tea drinking in Chittagong, cycle rickshaw driver to the right
Muslim orphanage in Chittagong - the wonderful Anwar Hossein to the left
Sun dried tuna - big fella's, a good 2 feet
Ell's sleight of hand on the ferry
Sunset on Cox's Bazaar - the worlds longest beachHalf way through our 1 month Bangladesh trip, and its been a fantastic travel experience. Incredible hospitality, but tiring as it's difficult to find space for yourself apart from your room. Its hard to imagine that we will find a country that will leave such a strong impression throughout this trip. Since the last post, we have headed to the most southerly tip of Bangladesh - St Martins Island, a coral island 38 kms off the coast, the idea was to try and scuba dive, but what with the language difficulties, it felt too dangerous a proposition, and the equipment did not inspire confidence, so we knocked that on the head and spent some of the money on a slap up feast - crab curry. The dive 'shop' I think were saying that they would send me under water and periodically freedive down to check I was ok, mmm not the safest of practices. The crab was marginally safer. Cox's Bazaar to the North of the islands, a Bengali beach resort was entertaining for a day or two - the area supposedly boasts the worlds longest (124 kms) and widest beach, anyone confirm this? Its longer than Littlehampton for sure. Hundreds/thousands of Bengalis holiday here, and its a hoot - all in the water, the women in full dress naturally - some of the men in pants & vests. Nobody lies on the beach, but they throng the waters edge.
Ell delighted the crowds on the ferry to St Martins with some sleight of hand. Initially it was the kids who were interested, but soon as is often the case here, a large crowd of adults built up. She made a coin 'disappear', before retrieving it out of a young boys shorts so the speak, 'thief' cried out one of the parents.
The scenery between these 2 places mentioned was glorious, impossible to capture on camera as we were going too fast, padi fields of all shades of green, brightly coloured farmers, and cattle dressed in their finery in advance of Eid festival being led along the roads, sharing the space with cycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws and a miriad of different buses including some quality volvo coaches, though others had the thinnest metal casing you can imagine, and resembled papier mache.
We have been in Chittagong today - no travel - as its Eid sacrifice. A little like Nepal, quite a bit of cattle slaughter on the streets. Had a good day with our hired rickshaw driver, visited a couple of mosques, and a WWII memorial grave, which was unfortunately closed. The first mosque was unremarkable, but we had a good hour there as we met Anwar who calmly showed us around the mosque and its attached orphanage, that houses 500 kids of various ages. We also met Elvis, a Cameroon footballer plyying his trade in the Bangladesh league, its fair to say that Elvis attracted perhaps even more attention than us.
I muscled my way into a game of cricket down at the docks, bowled one over, went for about 15, and then faced one over, picked the bowler off through mid wicket for 8 runs, dug out a yorker, and was then hit on the leg, going way down legside, naturally I refused to walk.
Ell delighted the crowds on the ferry to St Martins with some sleight of hand. Initially it was the kids who were interested, but soon as is often the case here, a large crowd of adults built up. She made a coin 'disappear', before retrieving it out of a young boys shorts so the speak, 'thief' cried out one of the parents.
The scenery between these 2 places mentioned was glorious, impossible to capture on camera as we were going too fast, padi fields of all shades of green, brightly coloured farmers, and cattle dressed in their finery in advance of Eid festival being led along the roads, sharing the space with cycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws and a miriad of different buses including some quality volvo coaches, though others had the thinnest metal casing you can imagine, and resembled papier mache.
We have been in Chittagong today - no travel - as its Eid sacrifice. A little like Nepal, quite a bit of cattle slaughter on the streets. Had a good day with our hired rickshaw driver, visited a couple of mosques, and a WWII memorial grave, which was unfortunately closed. The first mosque was unremarkable, but we had a good hour there as we met Anwar who calmly showed us around the mosque and its attached orphanage, that houses 500 kids of various ages. We also met Elvis, a Cameroon footballer plyying his trade in the Bangladesh league, its fair to say that Elvis attracted perhaps even more attention than us.
I muscled my way into a game of cricket down at the docks, bowled one over, went for about 15, and then faced one over, picked the bowler off through mid wicket for 8 runs, dug out a yorker, and was then hit on the leg, going way down legside, naturally I refused to walk.
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