Wow… Dhaka…
My flight to London was fine, but involved very little sleep, and then the connection to Mumbai was quite nice and involved a ton of sleeping. This second flight was on Jet Airways, which I would now officially recommend. The food was quite good and there was more leg room than Air Canada. Also, fancy coloured mood lighting.
Coming into Mumbai was the first interesting moment. It was night time and so as we approached from over the ocean (the flight swings sharply south while over the Middle East. I assume this is to deliberately avoid Pakistani airspace? Jet Airways is an Indian company) the lights just appeared out of the darkness. I don’t know if this was just me seeing what I wanted to see, but the lights of Mumbai seemed different than the lights of all the Western cities I’ve flown into. Then I got really excited about actually being in Asia!
The moment I stepped out of the plane (even just into the airport), I felt brutal heat. Apparently it was only 29 degrees or so, but the humidity was strong. The airport was crazy, and going through security was a jumble of people pushing and shoving that took forever. On the bright side, it meant that by the time I was through, the time I needed to kill before my next flight was mostly used up.
The flight to Dhaka was much smaller, though decently filled. Interestingly, the co-pilot’s name was Tushar, which is only of significance to those who know my own friend Tushar, who is himself a pilot. Weird, eh? The nicest part of the flight was that just as we approached Dhaka, the sun was rising. I could see tons of rivers and small clusters of buildings. It looked pretty much how I expected it to. Again, a huge wave of excitement accompanied landing. I was in Bangladesh!
And then, bam, I’m overwhelmed. Customs is a mess. People everywhere milling about, pushing, shoving, dozens of lines that stretch out longer than the ones at Behemoth at Canada’s Wonderland. And none of them seem to be moving. After staring dumbfounded for a moment, I finally shook myself and found what appeared to be the “foreign passport” line. Then, some official pulled me out and put me in the “Visa on arrival/foreign investor” line (neither of which applied to me), and then after maybe 20 minutes I got moved again (I think this line was for business class travellers. We got to cut in front of line-ups of hundreds of people. I felt a little bad, especially since I didn’t travel business, but I wasn’t about to remove myself from this express lane). The whole thing still took probably about 45 minutes or more and even then the wait for baggage was painfully long. I felt bad for whoever was waiting to meet me…
…who was, incidentally, Mr. Anthony Rebeiro, my supervisor at Dipshikha. He greeted me with a sign with my name and a lovely bouquet of flowers! It was a huge relief at this point, knowing someone was now there to guide me. This relief was deepened when we stepped outside. More craziness and tons of people. Taxi touts and car honking and armed soldiers yelling at people. Anthony, however, calmly lead me out of the mayhem, to a point where we could be picked up by another Dipshikha employee (name escapes me for now).
The drive from the airport was precisely what you probably imagine driving to be like in this part of the world. They drive on the left side of the road here, but it honestly took a moment for me to realize because at first it was just mayhem of people driving wherever. When things finally sorted themselves out, it was still an adrenaline-filled ride. We honked, we whizzed by cars and people (notably, women sweeping the highway as cars swerve around them) and bikes, we almost got hit by at least 3 buses (on my side), and we swerved dangerously in front of oncoming traffic. But the sights were amazing. I was immediately impressed by how green and lush Dhaka is. I guess because of the climate, there are towering trees everywhere, which have a sharp contrast with the decrepit towers and little market stalls. Though not a real photographer myself, I think it would be a really neat city to do a photo-essay on.
Dipshikha headquarters is a nice little building, and I have a lovely room. It’s bigger than my rez room, so that’s already a win, and I have a super cool view out my window into some locals’ backyards. I have an attached private bathroom, which even has a flush toilet (though I’ve already been introduced to the famed squat-style at the Mumbai airport). Of course though, no toilet paper. You can’t have everything, I guess.
The first couple hours here, I had breakfast with Anthony and our driver and Sophie, a German volunteer who has been with Dipshikha since October. She seems pretty nice. I embarrassed myself a little when I asked how to eat the food properly (I know that some readers will be disappointed in me, since they showed me in Toronto that one time), but at least now I’m confident. Scoop delicious potato-based ‘curry’ with bread, and cut and scoop egg with spoon. It was quite delicious! I met the cook (Shoeman? That’s what his name sounded like, but I think I’m very wrong) and another man (name forgotten too) who are both also living in the building. They will be my go-to’s for anything I need help with. Anthony gave me a tour, and a brief overview of how things work at Dipshikha and how our time will be, and then he left.
Bangladeshi weekends are Friday and Saturday, and then tomorrow happens to be a holiday because of a Buddhist festival (do not be deceived; Buddhism makes up just a tiny percent of the population nor is the religion of a small elite. Bangladesh, as a secular nation, just has holidays based on most faith groups, regardless of size). So, I won’t be able to meet the other employees until Monday nor will I be able to shop for clothes (I didn’t really bring any of my own; I plan to buy them all here). In fact, I’ve kind of been forbidden from leaving the building… I understand it’s for my safety, but we’ll see. Maybe I will be able to convince someone to accompany me out for a stroll.
For now though, sleep is priority. I don’t think that even the incessant honking that I hear can keep me up much longer.
I’ve made it and I’m alive and well at Dipshikha
headquarters! I’m a bit overwhelmed and still exhausted from travel, so I feel
it’s hard to give in-depth analysis of anything I’ve seen. Nonetheless I feel I
need to update so we’ll see how this goes.
I apologize for the delay in posting. I didn’t
get the chance in London or Mumbai airports, and since I’ve been here the
internet has been very unreliable. Furthermore, Blogger is showing up in
Bengali for me, and that’s making it very difficult to be fast and efficient
when the internet is up and running. But, I’ve had a glimpse of the stats of
site views and I’m super impressed! Thanks everyone for taking and look, and I’ll
try my very best to post as often as possible.My flight to London was fine, but involved very little sleep, and then the connection to Mumbai was quite nice and involved a ton of sleeping. This second flight was on Jet Airways, which I would now officially recommend. The food was quite good and there was more leg room than Air Canada. Also, fancy coloured mood lighting.
Coming into Mumbai was the first interesting moment. It was night time and so as we approached from over the ocean (the flight swings sharply south while over the Middle East. I assume this is to deliberately avoid Pakistani airspace? Jet Airways is an Indian company) the lights just appeared out of the darkness. I don’t know if this was just me seeing what I wanted to see, but the lights of Mumbai seemed different than the lights of all the Western cities I’ve flown into. Then I got really excited about actually being in Asia!
The moment I stepped out of the plane (even just into the airport), I felt brutal heat. Apparently it was only 29 degrees or so, but the humidity was strong. The airport was crazy, and going through security was a jumble of people pushing and shoving that took forever. On the bright side, it meant that by the time I was through, the time I needed to kill before my next flight was mostly used up.
The flight to Dhaka was much smaller, though decently filled. Interestingly, the co-pilot’s name was Tushar, which is only of significance to those who know my own friend Tushar, who is himself a pilot. Weird, eh? The nicest part of the flight was that just as we approached Dhaka, the sun was rising. I could see tons of rivers and small clusters of buildings. It looked pretty much how I expected it to. Again, a huge wave of excitement accompanied landing. I was in Bangladesh!
And then, bam, I’m overwhelmed. Customs is a mess. People everywhere milling about, pushing, shoving, dozens of lines that stretch out longer than the ones at Behemoth at Canada’s Wonderland. And none of them seem to be moving. After staring dumbfounded for a moment, I finally shook myself and found what appeared to be the “foreign passport” line. Then, some official pulled me out and put me in the “Visa on arrival/foreign investor” line (neither of which applied to me), and then after maybe 20 minutes I got moved again (I think this line was for business class travellers. We got to cut in front of line-ups of hundreds of people. I felt a little bad, especially since I didn’t travel business, but I wasn’t about to remove myself from this express lane). The whole thing still took probably about 45 minutes or more and even then the wait for baggage was painfully long. I felt bad for whoever was waiting to meet me…
…who was, incidentally, Mr. Anthony Rebeiro, my supervisor at Dipshikha. He greeted me with a sign with my name and a lovely bouquet of flowers! It was a huge relief at this point, knowing someone was now there to guide me. This relief was deepened when we stepped outside. More craziness and tons of people. Taxi touts and car honking and armed soldiers yelling at people. Anthony, however, calmly lead me out of the mayhem, to a point where we could be picked up by another Dipshikha employee (name escapes me for now).
The drive from the airport was precisely what you probably imagine driving to be like in this part of the world. They drive on the left side of the road here, but it honestly took a moment for me to realize because at first it was just mayhem of people driving wherever. When things finally sorted themselves out, it was still an adrenaline-filled ride. We honked, we whizzed by cars and people (notably, women sweeping the highway as cars swerve around them) and bikes, we almost got hit by at least 3 buses (on my side), and we swerved dangerously in front of oncoming traffic. But the sights were amazing. I was immediately impressed by how green and lush Dhaka is. I guess because of the climate, there are towering trees everywhere, which have a sharp contrast with the decrepit towers and little market stalls. Though not a real photographer myself, I think it would be a really neat city to do a photo-essay on.
 |
| One of the women sweeping the road, inches from getting run over |
 |
| My room |
 |
| The view out my window |
Dipshikha headquarters is a nice little building, and I have a lovely room. It’s bigger than my rez room, so that’s already a win, and I have a super cool view out my window into some locals’ backyards. I have an attached private bathroom, which even has a flush toilet (though I’ve already been introduced to the famed squat-style at the Mumbai airport). Of course though, no toilet paper. You can’t have everything, I guess.
The first couple hours here, I had breakfast with Anthony and our driver and Sophie, a German volunteer who has been with Dipshikha since October. She seems pretty nice. I embarrassed myself a little when I asked how to eat the food properly (I know that some readers will be disappointed in me, since they showed me in Toronto that one time), but at least now I’m confident. Scoop delicious potato-based ‘curry’ with bread, and cut and scoop egg with spoon. It was quite delicious! I met the cook (Shoeman? That’s what his name sounded like, but I think I’m very wrong) and another man (name forgotten too) who are both also living in the building. They will be my go-to’s for anything I need help with. Anthony gave me a tour, and a brief overview of how things work at Dipshikha and how our time will be, and then he left.
Bangladeshi weekends are Friday and Saturday, and then tomorrow happens to be a holiday because of a Buddhist festival (do not be deceived; Buddhism makes up just a tiny percent of the population nor is the religion of a small elite. Bangladesh, as a secular nation, just has holidays based on most faith groups, regardless of size). So, I won’t be able to meet the other employees until Monday nor will I be able to shop for clothes (I didn’t really bring any of my own; I plan to buy them all here). In fact, I’ve kind of been forbidden from leaving the building… I understand it’s for my safety, but we’ll see. Maybe I will be able to convince someone to accompany me out for a stroll.
For now though, sleep is priority. I don’t think that even the incessant honking that I hear can keep me up much longer.
We're happy you have arrived safe and sound! GREAT post, Cam - looking forward to hearing more!
ReplyDeleteYou got greeted with flowers? How suave, Mr. Rebeiro must have mad game.
ReplyDelete