello”, “brother/sister”
and “your country?”. We were fully prepared for this and instantly agreed that the looks from the locals were a lot more inquisitive than the slightly more uncomfortable Indian stare (mainly from the men folk). After getting lost we decided to ask a random guy which road we were on and before you knew it, there were massive crowds of people all around us staring interested in what was going on - This was pretty much the experience for the rest of our time in Bangladesh. We were celebrities! On our first night we went straight out and sampled some Bangladeshi sweets. We discovered Chum Chum (see picture). Trust me when I say this is the best sweet we’ve have had on this trip.
Khulna is a central place to stay while going on lots of little day trips which again is another great aspect of Bangladesh. Find a big town, use it as a base and take day trips to see the surrounding smaller villages. Anyway, on our second day in Khulna nothing went right. We lost our guide book, (here are no book shops, English speaking people or Internet cafes anywhere so you need one), a visit
to the Sunderbans turned out to be way to expensive, the boat ticket booking office was closed. So we jumped on a bus to Bagerhat (town about 50 km away with some interesting mosques etc) and the day went from bad to amazing. We rocked up at this impressive mosque and were greeted by lots of smiling faces, people praying, people selling chickens and everyone wanting to know who we were and what relation to one another we were (married was the definitive answer). We then noticed a lake behind the mosque which looked nice and decided to check it out. We were met by a guy who spoke perfect English and had a chat with him and his family (photos of me with his son compulsory of course). I mentioned that we were having difficulty booking the rocket boat to Dhaka (which has to be done well in advance otherwise you wont get a cabin). He explained that he was a Major in the army (Major Russell) and his brother was in charge of all boat bookings within Bangladesh and he would ring him now and book the boat. Again this is another typical trait of Bangladesh. Things seem
to be going wrong and some random thing will happen to put you back on track. By this stage there were around 50 people gathered around us watching us talk. Then another lad started talking to us and said he would be in Dhaka in 4 days and would help us with extending our visa in the immigration office. WOW WOW. With big smiling faces we then turned around to see the next WOW - a huge crocodile swimming in the lake towards us. It was “feeding time” and everyone rushed to the steps armed with mobile phone cameras to watch a guy slaughter a live chicken, cut it up into small pieces and practically hand-feed the croc. I’m not exaggerating when I say this thing was massive and completely wild. While this is going on there are kids about 20 meters away swimming and bathing.
We said our goodbyes and headed to a nearby market where we were met by people who gave us free sugar cane (see picture). There was fish, fruit and veg and meat for sale with a lake and jungle as a backdrop and we noticed everyone want US to take photos of THEM,
and not the other way round. (Yet another aspect of Bangladesh - they love having their photo taken). We then jumped on a rickshaw and made our way towards another mosque about 5km away. On the way, this guy on a bike was behind us and started chatting. He spoke good English too and invited us back to his home in the country side. We aborted mission on the mosque and went back to his house. His family knocked up an amazing rice and fish dish and we chatted for a while. He was so generous and paid for buses and rickshaws for us and tea on the way home.
The next day we decided to go to a town called Mongla and visit the Sunderbans on a much cheaper shorter day trip. Before boarding I bought a couple of Longis (The skirts the guys wear out here) and was the talk of the town as I walked around. I’m not quite sure weather they were taking this pi$$ out of me or genuinely liked it but it seemed to cause a real topic of discussion amongst the locals. Anyway, we did the day trip to the Sunderbans which
Chum-Chum dealer - Khulna
Warning: Chum-Chum ARE addictivewas a bit of a disappointment. It was basically a small forest with a raised platform from which you could walk and view wildlife (4 monkeys and a couple of crabs). It was mentioned that a tiger has become used to the people around this part of the forest and it’s possible to see it if your lucky……. we weren’t. We came to one particular path and were told we weren’t allowed to walk down it because there were tigers and it was dangerous!!!!! DAMN. We were taken to see some other monkeys, this time in cages, and a couple of caged spotted deer which we fed peanuts. After the trip we headed back home on a local bus which broke down (one of 4 bus break downs on the trip).
The final day of Khulna we decided to get a little adventurous and see some “otter fishing” (read on for an explanation of otter fishing and a diagram). This involves some crazy trip to some remote village (Gobra), via buses, boats, rickshaws and motorbikes. The locals here don’t speak any English and there are no hotels so you have to sweet talk a local and stay with them
or sleep on the street. It’s suggested that the locals see around 2 or 3 foreigners per year. After VV did her routine fortnightly post-bus ride puke we arrived and set about finding a fisherman with otters. We found a guy who took us to a family. After meeting the entire village (not a word of English spoken) and ate food with them we established that they weren’t fisherman and they don’t have otters…… This was going to be a long day. We then jumped on a motor boat and went down river to another village. Halfway down the river we spotted a school of river dolphins. Another unexpected treat! To cut a long story short, we found a local fisherman with otters went out on a boat in the pitch black and watched them fish. Otter fishing consists of a crew of four men, two paddlers and two fishermen controlling the net and the otters. The two otters which are kept in a cage have a collar round their necks with a rope attached which is then attached to a long bamboo pole. A large net attached to the boat (also controlled by poles) is laid on the bottom
of the river bed and the otters are controlled by the pole to swim around and chase the fish into the net. The fishermen then lift the net up to see what they have caught (in our case small fry and fresh water prawns). It was a totally unique experience and combined with the Muslim call for prayer somewhere on the horizon and fire flies in their hundreds was an unforgettable experience.
END PART I
Please read the 2nd Blog post for Bangladesh - Part II
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joe
non-member comment
photos
hello..i am going to bd for a month starting jan 9th...i would like to take your photos and give them to the people in the pic.i am going to kuhlna...staying with a cricket team for a week and 3 days in bagerhat...i have a program called..make a family smile..each place i go to..i take 10 family photos and give them as gifts...