Bangladesh, here I am!

I arrived in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh on Saturday 27th around the middle of the day. I travelled from Bangkok with the 9 members of the Bangladeshi contingent to the General Assembly. How good to be travelling with a team! Usually I'm travelling on my own these days and I don't mind at all, but having a team to travel with was a lovely change. It was the small things like being able to leave hand luggage with someone while I visited the ladies, having company for the long waits in queues to check-in, collect luggage and go through immigration and having someone help me take my larger case off the carousel.

Dhaka has a population of more than 15 million. That's a lot of people. Bangladesh is the most densely populated nation in the world, is about the size of England and has a population of over 160 Million! More info here if you're interested.

 

I can't stop taking photos of everything that's different from my 'normal' life, my Aussie life.

Our life is so ordered, theirs doesn't seem to be. Their traffic is chaotic, ours is very controlled. Clothes in our cities are dull by comparison with their wonderful colours everywhere. Most of our vehicles are private cars whereas there are very few here. Our vehicles are almost always pristine, theirs are far from it!

 

  I'm planning on writing a post on transport soon and adding some interesting pics.

 

On my first full day here I was taken to the 'National Monument'. What an impressive sight.

From a plague at the monument I was able to gleen some information about the recent history of Bangladesh. The war of liberation from West Pakistan began on 26th March, 1971 and ended in victory on 16th December, 1971. 3 million patriots laid down their lives in this struggle for freedom. I gather it was more like genocide. 'This memorial is dedicated to the memory of the heroic struggle of the people and as a mark of respect of an indebted nation. The seeds of the movement sprouted through the struggle for the honour for the national language, Bangla in 1952 and thereafter grew in phases through the mass upheavals of 1954, 58, 62, 66 and 69 and eventually the liberation movement in 1971.' 

It's important that its not just about a language but all of the culture that goes with that.

I am interested that the border of Bangladesh is defined by the ethnically defined Bangla-speaking people. That makes so much sense. In contrast, when the Europeans imposed borders around Rwanda, Burundi, D R Congo and Uganda, they didn't consider the tribal groups living there and the country boundaries split tribes and families into different nations. Complicated their lives bigtime.

I am enjoying my Bangladesh experience VERY much and hope to blog more while I'm here. Electricity is unreliable and we seem to lose power a few times each day. It could be for as little as half an hour but perhaps much longer. Best to keep things charged and mobile phone handy for a light.