THE OTTERS! Beware!
Me on the otter fishing boat
We were interviewed at the Rashpumani Festival for Bangladeshi National TV
Marina! Beware!
Apnee Kamonachen!
Ok, I may have mentioned in the previous blog about how nice the Bangladeshi people are, well forget it! They are not nice! They are Phenomenal and could also be called angels and saints; albeit Islamic saints..
From the moment we entered Bangladesh until the moment we left, we were treated with the utmost hospitality, friendliness and friendship! It really seems that in this country of 150 million people that each and every person makes an absolute effort to treat tourists like family. I am sitting and writing this blog from Kolkata (Calcutta) India in pure amazement reflecting on our last two weeks!
The worst thing in Bangladesh for tourists is people are just to incredible. It actually makes it tough to travel the country, but in a good way. Everywhere you walk you hear hello friend (and our experience was these people were just being friendly), which then turns into their interest about you. Its difficult to accept all the invitations for tea, dinner, meeting ones family, and even staying the night. Its just not possible to actually see the "sites" if you go with everyone.
Not once did I feel concerned or worried, these people are just nice. I'm sure there are a few bad apples, but at times I said to Marina, of course we can walk down this dark alley, as if someone would do anything in Bangladesh and if they would, like the other 30 people around wouldn't stop him.
My good friend Matt Thorogood pointed out to me that Lonely Planet (the worlds main travel guide book) recommends Bangladesh as the 2011 best place to go for value for money. They also commented that it has the world's friendliest people and I can testify to this.
HOWEVER, one funny anomoly occurs in Bangladesh; whats with the Gingers (red-heads)??? So its a very funny situation, they dye their hair and beards red.. for beauty, sorry you red haired people, but I'm sure you will agree its quite funny seeing old Islamic men in religious clothing with red beards and hair - I mean bright red! :D
Let me give you a travel tip - go to Bangladesh NOW! Before it changes or gets touristy - only on a handful of occassions we saw foreigners in the 15 days there.
So where have we been: Kulna > Bagerhat > Narail > Sunderbans > Jessore
Sunday - Trip preparations: Simply we were very lucky to book our trips due to the Eid holiday. But this was a very productive day
Monday - Bagerhat: We spent the day seeing the old mosques of Bagerhat. Most from the 1500's and in quite good condition. In Bangladesh there are brick factories galore. You may recall from the last blog how we visited one. All of Bagerhat's old mosques are constructed from high quality (it must be to stay in good condition) Bangladeshi bricks. We had a great time going with different rick-shaw drivers around the town after lunch we accepted an invitation from a nice local to visit his house and meet his family.
Tuesday - Otters: Let me elaborate, when I say Otters, I mean Otter fishing!! Yeah that's right! For those that are not familiar with the kind of ancient (at least several hundred years) way of fishing - for fish... We hired a nice 13 meter (40ft) boat with four crew members all to our self and started north up the main river of Kulna. Just the ride itself was worth the price of admission as we saw sublime forests, crocodiles, hundreds of river dolphins, thousands of friendly faces smiling, people waving, and some close enough to say Hello! We got to the village, which was absolutely in the middle of nowhere. Many of the locals and especially the children came to greet us. We then waited until the night and we left at 130am. We boarded the boat with the four fisherman and our guide and they let the otters out of the box. The three cute, grey otters jumped out and proceeded to play. We were told not to treat them to nicely as they have a mean bite so we kept our distance. What the otters are for is to scare the fish into the nets. So the otters play, hunt and scare the living daylights out of the fish so they move towards the nets. Now these are Bangladeshi river fish which on this occasion were minnows; I think one fish they caught was the size of my hand.. All in all, this was the greatest moment of our time in Bangladesh, being fed like kings, the people along the river and seeing the age old tradition of otter fishing.
Wednesday - Eid: This is one of Islams two main celebrations; the time when many people join the Hajj and go to Mecca. In Bangladesh, pretty much EVERY family purchases a cow to sacrifice. They kill the animal themselves as instructed in the Koran and divide the meat among their family and the poor of their area. On our way back to Kulna after otter fishing, we were invited to a village to witness this. The village chairman (kind of the mayor) waited for the sacrifice of the cow for us to join. Let me say it wasn't a pretty site and yes I did turn my head at the moment of seeing lots of blood. The means was a knife to the throat as about five men hold the cow down. It was cruel, but it is the cycle of life and it was certainly an honour to witness this with the village.
Thursday to Sunday - The Sunderbans: We booked a four night cruise to visit Bangladesh's famous Sunderbans Mangrove forest. Its the largest Mangrove forest in the world and home to hundreds of Bengal tigers! The main highlight of the trip (just as the main highlight of being in Bangladesh) was the people. There were about 50 passengers, including a General, a major, doctors, lawyers, large business owners and even a folk band. Oh, and a Colonal who we spent time with on another boat which was party of the tour. We sat with the general one night and he told us about the Pakistani war when he was a young officer and had to report on the American Battleship entering the Sunderbans waters. He told us; "I responded on the radio to confirm we had the battleship in our sites and had many men which could stop it if ordered". The response from headquarters was hysterical laughter. Then he realised the funniness of his statement. His militia consisted mostly of farmers and fisherman. In the Sunderbans we didn't see any tigers, but we did see dozens of deer. We also joined the Rashpuniman Hindu festival which was mostly a performance by our band for the fisherman who would be there for the next five months. These fisherman leave their homes and go work for this period for 13000 Taka (about $200) for the entire period.
Monday - dinner at the MPs: On the bus ride a week earlier we met a very friendly lawyer named Sadat; yes, there are a few friendly lawyers in the world; maybe all in Bangladesh; haha :D We were going to Jessore his home town this day and we kept in touch since meeting. There he invited us to his parents home (he was back from Dhaka for the Eid celebrations). His father was previously a member of Bangladeshi parliament. We had a great night dining with his family and hearing more about their lives and how it is in Bangladesh. Marina and I had a great time and it was a terrific cap to the trip.
So what is next: We are now in Kokata until the 26th when we fly to the Andamen islands for some sun, fun and SCUBA! We can't wait and see this as our true vacation on this trip! We then fly to Chennai (Madras) and then train it to Kerala and then up to Goa.
Until next time,
the Campbells
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