First Impressions from Bangladesh!

Ok so first impressions after landing on the ground: It was very busy and hot, even at 5am at the airport, plus people here are crazy on the roads!

In Abu Dhabi, our connection was strange, we had to go through security again even though we had just gotten off a flight. They made us all line up as well as another flight to go through just one metal detector! It took us almost 45 minutes to get through that line! It seems like the protocol is that when the line moves up you have to be quick and move up to an inch behind the person in front of you. And if you step off to the side for just a second, expect the person behind you to quickly fill your spot!

Once we landed in Dhaka we quickly got to passport control but they were slow to check them and let us through. After that we went and got our bags, it seems the suitcase of choice around here is a sort of bag, tied up and rapped in rope all around. Almost every bag on the baggage carousel was in that style or just a simple cardboard box.

The Drive to the Hotel:

Driving was crazy! We only had a couple kids and a mother asking us for money at the airport, we had to push our way through a crowd outside it though. We really just followed the representative that the hotel sent us, they seemed to know to move for him. He, got us a cab and we went back to the hotel.

In Bangladesh is looks like – generally – they drive on the left. However people were also biking and walking along the slow lane of the highway, and there were people sweeping the fast lane! There were lots of open markets and stalls selling stuff at the side of the road, and lots of trucks on the highway. Two of them were driving next to each other with only a couple inches between them going 70 mph! Basically every time you approach something that moves on the highway you honk at it, and when your stopped behind something you honk even more! It is kind of their way of saying “I’m going to do something” like change lanes, turn, accelerate, pass you, etc. Traffic lights are also apparently meaningless. They also have speed bumps and unpaved patches on their highway where everyone has to slow right down. Basically there were so many things going on, and that was just at 5am, it is going to be nuts at 10 when we go to the Bank!

It was sobering to see some of the states that the buildings are in here. Every building looks like it is half finished, as if they were planning to go up more stories but then just didn’t. Buildings that look abandoned, or at least that they should be abandoned have lights on in some of the rooms, so people are clearly living there. It was kind of like the whole city was under construction, our street is all dug up and it looks like they are putting in a sewer or water pipe.

The Highway went though a couple areas of the city, the first had a shanty town on the left, and low rise apartments on the right. Neither looked like nice places to live, eventually there were crumbling low rise apartments on both sides. And then we saw one of the only 2 clean buildings we saw was the Raddison Hotel, which apparently is one of the nicest hotels in Dhaka.

Once we were into the city proper the buildings got taller and nicer, there seemed to be once very nice neighbourhood with new homes and stuff. Ok, I’m off to shower, eat breakfast and then go to the Grameen Bank to get set up with them! I’ll take some pictures and talk about the hotel tonight!

Cheers,

Mike