Sunderbans slides

On my visit back to Australia, one of the things I brought back with me was my slide scanner. Although I only brought a few slides back with me to scan, I have a lot here to do - Morocco, Mali and Eastern Europe. I only have one box of Bangladesh ones, those from my Sunderbans trip last October. Here are a few to whet your appetite!

The first one here is of the boat we travelled on into the mangroves, which was also our home for 4 days. We were a group of 13, but the boat catered for 20 passengers so we had plenty space. It was very comfortable and we had great food. We travelled with a company called "Guide Tours" based here in Dhaka and this is one of three boats they own.

I remember taking this photograph but can't remember whether it is the sun going down or the moon coming up. I have a feeling it is the latter!!

There were lots of colourful butterflies.

Some woodcutters near the river mouth where we spent most of our time.

A river sunset

This boatmen we saw on the river, through the rain, on our journey down to the Sunderbans.

Maybe on my next post I'll put up a few photographs of Australia that I have scanned;just to whet you appetitite.

An interesting statistic

Reading "The Dhaka Star", a local paper here in Bangladesh, the editorial highlighted that the per capita income for this fiscal year has increased to US$690 from US$608. That means that a person on average earns $690 per year, and considering all the wealthy people at the top then it also means that many, many people are below that. Compare this to Australia with about $50 000. That puts Bangladesh in the 20 poorest countries in the world along with mostly African countries such as the Congo, Zimbabwe, Mali, Equatorial Guinea.

But are they trying to help themselves? Here is a story from a work colleague.
Driving along one of the streets here in Dhaka, one always gets accosted by beggars whether you are walking or in a vehicle. Anyway one evening a colleague spotted a woman carrying a baby who was begging. Nothing unusual about that. However the the baby had a large and very obvious hernia. After a local colleague heard about this and happened to spot the same lady and baby, she stopped and got the lady in the car and said that she would par for and take the lady to a doctor to get the baby fixed. The begging lady was aghast, no way to she want the baby made better and so appear normal. her source of begging would be gone. Instead she insistently asked for money from the good samaritan!! What does this mean in terms of the future . . .. . . . . . I don't know.

In the same vain, I have also heard that all beggars will be off the streets in 10 years time. Mind you that might depend on whether Bangladesh still exists as a country or whether rising sea levels courtesy of the Graeenhouse Effect have inundated it.

Electricity (or the lack of) in Dhaka

Getting back last week from Australia, there was a real electricity shock. Before I left, at worst we'd have no electricity for 1 hour in the evening. Instead when I got back, during the afternoon and evening it was 1 hour on, 1 hour off, 1 hour on, 1 hour off . . . . . . .. until I'd give up and go to bed! The trouble is that the a/c doesn't work when the electricity is off, nor does the fridge. Unfortunately there is not one power point in the apartment that works when the generator is on! I just hope that the food doesn't go off and I don't get sick as a result. Then again maybe the school would do something about it if that happened. Of course all this is compounded by the fact that temperatures have been in the high 30s and even low 40s for the past 2 weeks. No sign of rain.

However, this week the situation seems to have improved a little. Now seem to have 2 hours of electricity before it goes off for 1 hour! Apparently there is being slightly more electricity produced, hence the improvement. But will it last?????

Srimangal

After a small delay (well a 2 week trip to Australia) here is the final instalment about the trip up north before the break.

Day Three involved travelling from Syhlet further south to Srimangal from where we would eventually catch the train back to Dhaka. It was about a 3 hour trip in total. It was a pretty journey that continually involved dodging other traffic on the road, mostly CNGs but also trucks, other cars and rickshaws. Then of course there is always pedestrians wandering along or back and forth across the road where they always expect the vehicles to stop.

Along the way at Moulvibazar, on the "main" road we came across a large crowd of people blocking the road so had to detour. This meant an opportunity to explore the side streets and see Bangladesh country town life.

As usual rickshaws were the most common form of transport.

We passed lots of shops and people going about their everyday business including this man in white.

Passing through Srimangal we went on to Lawachara National Park where a small area of tropical forest is preserved. This forest, rather dry when we visited but still pleasant to walk through, is home to a myriad of colourful birds, lots of butterflies flitting around, hoolock gibbons and we saw a couple of macques including 2 on a branch up above the track with the younger one scratching its mother's back.

As is the case everywhere you go in Bangladesh, our "groupies" tag along. Always a crowd gathers or our group magical get a few extra people joining on. Curiosity!

After a nice lunch in Srimangal at an Asian restaurant, I just soup because I had a stomach upset, we went to the town outskirts to visit a Monipuri village. This is one of the many tribal villages in the area. In this case we went to see the traditional weaving. It just so happened that this woman below is our guides mother.

Then of course we had to support this traditional craft and do some shopping. I just bought a couple of scarves - great idea in a hot climate but gave one to my mother.

And just to prove how small the world is, right where we stopped is the sign below Melbourne North rotary club helped to set up the craft/weaving project.

Srimangal's real claim to fame is TEA. We stopped for a quick look at a tea plantation where the tea bushes are shaded by cedar trees scattered around. Unfortunately the bushes are waiting for rain before sprouting their lush green leaves that are then picked for processing into tea.
Then of course there was the enevitable to sample the local speciality - 5-layered tea. Not that I tried it as I don't like the taste of tea. But everyone else said it was nice. Topped with cinnamon and lemon tea in the bottom, its recipe and method of production still remain a secret!
we then caught the train back to Dhaka at about 5 pm, which is another whole story in itself!!

Up north - Jaflang

One of the highlights was the visit to Jaflang, close to the India border and on the Jaflang River. It was a bizarre place where the river had almost become a desert with huge piles of sand resembling sand dunes. Scattered in between were pools of water while the river still meandered a narrow course in between. Many, many Bangladeshis in their best saris wandered the sand or sat aboard one of the wooden boats and cruised the waterway or crossed to the Khasi village on the other side. We joined them and took the ride to the other side too. However, one fo the most amazinf sights amid the sand dunes of the river bed was to see people digging deep holes into the sand, then seiving the sand and stones to separate the stones that are then sorted into different sizes. Such is the shortage of stone and gravel in Bangladesh. Here is a picture of the workers digging and sieving.The scary thing is that the people work in this environment for 12 hours a day for just 100 Taka, just over a dollar a day!
Obviously used to Bangladesh tourists wandering around, these childen came to peer at the pale strangers that had ventured far into rura Bangladesh.
Besides stones, the area is also known for colourful weaving with a number of stalls on the river edge selling large bedspreads/bed covers that could be purchased for 500 Taka. Did I buy? No as I already have a number but some of the others in the group with me did. Here are the stall sellers showing off their wares.
Close to India - that bridge spanning the gorge is in India, so yes. Unfortunately a visa is required to cross so I couldn't do so this time. This photo also shows the mountains that form the backgrop to this border town.

Back safely . . . . . eventually

Had a really interesting trip and made it back safely . . . . . eventually. All was going well on the train trip back to Dhaka, allocated seats in an a/c carriage, which was not crowded with lots of people standing like the train there. Looking like we would arrive only slightly late and just over an hour out of Dhaka, movement came to a screaming halt when a wheel came off the carriage in front, which then derailed. Spending more than 3 hours waiting, eventually we clamboured down from the train in the semi-dark with no platform, onto the rails before climbing aboard the Chittagong train that had stopped to pick us up. Finally arrived in Dhaka at 1 am and home at 1.30 am. Not great when I had to get up again at 5.30 am. This was all after I managed to catch some stomach bug and was up every hour the night before and off to the bathroom, so had barely eaten all day before getting the train. Here are some photos taken on the train trip up as it was dark when we came back.

Standing room only on the train trip Dhaka - Syhlet

A collection of a few houses beside the train track. Life is basic for most people here. No running water, no sanitation and no electricity.

Scrubbing water buffalo - the only other time I have seen cattle being scrubbed is when I was a child and we were preparing our stud jersey cattle for agricultural shows in country Australia.

Life is hard and physical for most people here. Carrying goods in baskets with a wooden yoke is a common sight.

Fields of rice fading into the haze of air pollution courtesy of the brick works around Dhaka.

Curious villagers come to look in the windows of the train while it is stopped. Like many people in Bangladesh, they are happy to ahve their photograph taken.

The local corner store and taxi service and a village adjacent to the rail line.

Heading off for the weekend.

Just noticed that my last post was quite a while ago, so thought I'd better make the effort, and a real effort it is. Thank goodness we have a three-day weekend starting tomorrow. It is just a shame it is the weekend before the holidays but still I am off sightseeing. A group of us are heading to the hills: the land of tea plantations, green rice fields and hopefully cooler weather. Mind you, getting there should be an adventure in itself as I will be taking my first Bangladesh train trip. No a/c available for the trip there and here people ride on top of the train, lots of people. Obviously there is no tunnels on these tracks. Then again, there is no mountains requiring tunnels to go through them.

We get taken around the area and shown the sights by a guide for just over two days. So hopefully I should get some good photos, especially now I have my new camera. Hopefully will get some posted next week before I head back to Australia for the holidays.