A Little TOO Quiet!!

After a 35 minute CNG ride there and a 30 minute wait in line I found out that my train was late. 

"Late?" I asked.  "Oh... Well, I will wait, no problem.  How late is it?" (famous last words) 

'3 hours delay miss, maybe more, maybe many more, maybe no.'
"No? No like no train?"

"No, there is train.  No now.  Maybe no later.  Maybe very later.  But train coming."

So it will come eventually?"

"Ji.  I think"

So, we determined that there was a berth available, and I bouth a ticket for the train that is now leaving at 11pm, provided it decides to come at all.  I was wondering what on earth I was going to do with myself at 5am when I arrived in Dinajpur anyway, so the universe solved the problem for me!  Thanks, Universe.

After I bought my ticket I walked away from the railway station and caught a CNG from the market stalls - THOSE people aren't trying to jack the railway passengers, so I got a metered fare again, my favourite!  Only, the CNG managed to break down about a 20 minute walk from home, so I walked the rest of the way once he pushed the thing over to the side.  And, because nobody likes to have a broken vehicle, I still tipped the man, it wasn't his fault it quit on him.

Now I'm back at the apartment for a bit longer since I didn't feel like I had the stamina for a 3 hour 1:150 people staring contest  :)  In about 15 minutes I will get dressed in "outside clothes" and make my way back to the station!
Better luck this time??   :)

P.S. - Mom, I promise I will email again as soon as I have a computer, but I know a person or two up there so all should be great!  :)  If there's no email then don't worry, I'll message from Rajshahi on Sunday, and i'll be back in Dhaka around the 13th... Love you!  Thanks for always having my back!

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.

From Dhaka's Airport Station to Srimongol

Platform at Dhaka's Airport Station

So there I am sitting down on my backpack, earphones in, sunglasses on, trying to ignore everyone.  I didn't have my music on yet, it was just a diversion to get people to perhaps keep a little distance - I was tired and just wanted to get going, really.  A crowd gathered after only a minute, and though a policeman kept coming by to shoo them away they kept coming back like moths to a flame like they just couldn't stay away (insert other suitable of your own here).

Mostly I just drank my warm pepsi (Ohhhh, how I have taken refrigeration for granted!) and ignored them because I was STILL feeling over stimulated with the noise of the city.  I turned my music on and listened to some chilled out tunes from behind my sunglasses, and pretty much ignored everyone (as much as possible when random strangers keep gathering to keep an eye on me!).

learning Bengali numbers!


The train arrived about 10 minutes late and I asked for help from several people along the train to find my car (it was written in Bangla, not English - Bangla does NOT use the same system as we English folks for numbers!!), and I climbed aboard JUST as the train was pulling out of the station - I had a very fun moment pulling myself up onto the train as it was pulling away, every mother in the world did that scared breathing thing and I just giggled, pulling myself and my bags up onto the moving train car - it was even the right car, woohoo!!

Silk City Express to Sylhet

I sat alone awhile in my air conditioned chair while the men in nearby seats covertly sideways glanced at me quietly sitting and staring out the window.  About 25 minutes into the ride a woman and her little girl sat in the seat next to me and didn't really speak other than to nod hello.  The little one (about 5-6 years old maybe?) was very curious and kept peering at me from behind her mom's scarf, she was very cute. 

the calm before the storm

She got sick all over her mom about 20 minutes from their destination and I pulled out my hand wipes to help them clean up a bit. Two stops later a young man enroute to Sylhet (the next big town north of my destination, final stop for my train) sat down with me and we chatted awhile about his school and stuff.

The sign at Dhaka's Station

A train steward came about 20 minutes before my stop to let me know it was coming up, which I thought was really considerate. They don’t announce the stops for each station and if you blink you might miss the only sign that's standing on its one remaining leg with chipped, faded paint, so it was really helpful. When the time came I was up and ready with my bags.
So this is Srimongol, okay...


I climbed down from the train and walked out to the front of the station. Not too many people around. Looking out the front doors there was a small dusty street in front of me, and small market stalls to my right and left once you stepped out from the platform cover. 
 
So I'm here, buuuuut: what to do now?
 

I hadn’t been able to find a phone before leaving to call Philah and make arrangements with him to meet me, so I guess I needed to find a phone!!  I could ask a random passerby, but that just seemed strange... surely I could think of something better?  I wondered if Philah was going to be too busy with his work to come get me and put it in the back of my mind that I might be walking through town on my own to find a guesthouse and meeting up with him later.  But first: find a phone!

I walked down the dusty streets of Srimongol toward what looked like would be the centre of town and I passed a phone shop where they sell mobile phones and recharge pay-as-you-go phones. I saw a landline phone sitting there so I pointed at it and then at me and said "phone?", and he did that funny side to side head thing people do here when they mean yes - YAY! Victory!!  I can use the phone!!

I handed him the number and he dialled up Philah, who said he would come and meet me at the station right away, that I should just wait there. I trucked myself slowly back to the station feeling a little like the pied piper as a small collection of people trailed (much less than subtly) behind me and then stood growing in numbers in a semi-circle around me after I sat down on my pack up against the wall .

I have taken to sitting with my back to a wall or fence because when I just sit out in the open people have a tendency to actually gather in a complete circle around me, and that makes me nervous.  I know they don't mean me harm, but there's something in my DNA that just tells me it's a B-A-D idea to let myself be surrounded like that, so now I avoid it and plan ahead: I know they're going to gather, but now I control how and where (and usually stay in sight of someone in a uniform AND the general public who are NOT so interested in me, just in case).

I took some video of the people who surrounded me, and by this time I was in much better spirits than I had been earlier in the day while I was still in Dhaka. There was less city noise, and the people were just curious, I didn’t mind. One little boy in particular was very sweet and friendly and every time I was near the station he came running up to see me (he later came to call me Auntie Canada).  So far I only know where to find him by video and have no snapshot of him, boo!

Nobody really talked to me, though in approximate 30 second intervals a random faceless male voice in the crowd would ask me some version of "Your country, madam?", to which they would get my smiling standard one-word reply as they giggled and smiled and laughed and stared. 

Philah, my new friend from the
Khassi Lawa Chora Punjee

Philah arrived after about 15 minutes on his motorcycle. I only saw a man making his way through my little crowd with an easy smile saying, “Are you from Birisiri?” I had to think about it for a minute... “Yes, I suppose I am from Birisiri!” I smiled. “I am Phila, let‘s go!!” and we set off together into town on his bike.

The Clamour and Clutter of Dhaka

Now what... I was at the bus station in the middle of a crowded side street with drivers all yelling at me to attract my attention and climb into their vehicle.  I walked over to the CNG stand (the place where all drivers with the little green machines hang out) and hired a ride to a hotel that shouldn’t have been too far away.

Common area of the hotel

One thing I forgot, or didn't notice as much when I was here before... MAN Dhaka is a loud freakin’ city!!  Truly, I could hardly stand the racket and noise after the peace of the past couple of days in the village. The driver got all kinds of lost on the way to the hotel and it took an hour to get there, but I reached it fine, the Good Morning Guesthouse.

Not a bad room, musty

By this time it was almost 6 so it was coming on night and I didn’t want to be wandering around looking for a hotel. The hotel was fine, the room was clean but it smelled moldy, like your basement smells the summer after a flood. They had no single room available so I had to pay a double rate for a double room but at this point I didn’t care, I just wanted to be in out of the noise!


The hotel "Good Morning" should have had internet but it was broken (of course). I set my bags down and went out in search of a café and wandered high and low along the river. It wasn't an area of town I would otherwise have walked through, and it was an interesting part of town as I crossed the river and got to see down into a small shanty village set up along the river, crowded with people in the early evening.

I am a fan of heart graffiti

You must use a boat to get to the shantytown

Cool looking bridge with the boat in the reflection - love it

Small shanytown along the river in Dhaka

Sun setting on the bridge

cuddly couple at sunset



I stayed out until the sun was nearly to the horizon
before heading back to the hotel



View from the Balcony

 I didn't find much of anything interesting (in particular, I did not find an internet cafe!) and I eventually just walked back to my hotel and had a snack from the bag of food Animesh had sent me with before having a very cold shower (no hot water in my overly expensive hotel room) and reading my book awhile on the balcony overlooking the city.
I was up in the early morning around 5:30 to catch a ride to the train station, as the train to Srimongol was leaving at 7. The boy from the hotel walked with me to find a ride (which is almost impossible at that time of day!). We hired a rickshaw to take us to Gulshan-2 which is where I’d stayed my last visit in Dhaka, and there was one lonely CNG that drove me to the train station for twice the normal fare (supply and demand and all that, I didn’t care).

Note to anyone who travels around here: if you want to avoid hassle, make sure you have bills enough to give close to accurate fare to the drivers, as they will make it a fight for you to get your change, and sometimes that irritates me. I get to choose to tip you, you don’t get to just KEEP my money - that’s something in Dhaka that makes me CRAZY, I hate it!! Now? Now I show them the amount I'm GOING to give them, and I request the change first (I haven't had any argument about it at all yet) - that, or I have the correct amount in the first place, either method a stress-reducer all around!


So I arrived at the train station in record time, and even at the early hour it was busy. I grabbed the nearest friendly face to ask him where to buy a ticket (many counters, no English!) and he pointed me in the right direction. I got a ticket for the next train to Srimongol and walked out to the platform with my bags to sit and wait for the train.  Only 45 minutes to be observed (it IS starting to feel like I'm some strange circus performer found to have run amok of her circus!) before the train whisks me away...


Let the staring commence!!



Farewell (for now) to Birisiri

 WELL, it’s time to leave Birisiri.  I’m not ready to leave, and I don’t want to leave, but Anthony has made arrangements with his friend to meet me tomorrow in Srimongol (which I've already put off once), plus the Japanese group of 13 or something is coming so Animesh will be busy, and I don’t even know if there’ll be room around here still (I am afterall taking up an ENTIRE dormitory since Animesh doesn't want to put anyone with me!), so it’s time to go.

I was up early to fold my bed down and such and I read in the early morning sun again for awhile. I wandered down for breakfast and had planned to leave by 10. Since it was only 8 I was in no rush and I had an unhurried breakfast and tea. I walked around the Y grounds and took a few flower pictures. I had breakfast and tea and visited with Animesh until it was time to settle my bill.

He wouldn’t let me pay for my meals, he only billed me for accommodation, no matter that I argued with him until he was mad at me and I stopped.  "Guests don’t need to pay, and you are my guest", is what he said to me. Tears threatened to spill down my face as I paid and I was grateful to have made such a good friend.

Time to say goodbye, we wished one another well and talked about the fact that it may be the last time we saw one another, but I hope that it will not be. We both had tear-filled eyes as I lightly hugged him goodbye (a handshake just wouldn’t good enough for me at that point), and he asked Luis to walk with me to catch the bus.

I couldn’t help the tears as we walked down the village path to the main square, and my heart desperately wanted to stay in this place that suddenly felt like a second home after so little time. Thankfully Luis didn’t check on me as we were walking, and I had dried my eyes before we reached the end of the path. As we walked I looked around and hoped that I would find a time and a reason to come back again to Birisiri, the place is truly one of my heart.

We reached the main bazaar area to find tons of buses, but for some reason that I didn’t understand none of them were selling tickets. Mr Happy, the excitable and eager ticket wallah from my ride TO Birisiri was in the square and came running up to me spouting rapidfire Bangala, gesturing a takeoff with his hand and then making and X by crossing his arms while shaking his head with that famously dramatic frowny scowl: No Go.

I didn’t know what the heck was going on, but I was looking for any excuse to stay so while I was puzzled I happily followed Luis to a nearby snack stand to wait while he sent someone on motorcycle to fetch Animesh to rescue me again. When he came to meet me I discovered that “the bridge accidentally broke” so there WAS no bus out of Birisiri today. Ha! No bus means I don’t have to go!! 

No no no, Animesh wouldn’t let me stay. “You have plans to visit in Srimongol, and you will meet the friend there, you must go.”  Man I hate when people behave like grownups when my heart wants to be a child. He hired me a motorcycle to drive me to Mymensingh (pronounced MyMenShing), the nearest big town.  About 5 times he told me “You will NOT pay this man any money, I will pay him - you will only buy your ticket in Mymensingh.”

When I opened my mouth to argue the first time he put his hand up and shushed me and by the 4th time I was crying again though I tried to prevent my eyes from springing a leak I couldn’t help it and I had to look elsewhere as I sorted myself out.  My big brother to the last moment of our visit, he made sure that I got safely on my way. 

The men strapped my small pack on the bike’s rack and I carried the bigger one on my back as we set off and I waved a sad goodbye from the back of the bike and we wound speedily through town and out to the main road.