Calm and Quiet and On My Way North

Hello online world, and friends and family!


Things have been calm and quiet (for me) over the past few days in Bangladesh. There was a strike yesterday that kept me from travelling north, and it has now ended. There were some deaths, and many injuries, but I kept myself far removed from the situation. For me, it was a couple of days of inner retreat and reflection, I went nowhere special and did nothing special, just spent time in my own space - something easy to avoid when I fill my days with the distraction of new destinations.


Apparently yesterday there were some tornadoes in the northern side of the country, a few hours from here. They actually touched down in an area that I've planned to go to this week, so I'm relieved they went through already and the weather outlook in those areas is now much calmer. I spoke to a few friends who live in small towns nearby and they said they had similar weather in the night (as we did in Dhaka), very severe winds and crazy heavy rains, but that for them overall things were fine. I feel selfish for being relieved that people I have met that were so good to me were not hurt in the mess, when I know so many others were hurt and even died. Natural disasters happen, they're unavoidable, but they are hard on the heart I'm afraid, nobody wins.

Things like tornadoes cause much injury, death, and destruction in rural areas here because so many things are built from the land, so they give easily and quickly in the times of natural disaster, and sometimes in flood and heavy windstorms... for us in the west, our homes often hold up much better. Thatched houses don't stand up to much outside the normal day-to-day weather spectrum, and there are no basements or bathtubs to hide in.


Tonight I am headed north to Dinajpur. I will be back in Dhaka by the 14th, taking the train up tonight, and then drifting my way downward until I end up back where I started.

The week following I plan to go south, drifting downward town by town until I reach the beaches of Kuakata in the south, in the Sundurbans, where I hear I would be wise to spend a few days rather than make it a hit-and-run stop, so I will heed the advice and spend a few days down there. I am looking forward to it... the beach is on the Bay of Bengal, where you can sit to watch the sunrise and set... it is also part of the Sundurbans, one of the country's national treasures, and the Rakhine tribe is native to that area, so I will also get to check out some handicrafts and traditional life if things go according to plan.


I will leave Bangladesh on the 25th, and at this point my return is uncertain, and it is becoming unlikely.  I am working outside the box once more and tossing many of my plans up in the air thanks to the invasion of unforseen commitments from home, but I will keep a level head about it, everything has a solution.  My trip looks nothing like it did when I started, but I don't lament that in the least.


is not my picture, but is Bangladesh

 So, for now, this is just me telling you that things here for me are peaceful and quiet, and I am on my way slowly north. Enjoy your week, I will be thinking of home even if I am not at the time writing.


Hey, have you noticed that after all this time I've yet to end up travelling in the back of a pickup truck with chickens?? Ha.