Rockstar Feeling

Did you ever feel like a Rockstar? Well if you have white skin, light hair and look somehow Western then come to Bangladesh. The tourist office at the airport had a sign saying ‘Visit Bangladesh before the tourist come’ – so true indeed. In my time in Bangladesh I have seen maybe a handful for tourists, if even. So once you walk in the street you are surrounded by locals who are interested in you. In other countries I am quite wary about touts and others who basically want your cash but any suspicion in Bangladesh proofed to be wrong. So why did he walk with you for an hour through the village, explained you things, helped you to find the river crossing or asked what not and then just left after taking a picture with you? Didn’t he forget to ask you for money as he acted as your guide? No, he was only curious what this white face does all day and why he looks so interested at people carrying bricks. I seriously don’t want to know how many pictures have been taken of me and how many I will find one day on facebook or where not, but see it from the good side: if they take pictures of you you can take shots of them. So keep smiling and take the hundreds of questions, comments and looks with ease. Sometimes I feel like a rockstar or like Paris Hilton. Well, the only difference is that Paris wouldn’t be asked where she is from or what her name is. And, she would probably not walk in this kind of areas anyway…

National Assembly - by Louis Kahn

You might have watched the movie ‘My Architect’ about the life and work of Louis Kahn. At least for me it was one of the major reasons to come to Bangladesh. I wanted to see the (in)famous building which is loved by some and hated by the others. Yes it is brutal, but for the Bangladeshis it is a sign of their independence and hence the few I spoke to loved it. I remember a cab ride in Sydney with a Bangladeshi driver, he was telling me proudly about it.

Construction started in 1961 initiated by the Government of Pakistan and it was only finished in 1982. Louis Kahn died in 1974 and hence hasn't seen his building himself. 

Sadly I hadn’t had a chance to see it from inside. I tried to gain access but apparently you need a special permission which is only granted to people who have special connections – well that wasn’t me. I was thinking of the German Reichstag which is open to the public and you can literally walk on top of the politicians – for the history conscious German s it is a symbol for transparency of their politics.

In the chaos of Dhaka, the building is a great achievement. I can only imagine the tranquil environment in the huge voids once you made it inside. Let’s hope that the tranquility can somehow contribute to change the future of the country to its better.  more images

Plan: greatbuildings.com

Rushing Roulette - Bus travel in Bangladesh



Take a train when ever you can...

The Lonely Planet describes bus travel as 'Rushing Roulette' and recommends train travel by any means. So far so good but what if the train is booked out or there is no train line at all? Apparently 12.000 people die every year in road accidents, even considering a population of 160 million that is pretty high. One local told me that Bangladesh has not a single vehicle without scratches. While I am writing this lines, I am happy to announce that I survived it. On the other hand I am surprised about it. Sitting in a bus - don't forget to chose a seat on the left side in the back to have to the highest chance of survival - there is this feeling of no tomorrow. The rule is the bigger you (the car) are, the more right of way you have. If you are smaller give in (or not) and if you are equal then good luck. Basically the driver will overtake every time and everywhere only announced by an angry sound of the horn. God sake I took my ipod to avoid hearing what is going on. But then the bus moves right, pushes the engine to its maximum before it sharply presses to the left just Milli seconds before impact with the incoming traffic. Survived - well for a minute until the next manoeuvre... After spending 9 hours on the road the odds for the roulette are pretty good. Is it time to fill out a lottery ticket?

No wonder buses are scratched...if it would only be scratches!

Another close call...

Poverty

Sometimes we should be just grateful of the opportunities and wealth we have. Traveling in developing countries puts our perception back into perspective. At home we complain when the bus is a minute late, the cappuccino too hot or the water in the pool a degree too cold. There is an awful lot of people in the world who don’t have this kind of problems as they have to survive day by day. The lucky ones have a little business like shoe cleaning or fruit selling but some have to come by begging. As a Westerner you are being approached quite a bit and how to deal with it is sometimes hard. It is a misery. Once you give one of them some money you are usually surrounded by a stream of others and you have to say no at one point.  Another option would be to donate money to the charities but after having seen the big brand new 4WD cars of the Red Cross parked in the most expensive area of Dhaka I wonder how much money gets directly to the people. It feels like whatever you do is not the right way. If you give money to the disabled people some people remind you that some disabilities are being used or even enforced to generate more money (you might have watched ‘Slum dog millionaire’).  I don’t know what the right thing to do is but I don’t give kids money as a principle. Well sometimes I buy them some food but I don’t give them money so that they are encouraged to rather find a job than beg the rest of their life. I try to give my money to the one who don’t have a chance and who are missing the social net to catch them like the elderly or sick people. If you have a better option, let me know.

hard worker

Sundarban National Park - Bangladesh

Somehow it already smelled in Dhaka as an upcoming disaster: my attempted organization of a trip to the Sundarban National Park. The habitat with the highest density of man eating tigers – The Royal Bengal Tiger – that’s at least what I read about it and that’s what brought me here in the first place.  

“Ok, you are in here in the off season (one week after the official season) so there are no boats with 40 people for the standard 3 day/2 night tour, you are on your own.“  Well having 40 people on board didn’t appeal to me anyway as the tiger is shy and need quiet, absolute quiet.  I am in one of the poorest countries on earth, what on earth can a boat for a couple of days for my own little group cost? Mistake, the charge for the boat for would be more than $1000 for a 3day/2 night trip – are you serious? I could probably buy my own boat for that that and hire a skipper.  A couple of days before I paid for a 12 hour journey with the train in 'first class' (kind of) 245 Taka – $3. What is going on here? “Well, you need to pay for the cook, the captain, the guide and the helper…ah and the entry to the park, the photo license...” So what? Salaries are around the $50-80/month here. Then there is talk about the pirates, the jungle, the water level, the dangerous animals… Do you really want me to go in there? I am not sure what exactly is going on, but nobody was really keen on going into the biggest mangrove jungle of the world. That surprised and made me even more curious and we ended up on a one day trip for only about $200 for the both of us! Mistake again. The moment I saw our ‘guide’ meeting us at the hotel I knew we won’t see any wild animal today. He came in his business shirt and pans and in his slippers, just after the night shift at the reception in the hotel. Congratulations. Tourism Bangladesh had a slogan at the airport: Come to Bangladesh before the tourists come. So true but you don’t make it easy for me either. End of the story, we spent a full day on the road and in the boat cruising down the river to go to the forest headquarter (to pay the entry fee) and see one spotted deer which was fed by the guides with chocolate biscuits. The other animals were some crocodiles in a sad croc farm which are supposedly being released into the wild – or maybe sold and converted into some flash handbags? Second and last stop was a walk with an armed guard around a little lake on a boardwalk. “No, no footprints today” he said "river high”. Has there been ever any tiger around or are they all walking around in form of coats in Moscow’s winter? To my question about how many tigers he has seen in all his years (to his look I am sure he worked there the last 30 years) he said “Maybe one or two times” – Why on earth do you carry a gun I ask myself? We are here at lunch time as it takes ages to get there. At least he likes a tip our guide said. Ok, time to go now, a long boat ride back and a long drive back is ahead of us. Thank you for the fantastic day – not. On the way back we came pass some little fishing villages, probably the real highlight of the day.

I am not sure what exactly is going on there, but something smells here - and it is not the missing poo of the big kitty. more images

No animal which wouldn't love some chocolate buscuit so that
the tourist can take a photo.

Sorry, which way again to the tiger? No,
this is not Taronga Zoo!

Khulna and Bagerhat - Bangladesh

Khulna is the gateway to the Sundabarn National Park and most people don’t spend a lot of time in or around the place. It is not a spectacular city but for me it is the simple life which makes it so interesting. Just watch the hords of people unloading a barge full of bricks, watch the local carpenter carving wood or just go the market. Life as it was probably hundreds of years ago, simple and hard but no reason not to smile.
East of Khulna is Bagerhat with its mosques from the 15^th century. Interestingly once the girl with the burka asked me to take a picture of her, she lifted the veil for a better picture of her face… more images

Did you ver try to balance one brick on your head?

Just throw them up there...stacking in Bangladeshi precision.

Watch out the boss is watching!

Chittagong - Bangladesh

Daily life in Chittagong. more images

And some more in real life size...

The cleaning crew from 'Golden Inn Hotel'