Life is a trip – A Busy Life of leisure ~ travels, family, life and whatever takes my fancy……

They say travel broadens the mind and your perspective of the wider world. To think outside your safe little bubble and take the initiative to meet new people is so rewarding. We came with an open mind to Bangladesh and life here isn’t a bowl of cherries. You take the good with the bad and there is plenty of good here with a far to say plenty of bad. What with the terrorist threats that you read about every day in the Dhaka Tribune, two suicide bombers this week in the city and further up the country in Sylhet a 4-day battle is still taking place between militants and commandos. The militants took over the ground floor of two adjacent apartment blocks for hideouts. After 36 hours without food, water or power 78 people were finally rescued from their apartment block by the Dhaka SWAT team. Ladders were placed on the roof from the roof of the adjacent building then the commandos went in floor by floor and evacuated the tenants up to the roof and over the ladder to safety. We have not ever felt threatened or in danger,  I guess like any big city you just keep your wits about you.

Rescue over the roof top!

Lalbagh Fort  – Our visit to the Lalbagh Fort was interesting, weaving in and out of the incredibly narrow crowded streets of old Dhaka and arriving at the site which was open with beautifully tended gardens was like a breath of fresh air. The fort was built in 1677 but never completed as a daughter of the Khan died and it was seen as a bad omen to carry on although her Mausoleum stands in the middle of the complex.

Building sites – No health and safety here! – 19,000 men a year are killed falling from constructions sites because of no safety regulations. These men in the picture below are working on a site behind our apartment, they usually wear jandals, have no hard boots or hats and are building completely by hand. The concrete is mixed on the ground floor and carried up on steel trays on their heads. They start at 7.00am and work until after 5.00pm and stop at 1.00pm for the call to Prayer for half an hour. Occasionally the ‘Boss’ comes over takes a seat and reads his newspaper, despite the conditions these blokes are always smiling and seem to be just getting on with the job.

Building workers outside my window

No health and safety here.

Sadarghat river port terminal and the Burigang  River – (Old Ganges) Boats of all sizes vie for space in this noisy and congested port. It’s the hub where most domestic launches depart and arrive and where most of the goods from other regions of Bangladesh arrive. Amongst the triple decked ferries there are small wooden boats crossing the river with their wares rowed by a single oarsman. You can hire one of these small wooden boats to take you out into the middle of the river but on the day we went it was pandemonium so we gave it a miss. One the opposite side of the river are the sweat shops that make 80% of the worlds jeans, Levis etc.

Rickshaw drivers waiting for passengers at the port

Drumming up business

Passengers settling down for the 8-hour overnight trip

Sweatshops on the opposite river bank

Triple deck  ferries

Tomtoms – Dhaka is a very traditional city and one of the traditions of old Dhaka are these elaborate carriages pulled by two horses called Tomtoms. During the week they are just another means of transportation but on weekends people pay more for joy rides around the city. The poor horses don’t look in very good condition and a lot of the carts are dilapidated.

Very rough rickshaw ride

As we say in New Zealand He tangata, He tangata, He tangata, It is the people, It is the people, It is the people. The most important thing in the world, thats what it comes down to. It’s been my honor to meet with and experience life with these beautiful, friendly and giving people of Bangladesh. We have met gorgeous women, very gracious men, Garth’s team and their families, who have shown wonderful hospitality, humble villagers, our driver Biplop and his adorable son, the cleaners in our apartment and the staff of the Olives who have become like family. I have cried over the hardship and poverty seen on the streets, to help our conscience we give money to some of the said 40,000 beggars we see everyday, blind women with children, disabled people and some incredibly old women. The patience of the people is something for me to reflect on in our crazy nonstop wanting it to happen now lifestyle.  All have been exceptional and won’t be forgotten.

Goodbye Dhaka I wish you peace and prosperity.

Phnom Penh is offering a welcome respite from Dhaka for two weeks. The e-visa was hassle free and it took  only 20 minutes to clear immigration and customs then we were out on the concourse and on our way into the city. The Plantation Spa Hotel is out home for 15 days and thankfully is only a quick Tuk Tuk ride away from the office.

First Impressions: The food is insanely good, the people are friendly and the children are gorgeous.

After a few days pool side luxuriating in the freedom of being outside I penned my plan for the next two weeks.

First stop just behind the hotel and walking distance was The Royal Palace,  a very intricate and ornate set of buildings built around the 1860′ in Khmer style  with a touch of French influence. the palace has meticulously kept gardens facing the river front, beautifully tiled roofs, old murals that are being restored and thousands of Buddhas covered in gold and emeralds. The highlight is the Silver Pagoda which has a floor made of 5000 – 9 inch solid silver tiles most of which are covered with rugs due to tourist damage. The King of Cambodia lives in a separate area within the grounds.

Many people like to compare Cambodia to Vietnam as they share borders but it would seem to me that the two counties are further apart that expected.  The history of Cambodia,  cultural heritage and people are very different, also the geography of the country differs greatly to that of Vietnam. Cambodia is small, has a King and a population that suffered dearly under a deadly

Phnom Penh isn’t a huge tourist pull, there are beautiful hotels and fabulous restaurants and a few place of interest but the biggest tourist destination is Siam Reap, three million visitors a year visit the ruins of Angkor Watt. I’m saving that for my next visit.

Living in Dhaka with the everyday chaos of the roads and constant noise and not really having anywhere much to walk we decided to investigate the International clubs. New Zealand doesn’t have an embassy in Dhaka so we looked at clubs that gave entry into other clubs to keep our options open.

The Bagha Club is affiliated to the British High Commission  and signing up was relatively straight forward if you held an EU passport. One thing about these clubs is that they all serve alcohol so G was able to have a much longed for beer along with a Beef and Guinness pie which perked him up no end.

The expat bubble no doubt exist in this richer part of Dhaka but there is something to be said for these clubs as they do provide a temporary shelter to help foreigners escape the harsh realities of life here which assault your senses on every street corner. They provide air-conditioned restaurants, tennis courts, swimming pools, gyms and spas as well as small libraries. Most offer tennis, art and swimming lessons as well as yoga, they are great places to meet others and to realise you’re not the only foreigners in Dhaka!

There are nine Expat clubs in Dhaka, American, Australian, Bagha, British, Canadian, German, Dutch and The International club. Some are more precious than others, American and Canadian are not open to outsiders, the Australian club isn’t open to Aussies unless they are affiliated with the Embassy which riles the Aussies working here long-term as they have to join other clubs in order to gain entry. So far we have visited the Nordic Club and the Dutch club, their restaurants are up to international standards and are heavily discounted, the food is great .

Sometimes temporarily escaping from the sights of poverty on the streets is what is needed to help you cope.

I love seeing these cycle rickshaws peddling furiously around the narrow flat roads, weaving in and out of the traffic trying to dodge the uneven roads and potholes. It’s not surprising that Dhaka is known as the rickshaw capital of the world there thousands upon thousands on the road at any time of the day.

The peddlers, always men mainly come from rural areas outside of Dhaka and travel in when there is no seasonal work in their villages. Others come from the slums just outside of Dhaka and travel in everyday. The rickshaw wallahs are incredibly fit they have lithe bodies and wiry muscles, it’s incredible to see these small often skeletal men standing up on the bikes peddling furiously with up to four people sitting in the rickshaw who are many times their body weight.

The Rickshaw ‘Industry’ consist of  owners at the top of the ladder followed by manufacturers, mechanics, artists, spare part vendors and others on the chain. The Rickshaw peddlers are considered to be the lowest in the rank.

Most of the  peddlers hire their rickshaws for about 12 cents a day and on a good day depending on the weather can make $4-5.

These brightly coloured rickshaws decorated with symbols and pictures of movie posters are seem mainly outside of the inner circle of Dhaka. Long term expats here often purchase a rickshaw and have them decorated with symbols from their home country, when they leave they donate them to their riksha-wala. We were told that there is a New Zealand number plated rickshaw in Dhaka decorated with Maori designs, I haven’t seen it yet but still looking.

Since the terrorist attack in the diplomatic zone, selected rickshaw peddlers have been trained on security scenarios, their rickshaws are painted yellow and they wear orange and yellow high vis vests with their registration number printed on their backs. Reflective number plates make it easy for the CCTV cameras to identify them. No other rickshaws or buses are allowed within this zone.

Even though there are beautiful  plantations of Banana, Lychee, Mango and many other exotic fruits and vegetables along the way on thing that sticks out is the large number of tobacco fields and  brickworks with towering kiln chimneys spewing out thick black smoke. Because there is very little gravel here bricks are made then broken up to use as an alternative, and the rate of construction her on every available plot of land just fuels the pollution problem.

There are thousands of brickworks throughout Bangladesh and the ones we saw just outside of Dhaka go for mile upon mile, we were told that entire families are employed and the children start working when they are very young. The minimum age isn’t enforced with poor rural families trying to keep themselves alive. They make about $1.50 for carrying 1000 bricks on their heads to the ovens underneath the chimneys, about 12 bricks each time.  Apart from the obvious health hazards from the dust and the smoke farmers in adjoining fields covered in dust are growing cauliflower and cabbages.

In Dhaka city everyday I see women working alongside men working as hod carriers carrying bricks and concrete on their heads day in day Out.

The tobacco industry in Bangladesh is wholly funded by BAT, the British American Tobacco company. Millions are invested by this company into mainly low income countries such as Bangladesh. There is a push to get farmers to switch to alternative crops but industry subsidies make this difficult.

Child labor is rife and during the harvesting season children are pulled from school to work up to 16 hours a day even though Bangladesh has a working minimum age of 14, their health is jeopardized due to the tobacco dust and inhaling smoke from the drying kilns. BAC have investigated claims of child labour  but have reported no abuse of human rights but in all reality enforcement of labour laws are virtually impossible.

The 134 km drive to Jessore took six hours, the drive out of the Dhaka district alone was two hours. The sky in Dhaka is a mix of dust and smoke, a grey muddy haze, the horizon is hemmed in by high rise buildings very little green to be seen, the trees are covered in a thick layer of brown dust which makes then look dead however once you leave the Dhaka district things change dramatically, blue skies and acre upon acre of beautiful agricultural lands harvesting rice, vegetables and fruit, flowers and tobacco.

Between Dhaka and the SW zone the major crossing points are still by ferry and even though our crossing was only 30 minutes over the Padma which is a tributary of the Ganges I was still a little apprehensive as there have been two major ferry capsizes in the last couple of years resulting in many deaths. Cars and small vans take priority, Large trucks have to queue and although there are 8 ferries sometimes their wait goes beyond days. We struck up conversation  with a Bangladeshi doctor and his team on his way to investigate a suspected case of  Zika virus in a nearby village, he told us that due to the lack of water the villagers had cut the top off of the palm trees and made cups to collect the palm juice, unfortunately bats had also drunk from the cups and transmitted the virus t0 the villagers. He was very happy to meet in his words lovely Kiwis and told us he had visited and worked in Christchurch and loved our country.

Jessore is a district that shares a close border in the west to India. It is a typical small town with bustling street markets, roadside stalls, tea stands and narrow winding streets. Our first visit was to the Godkhal  flower market and growing areas. No women are involved in the process of marketing and selling, the women do the hard agricultural management and then the men take over. The market was bustling at 7am like any flower market anywhere there was a lot of noise and jostling as people bartered  for the best bunches. Bangladesh produces mainly Roses, Iris, Cyclamen , Gladioli and Marigold which are traditionally used for religious ceremonies.

Red roses 1000 Taka (about $17 NZ) for 400.

I was a bit of a novelty, flowers being thrust at me from all corners.

The first growing area we visited was run by 25 women, the socialist idea of forming collectives is not in the culture here and each women and their family operated independently, even though they are usually related and very close neighbours. One of the women had built a two storied house in the village mainly by securing a direct buyer for her flowers in Dhaka and cutting out the middle men. The village were very happy to host us and it was a really heartening to hear such a success story, not everything is gloom and doom.

This lovely Mother picked me the biggest rose on her bush.

A quick stop at the Vegetable market

On the way to Bogra we visited a Mango growers village , the group of women growers were very vocal when talking about gender issues, lets hope that the marches and protests for womans rights  around the world that we have  been seeing sometime reach this village of highly animated women who by their religion and family status puts them at a disadvantage.

Beautiful children

Family and friends told me how much they enjoyed reading my blog Highland Fling based on our time spent in South East Asia namely Vietnam and looked forward to reading my updates so the intention of this blog is to stay in touch and maybe stitch together a picture of Bangladesh for anyone who may be interested.

The decision to come to Bangladesh was based on Garth being offered a contract to look at sustainable markets in agriculture, and although we of course miss the family and the familiarity of New Zealand we are not ones to pass up an opportunity to travel and experience life in the ‘developing’ world. This is old hat to G who has spent a lifetime working in Asia but for me its a relatively new experience. Other people and cultures have always captivated me and I love to travel, learn and experience as much as I can while I’m still able. I know that a lot of people questioned whether we should be going to a part of the world that had experienced a nasty terrorist attack on expats very recently here in the Gulshan district of Dhaka so it is reassuring to see security at a premium here and it is in no way going to put me off making the most of my time here.

Dhaka – The Capital of Bangladesh

Just when I thought that 2 plus years in Vietnam had prepared me for life in Asia arriving in Dhaka was to prove me wrong, Patience is a virtue which very quickly kicks in. On first arrival Dhaka seems calamitous, the traffic, the crowds, and the pollution are all an immediate assault on the senses. First impressions of the traffic for one is mayhem, cars, trucks, rickshaws and CNG’s crowd the streets all vying for a space, Pedestrians going about their business weaving in and out of the constant traffic jams, small children knocking on the car windows trying to sell smiley stickers, begging  women with babies, men with limbs missing all an assault on the senses.The west, myself for sure have a natural inbred impatience, it would seem so far that Bangladesh operates on a softer, slower mode where you WILL get there…….. in the end. After spending 40 minutes in the car and moving 400 metres and noticing that your driver is calm and collected and practically asleep you have no choice but to go with the flow. Dhaka is home to 20 million people, its in the top 20 of the most populous cities in the world the fastest growing of the mega cities. There is a raw energy, a frenzy of activity wherever you look.