Cheap Travel: Bangladesh
Published by Johnny on April 13, 2010
I finished my contract teaching English in Thailand, I had been in Asia well over a year by now and felt quite a home in the continent…. until I went to Bangladesh, suddenly – not so much.
So here was the plan:
1) Finish teaching contract in Chiang Mai
2) Travel around Asia for as long as the money lasts on a ridiculously cheap budget
3) Get to Australia without flying after we touch down on our first destination
Sounds pretty easy, I wanted to go to India to start and then pretty much loop across the whole continent over the next year or two although it didn’t quite work out like that and rather than go straight to India I found a cheap flight to Bangladesh – and so the hardcore backpacking began :S
I roped two friends into the crazy trip (Swede and Andy), we flew from Bangkok to Dhaka, the Capital of Bangladesh – as I was semi-permanently leaving Thailand the week before so my the week before I set off was inundated with leaving parties, sad goodbyes and tearful partings so I didn’t really get time to actually plan anything for the trip to Bangladesh. Basically, we found ourselves as the ONLY white people in a 1970′s airplane on Air Bangladesh one-way to Dhaka. I had no idea what language they spoke, what their currency was, what the climate or cuisine was liked, if they spoke English, I had no accommodation booked, no idea if there was anything to see and no direction in which to travel. Oh shit.
Straight after landing the plane we were swamped by Bangladeshis, people stopped, jaws dropping, giggling, pointing, running up and touch us etc
In fact, people running up to us in awe and amazement became quite a theme throughout my time in Bangladesh and I never realy got used to it although I can’t deny it wasn’t hilarious. Also, should you ever happen to be in Dhaka please walk into the middle of the street , stare straight up in the sky and point for about 15 seconds – then quickly have a look around you and I guarantee at least 500 people will be standing still looking directly up trying to see what the crazy white man is pointing at (sometimes you ave to just amuse yourself 
)
We managed to get some money and a ‘taxi’ (read guy cycling while pulling a homemade wooden cart) to a hotel. It was 45 degrees and I had no idea where we were going. But we went straight to the old city, amidst a lot of shocked faces, and found a hotel for around $1 a night, no air conditioning, no cold water but cheap and on a budget of 5 GBP a day that was the most important thing – besides, when in Rome…
My hotel in Dhaka, Bangladesh
We checked in and went for a walk, wandering around old Dhaka was an experience in itself. Never in my life have a seen such an overpopulated place – it was literally difficult to walk due to the sheer amount of people; and the rickshaws were everywhere, thousands of them, pouring out of every alley, ringing their bells to tell you they are coming and you need to get out of their way
The culture shock was so large and I was so far out of my comfort zone that my head was spinning, but what can you do?! So we got stuck in, we accepted that we were going to sweat, accepted we were going to be dirty, accepted that it was going to be difficult but we were seeing things that most people will never see and experiencing a country that most people will never visit – soaking up such a different culture is the reward for all the stress, and it more than outweighs the negative aspects. As it turns out, the people of Bangladesh were so friendly and open that retrospectively I was ashamed I judged their country. They were so happy that we had made the effort to come there that anyone who could speak any English would spot us in the distance and sprint to us to see if they could help – I challenge you to find that behaviour on Oxford street.
It had been nearly a day since we arrived and we hadn’t ventured to an actual restaurant yet but our stomachs were yelling out to us so we had to take a leap of faith
The photo is from second restaurant we braved. The food in Bangladesh was delicious, honestly. It tended to be quite a sweat, scented rice mixed with chunks of meat with lime squeezed over it and I couldn’t get enough. The same couldn’t be said about the drinks – the restaurant owners loved having us sit down in their place so they would rush over with some sort of milk, perhaps goat milk?, anyway it was revolting, vile, gag-inducingly sour but we had to take it on the chin, finish it and conjure a thankful smile. The fake smile was a work of art though, especially in countries where the locals are so friendly – you have to smile because they are so nice but you don’t want to smile too much or you could end up with 3 more glasses of the goat’s piss, so through trial and error you discover the tipping point and now I am a master
Making our way back to the room
So day 1 and 2 were under our belts we felt a lot more at ease in Bangladesh, the stress had subsided and the travel euphoria was taking over – i love that feeling. Knowing you are lucky to have the opportunity to be there, you want to savour every sight, smell, sound because you may never return to this place, not knowing what to expect with every corner you approach but relishing the excitement of it all.
I’ll chat some more about what we did in Bangladesh tomorrow – what a truly unique country.
Related posts:
- Backpacking in Bangladesh: The Boat from Dhaka to Kulna
- Cheap Travel: Backpacking in China – Yunan Province
- Backpacking In Bangladesh
- Cheap Travel: Backpacking through China, Kunming & Xi’an
- Things to See in Bangladesh – Top 5 Sights
Tags: Backpacking, Bangladesh, cheap travel
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Feel sorry for you, man. You’ve probably landed on one of the worst parts of Bangladesh. Have you gone to Gulshan or Dhanmondi? It’s very developed there. If you want a sh!t experience, just go to Africa, not Bangladesh.
thanks for your comments, but there’s really, really no need to feel sorry for me bro. I had an awesome time in Bangladesh, really amazing. Also, i’ve been to more than 25 countries in Africa and I didn’t have a sh*t experience in any of them either, thanks for the tip anyway
Sorry for my lacking in english
Your writing is very nice. I like it . But i think you should be more honest with it . I hope you understand what i am saying. And its seems that u love visiting our country i think u should read our history . Then u will totally understand us. And for those who want to visit bangladesh you should know we may be very poor and we welcome tourists but the bangladeshi people are very touchy about our country heritage custome . And we are very nice with friends but if you show any disgrace. Well i just want come here u dnt want us as your enemy.
i found the people in Bangladesh to be one of the friendliest i’ve ever experience
hey man, where did you get your tourists visa for bangladesh (do you need one) i tried to get one in chiang mai and they said that i need an employment certificate
i did mine in Chiang Mai mate – in some small ‘consulate’ office, it was all seemingly very unofficial and cost about $100, but got it back in 2 weeks
nice pic but it means that bangladesh is always needy country. thats not fair.
the people are very poor, but i think tourism will open people’s mind to this unexplored, awesome place
Wow, the blog is taking off big time! I must say your travel writing prowess is growing in leaps and bounds. Hilarious and interesting post…Can’t wait to read more!
My friend had an experience of being briefly in Bangladash in the 90s – strangely, her memories are similar to yours. She remembers being mobbed everywhere she went:)
for a female it must have been even more crazy – i’d go back in a heartbeat though
wow – sounds like you had a crazy time there – would love to visit that place! thanks for sharing your adventures – just found your blog, and think it rocks!
thanks Sofia – hopefully the blog has come a long way since last year!
Wow, looks like you had a great time in Bangladesh
Being “logically” from that part of the world, i can see where you had your issues.
How many days did you spend in B’desh?? Did you catch up on some Bangla
Catch up on some Bangla?! My head was spinning so fast from the culture shock i was struggling with English lol
I spent almost 3 weeks there i think – took a steam boat down from Dhaka to Kulna near the Bay of Bengal, amazing! I’m gonna write about it next so i wont tell u too much now hehe! Thanks for reading Joy – have u ever made it there?
Nopes…Haven’t made it to that part yet. Incidentally, that is where my ancestors come from
I was laughing while reading that entire post, thinking back to my own experience there, which was quite similar of course. I remember crossing the street in Dhaka and being bumped in my legs by cars that simply refused to stop at all.
But once you get comfortable, although I’m not sure it’s possible to get too comfortable over there, the people of Bangladesh do make it an enjoyable place to visit in the end.
I’m looking forward to reading more…
hey mate – did u had to Kulna and then onto Calcutta? such an awesome trip
also, on a different note – cheers for the cruise ship info, im lookin into it at the mo!
I actually went from Dhaka to Srimangal and on to Syllhet (while stopping in between) and eventually out to the northeast border of Tamabil, and then crossed into India’s Meghalaya state. Actually, if you ever have a free moment, here’s my ridiculous story about my time in Bangladesh…
http://www.wanderingearl.com/thank-you-to-the-militant-who-stole-my-car/
No problem with the cruise info, let me know if you have any other questions…
haha, very funny calvin
you dont have time to worry about that – the fact that the country doesnt use any knives or forks is difficult enough to deal with, eating just with ur rite hand is harder than u think!
You’re right about it being a place not many of people would dream of taking a vacation. The sweat, scented rice mixed with chunks of meat doesn’t fly well for me though. i mean who wants the cook’s sweat on their food?
it just adds to the flavour