The nine month mark... the coming of the monsoon and bangir chatha!

With the arrival of the monsoon has come the realisation that I have only three months left of my Bangladesh adventure, and with this too, the guiltly realisation that my communication has been woefully inadequate, and I haven't put up a single photo or word in a very long time.

Excuses a-plenty, I think the best one - and the one that will garner most sympathy - is that I was (uncomfortably, unhappily, but not life threateningly) sick for about three months, which culminated in an exciting not-so emergency evacuation to Thailand to go to the luxuious Thai hospital for treatment, which comparitively, could have been a day spa or five star hotel...

So, a small update on the last few months' adventures:
It started with a trip to india in Feburary; progressed with a few internal Bangladeshi trips to Chittagong, Sitakundo, Mymensingh and Bogra;

a visit from Anna and Mutti and more trips to Srimongal tea fields and paddle steamer-ing to Khulna (see Anna's blog for nice pictures and a good story);







a Bangladeshi wedding - the best wedding I've been to; and culminated in the 'holiday' to Bangkok's Bunrungrad Hospital...

So now, back in Dhaka, fully recovered, I'm guiltity enjoying the rain that is causing flooding thrughout the country and stomping in puddles on my way to work...

Bangir chatha, you might ask?The significance of the random Bangla in the title?

My favourite Bangla word: frog's umbrella, which translates to...

MUSHROOM!

Could you get a better translation if you tried?

Chittagong

I've been to Chittagong a few times now, but here are some photos from our first adventure there - on the way home from our epic Eid and St Martin's trip! Chittagong, for those of you not fortunate enough to have been there, is the second biggest city in Bangladesh, and is the port city for Bangladesh. It is also home to the biggest ship breaking industry in the world (yes, another claim for the biggest, best or longest from Bangladesh!) so navys and cargo companies and the like sell off their old ships, which are then torn apart and all parts salvaged for reuse. It makes for some interesting roadside sales points on the highway (from chandaliers to life jackets, you can get everything - in bulk, here) and some interesting human rights issues, but that's another story...

If I can remember rightly, that long ago, we went to the most important tourist destination in Bangladesh - mini Bangladesh! This excellent theme park has replicas of all the exciting tourist attractions in Bangladesh, so in about two hours, we managed to visit ruins in Bogra, the national monument in Savar, the sixty domed mosque near Khulna, and most exciting: the Chittagong Hill Tracts, to which we are forbidden by our programme to travel.... The sign on the right, if you can read it, is for a rollercoaster, and advises for the wearing of loose clothing .. like a sari on the rollercoater... bizarre.

We also went for a walk along the train track, along which there was an excellent food market, with heaps of spices, veggies, meat, fish - everything you could ever want for dinner!























We visited the turtle mosque, where people try to bop the sacred turtles on the head with bits of bread or meat, then wash themselves in the putrid water that comes off the turtles' mouldy backs... certainly an interesting experience!












We also visited the 'beach'- as one of Sarah's friends said, it would be hard work building a sand castle on that beach!

Bloody Eid (warning to vegetarians and small children - don't look at this post!)

I know that it was a while ago now, but it has to be recorded...
Eid number two (around December/Jan) is the Eid of bloodiness in which people sacrifice a cow, buffallow, goat, or anything else that they can afford, and give a third of it to their poorer relatives, or the poor on the street.

As queasy as animal slaughter makes me, I was keen to see this bizarre event, so, on St Martin's Island (where we were at the time -I know, this happened 6 months ago now!) we settled in on our veranda for some spectator sport...
There were several simultaneously amusing and disturbing instances of people chasing goats (in order to catch and kill them) in which I'm pleased to say, the goat made the man look rather silly... Not having seen enough of the action, we ventured out onto the path to have a closer look... and I learnt a little more about the anatomy of cows. That night (new year's eve, actually), we hoped for a little beefy action in our curry, but alas! In the spirit of the day (?!) we heard our chicken being strangled in the kitchen on its way to the table...