Hotel Sweet Dream Dhaka City

... with the kids and thinking about disabled issues.

We fitted in a trip to Dhaka for some sightseeing and took a boat trip on the waterways which was fun and we caused a stir as people spotted the 8 white people in the boat! I was amazed to see how different Dhaka is these days as they've banned all the petrol and diesel burning vehicles from the city. Everything runs on Compressed Natural Gas - buses, cars, baby taxis and all. The air is the cleanest I've ever ...

... desorienteret person med om bord. Vi havde lige boarded og fundet vores sæder, da folk længere nede i kabinen begyndte at råbe om hjælp samtidig med at tre til fire mennesker fastholdt en person. Åbenbart kunne vedkommende ikke klare presset og tog derfor kvælertag på personen foran ham. Da manden blev ført ud af flyet var han utrolig flov og flere gange ved at besvime mens han blik nærmest var fraværende. Men hvad tænker man når man hører folk råbe på hjælp ...

... that we could make it would be to jump on a plane to Bangkok and hitch rapidly up to Laos, but we desperately don't want to get on an aeroplane, for fear of cancelling out all the hard hitching that we have done over the last five months. There are seemingly no attractive options remaining and we just don't know what to do. It's either wait in Dhaka for at least a month to possibly still get rejected entry by a farcical Burmese government, go the ...

... 2-3 times a day). I don't know were any of my things are because I'm still living out of a suitcase because I'm too excited to see Dhaka than to unpack! The view from my apartment is gorgeous. All 3 bedrooms have balconies, including the living room, and I oversee the Egyptian Embassy, which holds a gorgeous green garden in the back. I wake up in the morning to sunshine and a green garden, which makes me forget that I am in one of the densest populated cities in the world ...

... parked trucks - lots of colorful paint decorates this tree in place of the bark that has been shaved off as various buses snake through slowly past yet another obstacle. At one point, the bus looked as if it were about to tip over and fall to its side right there in the rice paddies. When we were finally allowed back onto the bus, one older Indian couple asked, "so, did you have any new experience?" This was just the beginning. Dhaka awaits.

... After a ropy nights sleep we got up to catch our internal flight to Sylhet. We managed to get a seat, and got onboard. The flight to sylhet is a 45 minute journey. The actual distance is not too great, in UK terms, however the roads are not in a very good state and the road journey would have been a good 5 hours. We arrived just before lunch, over 2 days after we left the UK! We were greeted by members of my family ...

So, nowaays, we're rushing around everywhere.... And I just wanted to let the word out that I am ok. We survived getting lost on a baby taxi who didn't where Aarong was!!!! (Aarong is a HUGE store that is fully ethical and made in Bangladesh and everybody knows where it is jeez...) We've been NGO visiting. We went to a urban slum last friday which was heart- wrenching. They showed me the water ...

... Each bus has a lad or 'bus wallah' whose job it is to loudly declare the bus destination to potential passengers as the driver urgently inches the bus forward. He bundles takers onto the bus with force and inevitably the bus then sits there for at least another 15 minutes. When the bus does get going it generally stops about 100m down the road for fuel. When the bus finally gets going (at dangerously high speeds) these guys spend the rest of their time ...

... bull, it has to be of a certain build and stature easy enough I thought looking at the amount of cattle in the market. I was wrong nothing in this market in our local town was worth while. The hunt goes on! While we were there though we bought 2 sheep and 4 baby chickens, I couldn't resist I had to have something weird as pets! The sheep and chicken will go to my grandmother who promised not to slaughter them and eat them ...

... ending, we've greatly enjoyed our 66 days in Bangladesh across the two visits.  And contrary to the old football adage of not returning to scenes of former success, our return trip as been as good, if not better, than the first.   What next, then?  Well, when we get home we'll spend a few moments mulling over our top 31 destinations from the past 2 years.   And then we'll be spending a not inconsiderable amount of time watching Carlisle United to see if they can make ...