Blogs from Bangladesh, Asia - page 34

***** Photo uploading having a problem, ill try to fix it this evening **** Hello All! I have safely arrived in Bangladesh from America and I have started wandering around the city with Nabil and Nabil's family. My trip to Bangladesh went very very smoothly. I had a nice seatmate for the trip to London and he and I talked for a while until I tried to eventually get to sleep. It turns out his kid is a member of an indie-rock group Annathallo that I have heard of. He is going to send me a CD when he gets home to America. He is a hospitality professor and we had a whole range of interesting discussions. My layover of 6 hours in London went fine and I dont think I will have any problems on ... read more

Bangladesh is the world's most densely populated country (three times more than Japan) one of the world's poorest, and recently subjected to separatists bombing courts and police stations which all combine to promise a most interesting visit. My initial impressions of it's capital, Dhaka a city with 12.5 million inhabitants, was that it was far cleaner than any comparable Indian city and the poverty that can be so obvious on the sub-continent appeared less so here. Journeying into the old city was a real experience, for it was home to the most congested streets I have ever seen: pedestrians, men and oxen hauling carts, cycle-rickshaws, autorickshaws, buses (both single and double-decker), cars and trucks all formed a seething mass that squeezed through the narrow streets. The traffic system was unique to Dhaka - for by using ... read more

Arrived into Dhaka and set off on the 2 hour bus ride to the hotel which was an experience in itself!! The driving on the roads here is just beyond ridiculous. There seem to be no road rules whatsoever, with trucks, buses, cars and rickshaws all crammed in together making 6 lanes out of 3. As well as this we had all sorts of people knocking on the windows of our van begging for money. From the young kids with amputated limbs, to girls holding infant babies it was a pretty sad sight to see. A few of the crew decided to go out to the local markets not far from our hotel. From the moment we got out of our rickshaw it was like stepping into another world. We literally stopped traffic, i don't know ... read more

Legs dangling from the train, book in hand, watching the Indian plains slowly trundle by. The scenery is beautifully flat and patch-worked with irregularly shaped harvested fields dotted with palms and ancient trees stretching as far and wide as the eye can see. Women in colourful saris carry bails of hay on their heads to serenely primitive villages seemingly built from the stuff. Wispy smoke from cooking fires hangs horizontally and motionless in the air above, whilst water buffalos blissfully unaware of their contribution to the scene bathe in lily filled ponds with birds atop their backs… Every time I look up from my book I’m spellbound - the people and landscape seem entwined in one magnificent timeless collage of life. I have an overwhelming urge to leave the train and walk off on the confusion ... read more