Bana and I were unsettled so we were doing some brainstorming and ended up booking a cheap flight to Dhaka in Bangladesh. I was quickly searching for a host and ended up finding a bunch of people. We were taking a bus all the way to Delhi and had to rush through the busy city in which Bana was harassed and touched by a group of Transgender who are holy and bagging for money on the streets of Delhi. He didn’t feel blessed as much as he should have. It was weird being back in a huge city after enjoying the time in nature in the north. It stunk and wasn’t fun to be in.
After a time, which felt like forever, we ended up reaching the airport. I searched for a good offer to leave the suitcase with over 30kg, to pick it up a few days later on my return to bring it to Germany.
Interesting connections in the plane
While having the flight to Dhaka people were talking to me in the plane. We talked about business opportunities and how we could work together. To be fair it wasn’t sounding bad, just a weird spot for it. On another occasion, another guy was talking to me a lot about a lot of nonsense in my opinion. He was nice, but I just wanted to relax during the flight a little bit.
He fell asleep, which leads me to just talking to the other guy for the rest of the flight. We ended up still being in contact and maybe making some business in the future together, who knows.
In general the flight was interesting, we were the only foreign people on the flight, which was giving us a lot of attention. The food was generally also good, it was just the first time ever that food in the plane was too spicy for me, so not really easy to fully enjoy.
Visa discussions
When arriving in the airport, Bana had to get a visa on arrival for $50 and a huge hustle included. The internet was very bad and we didn’t print out our passport and flight details and everything. After a long discussion of why they should still let us in the country, they ended up being okay with us sending them everything by mail, so that they could print it.
Bana was not understanding the issue with everything, so he made a bit of a “no fuck given” altitude which wasn’t helpful for the situation. I was trying on the other hand to somehow receive wifi to send them everything. It sounded easier then it actually was, but ended up working out.
It was after Afghanistan and South Sudan the visa which was giving me a lot of satisfaction. Don’t know why, but it felt good to receive.
Getting to the host
The airport was very packed and annoying. We bought each of us a sim card, to get around easier in the country. This is something I absolutely love getting, because it makes many things easier.
Outside of the airport it was dark and we still haven’t had any food for almost the whole day, so the mood wasn’t at its peak I would say.
We were getting a tuk tuk after doing a lot of discussions on the price, it ended up working out fine. It wasn’t the best price, but fair for not knowing how to get around yet.
The tuk tuk was not like others who you may have seen in other countries. It looked like an armored vehicle.
Dhaka is a busy city and you were able to tell, just by driving a little bit with the tuk tuk. Our host was living in the best region of the city, compared to the rest. It was amazing here, but that’s something we were realizing a bit later.
Arriving at the host
When we arrived at our host’s house, he wasn’t there. A guard was opening the gate for us, so we were able to wait for him on the rooftop. Bana went out to eat something, but I wasn’t motivated at all. Being on the rooftop was cool at first, you were having a great view over the neighborhood and hearing party sounds from everywhere. The happiness over the rooftop was quickly gone after I realized that mosquitoes joined me while I had a good time by myself. Everything was itchy and I was going back inside to wait in front of his door.
Our host was a guy from Turkey, who lived in Dhaka for over 7 years while working for an airline. He had a lot of knowledge about the clothes produced in Bangladesh and liked to smoke Shisha.
He was home with his local friend and smoked the whole apartment full. Felt like being in a shisha bar. They were really nice and friendly people, welcoming us a lot in the country and having good conversations together. Bana had his own room and I had my own bed, so luxury.
First full day in the city
The first day was interesting, it was victory day, the day Bangladesh was defeating Pakistan. Nationalist paroles were screamed through the city and flags were waving everywhere and people who wanted money.
There would have been a big parade, but Bana wasn’t motivated in going and I also wasn’t feeling it. We were reminded the whole day of it, such a bummer.
The region we were in was great, just Bana didn’t like it. For him that region was not “authentic” enough for Bangladesh and also boring for him, not many poor people were living here and not much action was going on, still nice to enjoy the stay as well.
Taking another ride to go to a center in which Bana thought some good clothes could be bought. We both thought of buying some clothes in the center of production for clothes for the whole world.
The region we were in then it “sucked”, that’s at least how I would describe it. Most places were closed and it was dirty. We went lower for sure, when it comes to standart. Still we had to eat something and found a nice place.
It felt like an attraction in the restaurant. So many waitresses came to us, to serve us and to make us feel good. It was a bit too much, but the food was great, cheap, not spicy and clean. My priority was to not get food poisoning. I was extra careful as in India, but it worked. I wasn’t receiving it, not like Bana a few days after I left.
Presidential arrival
While walking through parks and luckily not receiving attention for being a foreigner, not how Bana was hoping for it. We were able to experience how locals were living in their freetime. People were playing crockett and just relaxing together.
The women were dressing up nicely with traditional dresses and the men were doing the opposite, no idea why. It was nice seeing those traditional clothes being worn in public, it was looking great on most of them.
After a while there was a huge group of police officers who were hitting everything they could with the baton, at least whoever wasn’t moving out of the way. Usually it was the local drivers, such an interesting experience. Bana was also almost hit by it.
The busy street wasn’t busy anymore, then out of nowhere luxury cars were driving past us in a convoy with many police cars. It was some important person, maybe even the leader of the country, who knows.
After they passed, the streets were getting back to normal. Hundreds, if not even thousands, of people were on the short part of the street again. Also a ride we were getting, to get around.
Police were also helping us another time to get into a cheap ride. We started using uber, it was cheaper than discussing a price with them directly and you were even able to get motorcycles.
Buying clothes
After not doing as much the first day, our host motivated us to actually go buy the clothes for which he was giving us a good address. The place wasn’t that far away and we were able to get there quickly.
We arrived in a mall which looked quite shitty. There were brand clothes everywhere. Some were cheap and some were super cheap, when comparing it to the original prices. Most of them were fake, but also original clothes would have been able to be found, at least when you have knowledge not like us.
We were unsure what to get, so we went to a little restaurant downstairs. It was probably the most imprudent I was receiving so much that I don’t even want to go into detail to not get annoyed again. For me since doing the 0 Euro trip it isn’t easy to go into restaurants, but when I do, then I at least want to be a little bit satisfied, there it was the opposite.
Whatever, we went back up and were meeting up with the one dude from the plane who was talking way too much. He is a nice and friendly person for sure, he wanted to help us find good clothes, so we went to a place he knew.
Feeling privileged
We had to drive to the other place and took probably the most privileged thing I was ever using so far, we used a rikshar. Some poor dude who is driving us on his bicycle for almost no money at all. Still there were discussions on the price.
Can’t lie here, the ride was feeling actually quite nice, just being so high up and being driven around not doing anything and being a little bit faster then if we would have walked the same way.
We were driving to a huge mall in which there wasn’t anything of what we wanted, which wasn’t great, so after checking it out for not even an hour we decided to go back to the other mall again. It was a bit of a waste of time, but at least we’ve tried alternatives.
Actually buying the clothes
We this time bought clothes which we thought could be original clothes. To be fair we didn’t know it and also true, we didn’t really care about it. The clothes felt like good quality and we wanted to know later from our host his opinion about it.
It felt the same as in Timor Leste where we told our host the amazing story of the celebration in the mountains. There our host wasn’t amazed about it, here our host also wasn’t that amazed of it, because we weren’t that good in finding the good clothes in the store. At least we were getting a fair price for the stuff we were buying, that’s something at least.
He was explaining to us that night how to find out what good clothes are and it was interesting to learn something from him and see his knowledge.
What’s up next?
In the next article you’re gonna hear more about the time in Bangladesh, so stay tuned!
