To Milan's Village We Went.....
We rose VERY early this morning (perhaps the earliest I have all trip!) at 5:20am to be ready for our 6am departure to Rick's housekeeper/cook's village about 4 hours north of Dhaka. Our driver for the day pulled up in a small white van with an eagle's wings sticker spread on the back window and "ADVENTURE" written on the side - Yup, I knew it was going to be a great day of exploring in Bangladesh! We were so excited to see Milan and I got to wear my new sawar kameez out fit for the first time---it was my Sunday best! :)
The drive from Rick's place to the airport at such an early hour took 11 minutes!!!!!! The same distance on the way back at around 8pm tonight = 60 minutes!!!!(But I'll talk about that later). The ride to the village was very pleasant as we headed out of the city and into the countryside of Bangladesh. The rains from last night meant quite a bit of standing water along the sides of the streets which I noticed on our drive. That coupled with loads of garbage = filthy and smelly....much of the problem in this country. The green pastures and fields of agriculture were such a nice change to look at compared to the city stores of Dhaka itself. Of course, there were the smoke stacks polluting the air from brick factories along the way too, but for the most part we were seeing Bangladesh countryside in one of its best settings. There was ploughing, planting and some harvesting going on as people prepare for the head of the Summer and the monsoon rains that come around June/July.
So, let me take this opportunity to now talk about the roads and country driving in Bangladesh. Firstly, after today, I feel like I have no fear of vehicles coming directly at me while I am in the car. What that means is that countryside driving in Bangladesh means overtaking using your horn. We saw 2 overturned trucks on our drive today and I don't know if there were any fatalities but the giant trucks themselves were on their sides! The loads we see in these trucks stacked with everything you could think of (bamboo, logs, cows etc) often look so heavily packed and unstable that it could lean to one side or another at anytime. Drivers are almost playing "chicken" with others and there were definitely some very close calls and "whiplash" instigating stops today.
We arrived and met Milan and his 4 year old sweet daughter in the main town turn off before driving into his house and land area. His whole family are adorable including his wife and 14 year old son. His mother lives with him (father passed many years ago) and they do not have a record but thinks she is well into her 90's since one of Milan's older brothers is 75 years old. She doesn't say much but her face is so young and she can still sit down like the other women at her age. We had some morning tea and then went for a walk around his house where many of his other sisters and brothers have homes and farm land set up. There is a mixture of Christian, Muslim and Hindu religions present in his village and we got to walk to one of the Hindu temples too.
After that, we got in the car and drove a very short distance to visit another sister and then to the area where his children go to Christian school. The set up is fabulous and made us realize it was a great place for children to grow up. A giant new church was being built and there is boarding school for both girls and boys. We got to meet some of the sisters that run the girls boarding school and had tea with them too. We were in for a real surprise treat when one of the sisters had us visit a classroom with some of the girls present. They gave us flowers and sang a welcome song to us, as well as performed a traditional Bengali dance....we felt so special and knew Milan had organized much of this to happen!
I forgot to mention that our van was compressed natural gas as well...very cool indeed! It had a small tank so we had to fill it up more often than normal since regular vans have 2 tanks. The nearest CNG station was about 30 minutes away so we built up an appetite getting gas before getting back to Milan's home and having a delicious Bengali meal with rice, vegetables, salad, chicken and sweets. After a rest watching some cable tv, we decided it was time to head back to Dhaka. It must be hard for him to say goodbye to his family each week (and I imagine many families have to do this!) but his little daughter sadly said her farewell and we headed back to the city.
You know most of the time it feels quicker going back to a place than when you go somewhere....well yes, this definitely was NOT the case returning back to Dhaka at 3pm. We knew it would take longer than the 4 hours getting there but it took nearly 6 hours of bumper to bumper traffic along with spurts of crazy overtaking. Driving at night in Bangladesh was also an experience and let's just say, you don't want to take overnight buses here and buses during the day are safer. We figured out that we were in the van about 11 hours today...BUT, it was all worth it! One of the coolest things about today's trip too was that we were only about 25 miles away from the Indian border...so close!!!!!!
We had planned to take Rick and Judy out to dinner as a "Thank You" for our last night in Bangladesh and we ate late around 9:30pm at one of Rick's favorite places where you have a second floor view of the Gulshan 2 circle roundabout seeing everything going on. We had some naan and chicken kebabs cooked in a real claypot oven.....Oh how I am going to miss Indian/Bengali food!!!!! A rickshaw ride home topped off our night.
I can't believe I am headed back to the first and Western world tomorrow...I think a little sleeping in in the morning after today's long day and then last minute shopping before heading to the airport at 2pm. Japan-my last country stop! Bangladesh has shocked and surprised me in every way possible...but all in a good way!
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