Early Experiences

Ok so we got here safely, then what? Well, we have been looked after well by Cath from Oasis and her husband Jamie who teaches in an international school here. They fed us dinner on our first night and then escorted us to our accommodation on rickshaws through the city night. The rickshaw ride was quite long, about 20 minutes. When you're fearing for your life round every corner 20 minutes is pretty long! You're not really in that much danger but as a newcomer to this form of transport it feels that way. There's obviously a decent incentive for the drivers to avoid collisions and it's amazing how everything weaves in and out of each other without crashing. There is seemingly a complete lack of rules and order on the roads which causes the heart to race most at junctions - it is every man for himself. But everyone's expectations are the same and no one wants to crash, so when your rickshaw pulls out in front of a car and you think you've had your chips, the car stops at the last minute. Drivers have to be brave or they would never get anywhere. They have to go for it when there is a slight opening, get their nose in and hope oncoming vehicles slow down or stop. And it seems that they do, whether it is out of a respect for that bravery or simply their own vehicle. Perhaps 'respecting him who's nose is in first' is the only rule of the road?

Travelling by foot has not so far been much more relaxing. We headed out to meet Cath at a coffee shop on our first morning here. There are masses of people on the streets. It's like walking through any busy city in that respect, but what seems like half of the people here are obviously extremely poor and live on the street, or some kind of slum dwelling nearby. It's hot, pretty smelly, and it's difficult to walk along minding your own business. Wherever we've walked we have been approached, whether by beggars, children trying to sell something, rickshaw drivers asking if we want a lift or just curious locals wanting to talk to white people and ask who're they're from and what they're up to.

We had our first staring experience on that first morning, or rather Chloe did. A rickshaw driver asked if we wanted a ride, we said no, he asked us again, we said no again, then he just coasted along on his vehicle at walking pace about 4 yards in front of us just staring at Chloe. Not very pleasant. Other than the staring many of these things don't seem particularly 'wrong' in their own right. But as complete aliens to the culture it has felt very uncomfortable so far. We have quickly learnt (and you have to learn quickly here to survive it seems) that it feels much safer when we know or at least look like we know where we are going and walk with purpose. We have also learnt a couple of polite rebuttals to approaches which has helped the confidence. Having said all that, it doesn't feel all that comfortable just 'ignoring' people either. It will be interesting to see if/how our feelings towards engaging with people on the street change as we become slightly more comfortable with the surroundings.

The busyness and the lack of road order brings a lot of noise! Predominantly car horn noise. It's vitally needed with the absence of anything vaguely resembling our lovely British highway code but car horns are sounding constantly. When I say constantly I mean about once every 1-2 seconds! All of the time. It is 8.38pm as I write and I am being 'serenaded' by a cacophony of honks. The accompanying instrument is the little rickshaw bell. Tiny in comparison but valued by pedestrians and rickshaw passengers nonetheless.

When it comes to eating, and I am sure I will post much more about this as the trip goes on, every meal so far gathered has come with a huge serving of relief. We are starting to learn from where we can get trustworthy meals, and the prices are very reasonable, but when all interaction with Bangladesh is such a challenge, the sight of good food on a plate in front of you is a lovely one. And some of the food has been lovely, very lovely. We've not really had much authentic Bangladeshi food so far however. We have been told that most Bangladeshi meals involve a lot of bones, bones which the locals generally crunch through! So I have had a lot of Indian inspired meals (well, one of the things I was looking forward too most was all the curry!) and Chloe a variety, taking the opportunity for a little normality where she has had the chance.

We are beginning to find our feet in it all though; today has definitely been less stressful than yesterday. There will be many more firsts but today there were some seconds, and doing things a second time is definitely easier than the first.

Chris