Lodged the first two nights @ the Dutch Club in Dhaka which felt it bit like home. Mostly expats hanging in the bar having beers and chats. Got chatting to a Dutch businessman and learnt that there are some 135,000 different NGOs @ work in Bangladesh, yet the majority of the population remains desperately poor. What's wrong with this picture?
On Day 2 in Dhaka my Bangla host arrives and we organise travel to Khulna. No flights to be had and the only option is an air-conditioned bus -- a 10 hr ride including crossing the very wide Rupsha River -- leaving at 11:00 at night. We sit in Dhaka traffic for hours before even getting on the bus.
Around 1:00 AM we finally get on the road and amazingly I manage to get a few hours sleep. Got to Khulna to find that the hotel that had been booked has been high-jacked by an American delegation of some sort, although there's no foreigner in sight and I'm IT (everyone stares at me wherever we go), so off we go across the street to the Hotel Royal, where the beds have park benches for mattresses. I've requested that we eat local food (when in Rome..) and so far I've eaten rice and mutton, rice and chicken, rice and fish, and more rice. Apart from a bit of cucumber, not a vegetable in sight!
anon..
Around 1:00 AM we finally get on the road and amazingly I manage to get a few hours sleep. Got to Khulna to find that the hotel that had been booked has been high-jacked by an American delegation of some sort, although there's no foreigner in sight and I'm IT (everyone stares at me wherever we go), so off we go across the street to the Hotel Royal, where the beds have park benches for mattresses. I've requested that we eat local food (when in Rome..) and so far I've eaten rice and mutton, rice and chicken, rice and fish, and more rice. Apart from a bit of cucumber, not a vegetable in sight!
anon..
3 comments:
Sounds fascinating Patrice. Hope you have safely arrived at your destination and managed to find some vegies - no hope of being a vego there I imagine! Enjoy. Wendy
What a fascinating journey so far. All the trials of travel; planes that leave late, buses that leave on time with nowhere to go and in between, interesting people to talk to, food to eat (sans veges, though rice is a staple of nations) and more work to come. I look forward to the next chapter, Patrice. - Wayne
such a different reality eh ,makes ballarat seem a bit dull but fortunate, one day a global equity met if the wealthy learn to trully share our common heritage ,safe journey ,look forward to doco. ric.
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