How can a week go so fast!
Here I am in Chandpur and very happy to be here. I must admit the trip from the airport to my overnight accommodation was enough of Dhaka for me. The next morning I was on a ferry to my home of three months. The weather here is still mild as it is early spring and some locals wearing jerseys. Consequently, fans not needed in the house yet. Apparently it doesn't take long to get up to the high 30s to 40. There are several very short term Kiwis here at present - 3 of which leave in a week and a young man who is here until the end of March working in the pre-school and juniors.
BANGLADESH WEEK I
The trip on the ferry took about 3 hours and was very interesting. I was given a plastic chair to sit on on the side deck. From here I could watch our progress downstream and hold court with all those who wanted to make my acquaintance, get me to talk to their children, photograph me or just stop and yarn. I did manage a few photographs thru the hazy polluted atmosphere and was so pleased to get away from the very dead river around Dhaka into a less polluted area but still hazy. You will notice in the photos that it is a huge river as you go further south - hard to see the shore in many places.
The ferry I was on was similar to this but bigger and had cabins available.
It was pretty crowded and it took ages for everyone to disembark. Loads of
boat traffic of varying sizes for passengers of freight ploughing across and
down. At this point I will get you to note that goes around the boat just above
the water line - this will help you understand some later photos.
First we pass loads of bricks stacked on the riverside as we head south
and then the brick works themselves. I'm told all the good old trees are
gone so for buildings it is all concrete framework filled with brick walls -
very similar to lots of areas in South East Asia. There were lots of boats
of various sizes moving them from where they were made up closer to
the action.
Next comes the cement works!
I couldn't help but think of the children's book by Pamela Allen "Who Sank the Boat" when looking at these one!
Now it is time to remember that ledge around the bottom of the boat. Way out in the middle of nowhere a motorized boat come whizzing up to the ferry and a couple of guys with food jump onto the ledge to sell passengers their goodies. Scary stuff as they generally don't know how to swim I am told.
