Blogs from Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Asia - page 5

Anyone who has ever travelled in India will know that it doesn't always come easily. Delays, lies, scams and all number of other hassles are simply just something you have to put up with and get used to. To be honest, it all adds to the fun, not necesarily at the time, but afterwards when all you have left are stories and memories. Still, nothing prepared us for Biman Air, Bangladesh's national airline. We found a super-cheap flight from Bangkok to Delhi, but there was a catch: it required spending a night in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The airline provided the hotel, transport, and two meals. Given that it was substantially cheaper than all of the other airlines, and lured by the nice daytime arrival, we decided to go for it. In retrospect, what a ... read more

Friday I found myself going past car-packed white mosques to a centuries-old quiet church. Located in the heart of Old Dhaka, the Armenian church is a remnant from a forgotten past when the Armenians (bizarrely enough) become powerful landowners in Bangladesh. Being the oldest of Christian societies, the Armenians brought their religion with them over the Asian continent and built this church centuries ago. It stands as one of the few churches left in Dhaka among thousands of mosques. It’s not easy to find if you come to Dhaka. Old Dhaka is low-lying along the windy and wide Buriganga River. What one’s initial visual (and visceral) image of Dhaka is Old Dhaka. It’s third world, overpopulated city life at its purest. The streets are narrow, winding, unmarked, and unpaved. There is nothing but people, animals, ... 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