After days without Internet, I arrived in Dhaka.
Invited to use his office, Mr. Syed Shah Md Munir, a real state chief engineer took me to a comfortable workstation, after a delicious Bangladesh tea. Here I am, AC, coffe, and a break to have lunch with Mr. Syed and Col. ATM Masbahuddin Serniabat , vice president of Bay Developments (real state co.)
Let me give you an idea how things have been so far.
BKK airport new policy: bikes shall not be transported in boxes. (Security reasons) Here comes me around midnight, riding my loaded bike into the airport. Re-arranging the panniers to save money on extra weight was how I spent my time ‘till the check-in time – 4am. I’m the second on line to check-in of Bhutan Royal airlines - Druke air:
- Sir, we’ll not take your bike like this, it must be I a box! Says the…let’s call her “the airline lady”, so I don’t have to call her a “bitch”.
In a rude manner and looking like she was not in the mood to be working at 4am, she doesn’t even try to hear my explanation about the airport’s new policy and says:
- If you want to get in the plane, you need to have your bike in a box! Says the “airline lady”
I run up and down ‘till I found a post office that had boxes that would only fit half wheel or the “airlines lady”, if packed well with her mouth shut. I bought 4 –5 boxes, borrowed tape and cutter – action. Watched by an army officer, who did move a finger to help me, I struggled to make one bike box out of 5 small ones. The clock showed 5:50am (flight to depart at 610) when I arrived back at the counter. She looked amazed to see me there with some sort of package that looked like bizarre creation from the Dr. Frankstein.
- Is “this” your bike? She says. That’s it, I had it with her. Fed up with the whole situation, and waiting for a pay-back, I replied:
- No! “This” is my mother; my bike is coming w/ my father! Throwing the passport in the counter. She must have not understood ‘cause she processed my check-in and didn’t charge me for the over weight.
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In Kolkatta. Anxious to ride in India, I assembled my bike in the airport and got out of there riding it, as I got in BKK’s aiport. India was one of the countries I was most excited about; I had always been curios about India. Well; I knew it had a bad traffic, a lot of ppl, and blablabla…but I was still hoping for the best, as usual. The dirty streets and a funny smell, made me wanna go out of there, but the ppl made me wanna stay a couple days more and give the city a chance. P.S: I’m not a big fan of big cities
I met some great ppl, and joined a muslim wedding, meeting even better ppl…
I’LL CONTINUE THIS PART OF THE JOURNEY LATER…GOTTA RUN
