Preface: Why Bangladesh?

 

Bit wordy title with apologies to George Harrison, but going to Bangladesh without that song in one's head would be like heading to Kathmandu without Seger.  A question asked by many is "Why Bangladesh?" or perhaps "Bangladesh!!!  WTF???".  Both good questions.  For the past 20 years, I've had a real focus on SE Asia and have managed to pick off every country surrounding Thailand.  During that time I've also developed a fascination with India, which I believe to be the most interesting travel destination on the planet, a place where  every day evokes mind-blowing moments not experienced elsewhere.  Having never made it to northeastern India, my original goal was to visit this area and include Sikkim and Darjeeling; my timetable, however, wasn't really suitable for the cold and damp of Sikkim at this time of year.  I remember a Satyijat Ray film (Katchenjungha) that involved a trip to the area, with hopes of seeing the mountain peak through the fog.  Everyone seemed to be freezing, so I dismissed this idea while looking for somewhere else nearby that wouldn't be full of tourists, yet would still at least enable a visit to Calcutta, or Kolkata as it's now commonly spelled.  Bhutan would be too cold, so I started investigating Bangladesh, without really much hope of finding a month's worth of things to do.  WRONG!  A few guidebooks from the library (Bradt and LP) revealed a fascinating country with national parks (the Sundarbans being the most famous and home of some of the few remaining Bengal tigers on earth), a thriving hill tribe region (Chittagong Hill Tracts), the longest natural white sand beach in the world and some lovely tea growing regions which afford bicycling opportunities.  One real concern was that the population of Bangladesh is 155 million people in an area the size of Iowa (3 million).  Fortunately, the vast majority live in a few cities and there's plenty of room to get away from it all, most notably in the region of hill tribes that interests me the most.  I jotted down a flexible plan that would involve several days in the capitol city of Dhaka, 6 days in the Sundarbans and its adjacent villages, a few days in Chittagong, Bangladesh's second largest city, a week in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, a few days at an elephant reserve at the southeasternmost tip of Bangladesh near the Burmese border, a few days at the beaches of Cox's Bazaar and St Martin's Island and a few days in the tea-growing region of Srimongol  Then I booked a deal on Qatar Air from NYC and, with a bit of good luck, was later given a schedule change that turned a brief layover in Doha into an 8 hour layover, enough time to walk into the city and have a look around.  Feel free to subscribe to this blog and with luck from the rural internet Gods, I'll be updating it every couple of days.
PS  Since I'm writing this for myself, friends, family AND fellow travelers who would like more info about Bangladesh, may you forgive references not applicable to your being here.  I'll try to add a special travelers section to the end of most posts, with various travel tips. 

 

 Courtesy: http://bruce3404bangladesh.blogspot.com/