This was a very short trip taking in the best bits of Bangladesh. I only had a week so I had no choice really. Firstly I flew to Dhaka, I was impressed by the company looking after me. They gave me a mobile phone just in case I needed to contact them for any reason…this was a nice touch. I began with the usual city tour but had a surprise. You know me, I never read up on guide books or itinerary until I actually get there and even then I might not do it because of time. So I never expected Dhaka on the water. There were so many little boats like gondolas. A bit like Venice only a bit smelly…actually a lot smellier. The only problem with these gondolas is you have to stand. When I got on with the tour guide I sat down even though there was no where to sit, the boat was just flat. I saw others on the boat standing precariously. When I say others I mean maybe 20-30 people on each boat. These boats are not huge, they are pretty small but like the buses, cars and tuk tuks, they fill them as much as possible.
From Dhaka I headed south to the Sundarbans which is Bangladesh’s EcoNational Park, home of the Bengal Tigers. No such luck, I saw paw prints, claw marks on trees and even their poop but no Bengal Tigers anywhere. I did see the biggest crocodile I’ve ever see in the wild, nearly 15 feet in length. Luckily I was no where near it. Spotted the big guy on the banks as we were sailing past…didn’t catch anyone wanting to swim then. I really enjoyed this part of the trip as I was with a group. I had my own cabin but you wouldn’t have guessed it. Let’s just say walls in a house boat is very thin…well it was on this boat. My neighbours were 2 girls at Uni in India, one girl was Indian with the most beautiful eyes ever and the other one was an American girl. They were obviously a couple as they were very touchy feely outside the cabin and you can just imagine what they were up to from the noises coming from inside their cabins. As I’m normally quiet as a mouse I bet they didn’t even realise I could hear them next door...thank god for my DVD player and headphones. Two girls are really not my thing, now if it was two guys that would be a different story.
After the boat trip we headed east I think towards Chittagong to check out some tribes that settled in the mountains. There are loads of different ethnic tribes that live there and own the land some how. The government doesn’t seem to mind them. From the facial features they are obviously descendents from Burma, Bhutan and places like that. All I can say is they are pretty shy as not many of them wanted their photos taken. But as usual the girls were beautiful and the kids were cute as a button.
It was a short trip but I covered the best that country had to offer plus a few extras along the way. It’s a bloody cheap country too. I struggled to spend the £20 I changed at the airport, in fact I came back with 800 local cigarettes for my brother and lots of curry powder as I tried to spend the last £11 on my last night there. I couldn’t give it away. So if any of you want to try these curry powders out just let me know, I got stacks.
My guide was ok, he was the owner of the travel company based in Bangladesh so I always had the best cars taking me everywhere and eating in the best restaurants. The only problem I had with him was he was always sniffing and not those little sniffs you get when you have a slight cold but really big flemmy ones. It was really gross when chatting with him as he always sniffed really loudly and I just wanted to duck for cover just in case he spat any of it out…but he never did. Really disgusting.
Apart from that lovely guide and another good trip. If you fancy a cheap holiday head to Bangladesh.
