Bangladesh

I work for a company that has an offshore team in Bangladesh, I’ve been working with them for almost 2 years, and because of the timezone, sometimes it’s difficult to interact with them, so, the plan was, Rad will go to Bangladesh, spend some days with the team, train them and come back to California, interesting, isn’t it?

I didn’t know what to expect from Bangladesh, I read a lot of things on internet about it, the culture, history, etc, but I wasn’t ready, Dhaka is a big city, with a high population density, as soon as I jumped out of the plane, I discovered some things

*The concept of queue it’s unknown

People is never going to queue, they all will try to stay always at the front, even if they now they are not the first in “line”

*Rules? what rules?

Flying attendant: “Please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened”

Bangladeshis: *click* *click* good bay seatbelt, hello freedom, I want to standup and talk with my buddy which is 3 rows behind (the airplane is still moving)

*I couldn’t find my luggage, somebody noticed that, and ask me for the numbers of my tag and the color of my suitcase, after 5 mins he came back with my luggage and asked me for money, ha, good trick, no idea what happened, he asked for 20 dlls I gave him 10 dlls.

*Traffic lights are decorative, no one, no one will care about the traffic lights, are just decorative

*Traffic lanes, what for? if a CNG can squeeze between a car and a rickshaw, go for it!

*Almost an accident every minute, we almost hit a pedestrian, we almost hit a rickshaw, we almost hit a bus, we almost hit a CNG, etc, you got the point, right?

*Pedestrians best tool, is the hand, raise your hand doing a stop sign, that is your best bet while crossing the street, motor vehicles may or may not stop for you, be insistent

*Honk every 5 secs, or less if necessary, every conductor will drive honking to all the dangers in the road (there are many, so, just keep honking)

*Goats, yes, goats

*Smile! Everybody smiles to you, so, smile back!!

*People who speaks english is interested in you! so, be nice and talk to them, Bangladeshis are really nice people!

*They will try to talk to you in Bengali, even if you don’t understand and make some signs that you don’t speak Bengali, they will continue trying to communicate with you, smile :)

*The food is delicious and spicy (not a problem for a Mexican), they have a variety of dishes

*They eat a lot of fish and chicken, they have Goat and Beef too

*90% of the population are Muslims, but there is some Hinduism, the first call to pray it’s at 5am, so, that might help to wake you up (the first day was weird though)

*Close friends (male friends) hold hands, and that is not a bad thing, they are very very friendly.

*Lots of people on the street everyday, all day and all night long, I don’t remember any time without noise

*Cox Bazar, 125 km of beach! one of the longest beaches in the world, kind of amazing

*Fishing boats, love the shape, they look very nice!

I didn’t have any expectations, I know Bangladesh is not a touristy place, but, I had a really good time there, with the people, with the culture, the food, the traffic (you learn to love the traffic in your city) and the happiness, Bangladesh is one of the most happy countries in the world, I definitely will be back to Bangladesh!