Days 25-28: Dhaka & Sylhet

[Note the backdated entry due to lack of internet for the past week...]

The day that Stan and I arrived in Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim country, it was in the middle of Ramadan. We stayed with my grad school friend Misha and his lovely wife Anika starting the evening of their first wedding anniversary. So you could say our timing is impeccable!

We spent the first evening getting our first glimpse of Dhaka, the gritty and densely populated capital city. It is a place where driving on the left is sometimes just a suggestion, and drivers are content to maintain a distance of no more than 6 inches from other motor vehicles, 3 wheeled tuktuks, rickshaws and pedestrians on all sides. The cacophony of street life, dominated by honking and pierced by regular calls to prayer, is ever-present.

Our first meal? Stan and I crashed Misha and Anika's anniversary dinner at a tasty Japanese restaurant, one of the swankiest joints in town! It would be one of the very few places where we would actually see other non-Bengalis.

Early the next day we set out by chauffeured minivan for Sylhet, about a 5-6 hour bumpy, handle-clenching, frogger- like drive from Dhaka. The Sylhet region in the Northeast is known for its expansive fluorescent green rice paddies, lush forests and tea estates. Among Bangladeshis, it is also known for its unique dialect and relatively well-to-do inhabitants thanks to foreign investment, I think primarily due to the tea industry. In fact, they have occasionally expressed separatist desires, similar to Quebec!

glamour shot in front of a field of tea plants

 
We stayed at Shuktara Eco-Resort, which was conveniently situated on top of a hill on the outskirts of the bustling city of Sylhet, just far enough away for us to feel that we were in the middle of our own mini rain forest. However, we were still within [very close] range of a speaker announcing the call to prayer, which would remind us periodically of both the time of day (sunrise being the least convenient) and the surreal fact that we were vacationing in the middle of Bangladeshi "wilderness."

We spent the next couple of days enjoying local fare - lots of dal (spicy lentils), special Iftar foods (Iftar being the communal meal a Muslim has at sunset to break his/her fast), tea from a street stall, fruit and more!

chowing down on the nut of the coco

roadside tea

bowl of Halim, a flavor-packed, mouthwatering soup only offered during Ramadan. Stan's favorite

traditional Bengali meal. Note the many dishes.

Unfortunately, as a result, I fell victim to the inevitable upset stomach, but the experience of eating all of these delicious foods was way worth it. My sad state gave even greater meaning to what ultimately became our favorite and most versatile Bengali phrase: "paikhani khotai?" Our not-so-up-to-date travel guide suggested using this to ask "where is the bathroom?" However, Misha was quick to point out that it would more commonly be understood today as "where is the feces?"

We also had a great time exploring our rich surroundings. One morning we walked from our resort to the nearby "pluckers' village," where local tea pluckers live. Anika told us that tea pluckers descend from a long line of pluckers, originally brought in as indentured workers from India during the height of British tea industry. Today, most of these people haven't gained much socioeconomic ground, and their living conditions show it. Their homes were little more than mud huts with thatch roofs, with similar amenities to some of the ramshackle abodes we saw in the South African townships. Still, they were a very friendly and interested group of people, asking about Amari (Misha and Anika's adorable and angelic 4-month-old), showing us around their village, staring at us curiously, letting us take lots of pictures and pet their animals (goats & cows), and even leading us to their Sikh shrine, which is used by both Hindus and Muslims. I particularly loved taking in the colors of the village scenery, especially the women with their insanely bright clothes - my kind of style!

baby mutton? too cute!

tea plucker's kid "horsing" around with the cow

Stan playing dad with Amari and real dad, Misha

We also took a quick side trip to Jointapur, where we took a boat ride down a stunning bright green-blue river at a nature reserve. Lots of friendly locals waved/stared as we passed by. (Apparently staring in Bangladesh is a national pastime, but it isn't meant to offend, they are just sincerely interested in looking at you! This may have had something to do with the fact that most of the time we were the only foreigners around and our clothing was conspicuously American...)

kids were thrilled to have their pictures taken

There were many more things we would have loved to do both in Sylhet (explore a nearby national park, take a flat bottomed canoe trip through a flooded forest) and beyond (track wild Bengal tigers in the famous Sundarbans National Park)... But we'll just have to save that for another trip.

As we enjoyed our last evening back in Dhaka over drinks at the American Club and a last, delicious West Bengali meal at Oh! Calcutta, we reflected on the uniqueness of our experience and being able to see it through locals' eyes. Many thanks to Misha, Anika and Amari for sharing with us their home, time, insight and good humor!

Stone IPA in a Muslim country that few tourists even visit. Amazing!

 
Today we find ourselves in Kathmandu, where we received a briefing with our trek leader, Dawa, who has already warned us no less than 4 times about the perils of leeches (there are black and red ones, one is painful, one you don't feel at all, we will get them off with salt). We head out first thing tomorrow. Wish us luck, we may very well need it.