A weekend of tea!

About 2 weeks after I came it was time to brave the train. A hell of a lot safer than other forms of transport I may add. The train ride started at the crack of dawn and took us through amazing countryside. And of course plenty of tea was drunk on the train!

We were lucky enough to be guests of a manager the the Finlay tea estate in Srimangal, and were allowed to wander freely around the estate. It was pretty amazing. I saw my first rubber plantation. And my first hill in Bangladesh – although tiny compared to most hills. The locals made great subjects. The main advantage of not staying in a tourist resort was that we met a lot more curious locals unused to foreigners.

The sunset was the amazing view on the way home.

The first day trip!

The first weekend I was here we went on a marathon day trip to Sonargon, the markets and Savar….a lot to pack in to just a day! The pink palace was in Sonargon. Apparently this area is pretty touristy in drier weather, and a good picnic spot.

The bus is representative of many Dhaka buses. This is business class. Heaven help us. Surprisingly the bus is not going to be high on my list of local transport to try!

The marathon day out also took us to the port, the Armenian church, the Star Mosque and the markets in Old Dhaka. I managed to pay less than 3 quid for the Bollywood rickshaw art – bargain!

Then off to the National Monument in Savar.

Bangladesh Blog Begins at Ramadan

So today is the first day of Ramadan here in Dhaka, a good day to finally start my blog! This is my account of the first few weeks here……

I thought the loads carried on motorbikes in Vietnam were bad until I came here! These guys don’t even have an engine, they have to push or cycle with the loads.

There are also random animals in the streets. These sheep can be seen by the market in Banani, but you can find goats out wandering even in the posh streets of Gulshan and Baridhara.