Radisson Water Garden Hotel Dhaka City

... pass the cleansing fire around and we were even sprayed with the blessed water to complete the ceremony.

All too soon it was time to leave the centre and head off on our travels again. It had been really enjoyable to be back and everyone was so friendly and welcoming to us even though we were only there for such a short time.
We began the next leg of our onwards journey with a bus trip to Rangpur in the North West of Bangladesh and arrived there in the ...

... we h*d no B*ngl*deshi currency (due to currency conversion mish*ps) This w*s just the st*rt of the hospit*lity we were shown by r*ndom B*ngl*deshis. The bus w*s only suppose to t*ke 12 hours but due to the monsoon, ferry lines *nd tr*ffic j*ms it took w*y longer. The ride would h*ve been even worse if our bus did not cont*in * member of P*rli*ment from P*kist*n. Bec*use of him we were *ble to drive to the front of the ...

... entire trip! It is the annual Muslim festival of Eid today - which is like the Muslim version of our Christmas - and we went with our Swedish friends to a local house to witness the sacrifice of one goat and our friend, Daisy the cow, both of whom were promptly killed, chopped up, cooked and then eaten. We had to restrain our Vegetarian friend, Evan, from starting a nude, "Meat is murder" protest at one point, but appartenly it's not all one way traffic: one guy got gauged by a ...

The Dhaka Ahsania Mission is a humanitarian organization based in Bangladesh that has taken a giant leap towards setting up a state of the art modern Cancer hospital to alleviate the sufferings of people who have currently no access to specialized medical treatment of Cancer. This hospital project is the result of a remarkable initiative taken by Kazi Rafiqul Alam, the visionary president of the Mission which is dedicated to humanitarian ...

... each spear attempt, but I keep going of course. Until....two men seize the tool from me and proceed to mimic my actions. In exaggerated form, they demonstrate my pathetic use of the tool. I'm mortified. Rage. Embarrassment. The crowd laughs. They're putting on a show and I'm the butt of the joke. By the time my anger and my emotions have partially subsided, the two men have proceeded to ask for Taka. What! They have the audacity to come grab tools from me, make a mockery of ...

... t manage to crack my excellent mood. At Kathmandu, the fight attendant had advised me to have my check in luggage sent straight through to Bangkok, So I crossed my heart and vouched to buy me and my luggage a beer, were we eventually to be reunited again in Bangkok (which is always a good idea). But on arrival at Dhaka, the fun started. Gently making my way towards the central transit desk to have my accommodation sorted out, I found the desk surrounded by about a ...

It's been over a week since I am in Bangladesh and the time has been at times grand, difficult, hot, humid, tense, funny... I apologise in advance for the lack of picture so far, I'm currently at my aunt's house as my grandfather doesn't have a computer at his house and silly me, I forgot to bring along my camera to download the photos but I'll get to it soon, I promise! Let me try and remember all thats happened. First of all, just arriving in the country was an ...

... AT LEAST FIVE DEAD AS PICNICKERS GO BESERK!' Glad we avoided that one. Our next stop is to visit one of Dhaka's famous artists who specialises in 'rickshaw art'. His name is Ahmed and once we have got him out of bed (!) he shows us his artwork, all of which is painted on sheets of metal. His designs range from traditional river scenes to folk designs, and our personal favourite, the Bangla movie posters. These ones are awesomely gruesome and he can ...

... they research the growth of tea plantation. We didn't get a guided tour or anything, we just walked around. They were acres and acres of tea plantation, separated into sectors, labeled with the experiment going on. In some sectors you can see the obvious results of an experiment when batches of plants have died! It was very picturesque. Day 14 - Rashidpur Tea Estate (Duncan Brothers) One of my mum's brothers works at ...

... Bangladesh is a stone-free country.  Great for gardening, not so good for making concrete.  Beside each new building site (and there are lots), you'll see a pile of newly fired bricks slowly being hammered into tiny pieces by a man, woman or child squatting on their haunches beneath the shade of an umbrella.  Turn your gaze to the street in front of them and you see cars and lorries alike frustrated by the mass of rickshaws.  On the front of each ...