Samstag, 12. Februar 2011

bangladesh II

i traveled from mongla, where you saw the pictures, to dhaka, the capital. its about in the center of bangladesh. then i took a train to sylhet, in the north east, and now i am back on my way to dhaka, staying in srimangal, where you ca find tea plantations! its quite beautiful...
 since bangldesh is a muslim country, the day everything is closed (like our sunday) is friday here!! and they also use a different writing...this is quite strange, because i can hardly read anything in the streets! and in dhaka i was told to take the bus number 6...but of course i could not read the numbers!! so i became illiterate...an interesting experience!
one day i walked in dhaka, and asked some people about a special place...they did not speak english, so it was quite difficult! then a man, dressed up in a nice suit, came and asked if eh could help me. it tourned out that the place i was looking for was in the same direction as he had to go. so we walked about 20 minutes together, and were talking about everything from my country, to cricket (a very important topic in these days, a few days before the start of the world cup), about my traveling, where he has been, and about his job - he is a judge in the high court! when he arrived at his work place he kept telling me how happy he was to have met me and that we walked together for this time...and how happy he is to have met me. this really made me think "how happy' a judge back at home would be to meet in the morning on the way to the court a young man from bangladesh, dressed in a football jersey, old pants, a haircut like i have...i suppose the austrian judge woud not be too happy about the bangladeshi man!!

and so, if i talk about judges...lieber tegl, mein lieblingsrichter! ich wuensche dir und da maria alles, alles gute! schade, dass ich nicht dabei sein kann...aber des wird nachgeholt! feierts schoen, und habts es schoen!!
...for a very good friend...

catholic church...with muslim elements


in front of a mosque

in respect to you, dada!! es is a super wasser!!!

bangladeshi way of tuktuk...think prison must feel like this!
me and mr. yunus at the nobel price ceremony...

in the streets in dhaka

inside a mosque

count down...
 ...guys, do you remember when we had the count down for the european championship in innsbruck...reminded me on that!
down town dhaka

as well
cricket is everywhere

fruit market

another part of the fruit market

out of the train...bangladesh is a very poor country
...and very wide - with many rice fields

at the shrine of hazrat shah jalal in sylhet
 when i was there a young man started to talk to me, and we made a picture...and if one person speaks to me it works like a magnet. seriously, after 2 minutes there were at least 50 people around me - very close! and since most of them do not speak english they just look at me...looking is the wrong word, they stare!! its really crazy, but i am used to things like that from india...not in that amount, but a bit. but it can also be too much...
its also very dirty - thats supposed to be a river!

rice fields...all these plants are planted one by one by hand - unbelivible!

tea plantations

tea...

...and the workers
 today at the tea plantations in srimangal i saw a sign of a tea museum. as i wanted the guard said the mnager is not there, and i cant go there. so i came back later. the manager was there, but he told me the guy of the museum was not there...but i could spek to his supervisor. after some "nice" smalltalk (where i am from and how beautiful bangladesh is) i was suddenly allowed into the museum. it was a room, maybe half the size of my room in innsbruck (for the ones who dont know that...i used to life in a castle :) ) and in the museum were items like a telephone "stood in the head office" or a old fridge "old fridge" or a part of the old fence...i could not belive that it took me so long to convince them to let me see...this sh....!

tomorrow i will go to dhaka again, because i really need t find a ticket for the opening ceremony of the cricket world cup on the 17th and for the first match on the 19th! when i have the tickets i will go northwest, to the oldest city of bangladesh...
dirt


Montag, 7. Februar 2011

bangladesh

i am now in bangladesh!! i made it finally - but it was difficult! when i wrote i wanted to leave (1st of feb.) i got quite sick, had high fever and had to stay 3 more days in kolkata. i was just by far too weak to leave...on the 3re in the evening i could get out of bed for like half an hour, and decidet to leave the next day - if i had any power! and i had some power...so i left, crossed the boarder and went as far as possible. my destination was mongla, down in the mangrove forests...on the first day i did not make it there, but on the second day i got there!
bangladesh is a bit like india, but much less developed (yes, its possible) and fewer people speak english! if im asked about my name, and then ask "what is your name?" is the answer mostly "thank you!" its hard to find somebody to talk to...
thanks to nice i had a good english speaking guide for my tour into sundarbans, the biggest mangrove forrests in the world. i made a tour there yesterday, and you should see how its looks!!

our boat
it started in the morning, i saw the boat...and someboidy threw buckets afterbuckets out of the window of this boat...turned out to be the one that i (with the kind help of my guide) had hired the day before!! but it was a good boat!
breakfast
with the boatdriver on the backside and myguide mr. sobhan in front! we had a good day together, thanks!!
riverside

with locals

many boats like this were around

we went on land
where i stand its all the young mangroves
 and in one year they become huge trees
some grass

tiger prints on the left, and deer blood...thats all i saw of those many many tigers there!! (this time the guard had a riffle!!)
our path

it was nice...

...very nice!

people paddeling to...

...that boat to sell grass
many, many boatrs...fishing young shrip, they are braught to the land and grown there.

it looks like this

poverty on the riverside
work
otters...

...are used to help the people...

...getting fish intop their nets!
smaller river

there are crocodiles...but we saw only that one, which was not free

close up of mangroves
it was...really beautiful!

today i wanted tomove to dhaka, but i was unlucky again...strike everywhere! so now i am stuck somewhere in bagerhat! tomorrow i will have a bus at 7 in the morning to dhaka...if everything goes well! what i really hope, because i had more then 1/3 of my time pasesed already, but did not see too much yet.... so hope the next time yopu hear from me there will be more news!! and: its quite fun for me to write the blog, and in mails many of you tell me how nice it is...but it would be quite sweet if (just every now and then) somebody could comment something...just that i see ok, there are some people reading it (i can see in some statistice that quite a few people are reading, but like this would be also nice for me!! called 2 way communication, is quite hip!! ok, gotta go, i am hungry, and try to book my bus ticket now...bye guys!