Still here...

Yes, still here, but just not in Bangladesh anymore! I kinda just left you all hanging way back in January and didn't finish off well. Sorry internet! Leaving Chittagong was hard and sad and the end of something good. I am so thankful for the time and the experience and the locals and my dear friendships I made during the year. I have so much more to add, and maybe I will finish sharing about my year in Bangladesh one day! But just letting you know that being back in Australia is good too. My new life in Brisbane is definitely not as noisy, or tiring and I certainly haven't been invited to any neighbours weddings or Ambassadors house for a party! But life is good and I am happy :)

On a totally unrelated note, I want to show off my newly developed iMovie skills! So here is a little video I made of a recent trip to the Malaysia beachside with my dear friend Anna. Yes, internet, life is indeed blessed.

UPDATE: Blogger video upload is not cooperating, just can click here and watch the video directly on Vimeo! 

The train and the Taj

The Taj Mahal was never at my top of the list must see places in India. For me, it's a country of experiences, not necessarily monuments. And maybe I've become a little jaded from too many "must see" buildings during my European travels (Cathedral overload anyone?). But Mum and Dad had both been before, and insisted the Taj was worth the effort, we had to go to Agra! And I'm so glad we did, it was breathtaking!

And lucky for us, we got to see the epic "monument" of the Taj Mahal AND we got the "experience" of a freezing 19 hour sleep class carriage on the train journey to Agra. Win win really.

So let me first start with the experience, because the story gets much better from there. Train travel in India is the main form of long-distance transport, and the tickets sell out months in advance. The government has a small quota of tickets reserved for foreign tourists, but even then getting the seat you want on the train you want can be tough. We managed to get tourist quota tickets for our 12 hour overnight train from Varanasi to Agra, but not in 1st, 2nd or even 3rd AC class, but in sleeper class. Which dear internet, is effectively 4th class. On an Indian train. I was confident, Mum was a little nervous.

The train was 3 hours late to arrive, but once aboard armed with newly purchased polar-fleece blankets we found out we were sharing our little section of the carriage with three other tourist quota ticket holders, a girl from Australia and  two guys from Japan. They were lovely and we all chatted. The windows in our carriage are wedged open for most of the year because of the stifling heat, however our day of travel just happened to be the coldest day in the region in 40 years. Max of 7 degrees and bitter fog. And the windows wouldn't close. 

After surviving the freezing night by jamming newspaper into the windows gaps (and re-jamming whenever a fast train sped by us and caused the newspaper to fall out!) we were consoled with the fact that we were 11 hours into the trip, so not long until a hot shower and a heater to warm our toes. But as with every "experience" 'not long' turned into 8 more hours! The heavy fog caused us major delays, so the only thing to do was snuggle together with our new train buddies and eat fruit cake that Dad thankfully had stashed in his suitcase! The Agra train station felt like a mirage as we finally pulled in at 4pm,10 hours after our expected arrival time - warm toes and the Taj finally within our grasp! But would the thick fog clear by the next day so that we could actually see the Taj Mahal?!?!

We had had the travel "experience" now we wanted the monument!

The next day we woke up to clear skies! Unfortunately Dad wasn't feeling well, so it was just Mum and I, but I saw the Taj Mahal and everyone was right. Totally worth the effort! One monument that does actually exceed all expectations!

So when we finally made it into the Taj Mahl, in honour of surviving the adventure to get there (and because I know how much you all appreciate a good photo shoot!) here are the photos of mother and daughter at the Taj Mahal. They're not quite to the same standard as the glamour shots, but considering the thousands of people who were jumping in front of our shots and nudging us off seats/ ground space to get their perfect Taj tourist picture, I think they turned out pretty well! Mum even attempted a jump shot! Woo! 

I'm pretty sure Indian Tourism are going to snap these up!

 It was totally worth the 19 hours of freezing toes! Amaze!

The Modern Child

Because nothing says "Modern Child Educational Institute" like riding school children around in a rickety cage on the back of a bicycle!

I love this country. 

Khulshi

Hello internet, remember me? You know, that girl who can't eat bacon used to write about her life in Bangladesh? Well *used* to write before she became slack (or busy?) and stopped posting! Please forgive me!

I'm back in Chittagong after two weeks away in North-Western Bangladesh and India with my Mum and Dad! We had a great time and I love India, a lot, but it's good to be back in the 'gong, to thaw out (Northern India was so cold!) I've missed home!

I live in South Khulshi and Work in North Khulshi and although most of this city is hugely chaotic, Khulshi is as close to a haven as it's possible to find in these parts - mainly because it's a no through area and all of the streets are manned my baton wielding security men!

So as I ease back into Chittagong living, here are some pictures that I snapped yesterday on my way home from work, a little glimpse of Khulshi, and the familiar things that make it feel like home.

My work building.

The green leafy streets of North Khulshi

The bright shining star of Khulshi - Khulshi Mart! Being so close to this western style supermarket brings me abundance of joy on a daily basis. 

Road #2 guard. Keeping out the rif-raff.

This is Queen Elizabeth (Lizzie) the Road 2 street dog, a royal name to cancel out her scruffiness  She would laways join us on our morning runs!

The local Road 2 shop, protected by the sweet boy who works there. He wants us to take him home with us to Australia! *sniff*

And our Khulshi Palace. Home.

Dewali!

A strange and weird thing about living here in Bangladesh, is that I am somehow perceived as more important than I actually am. People call me "Madam", I get waved through security check points and I get invited to the Indian High Commissioners Diwali party! Now this, I can get used to! 

Dewali is the Hindu festival of light, a sort of light overcoming evil celebration. The High Commissioners residence (the party venue!) was filled with thousands of sparkling fairy lights, they let off some pretty average locally made fireworks, and also let off these awesome and HUGE lanterns! They were so big, they were almost like hot air balloons! It was pretty magical watching them float up into the night sky.

 Fabulous outdoor decorations!

The party was the most party like party I've been to here, there were non-dry drinks available(!!) and also a band, with Bollywood music AND DANCING! Like, lots of full body hands and hip jiggling dancing, and that was just the men! It was this part of the evening that reminded me the most the differences between the Bangladeshi and Indian culture. India is a huge country and has such a mix of cultures and religion, whereas Bangladeshi culture seems to be more heavily dominated by their conservative religion. I miss public displays of dancing.

Glenna and the High Commissioner launching the lantern

Thanks to the fun party, I'm also and have been invited for chai at the Indian High Commissioners house! Oh, and did I mention that I also met the French Ambassador? Happy Dewali!

Glamorous!

In preparation for Lindsey's visit I compiled a list of the ultimate Bangladeshi experiences. During the 12 days she was here we proceeded to tick them off the list.We rode on top of a local bus, drank cha at a local stand, took rickshaws, visited the markets, spat paan juice onto the dusty streets and ate with our hands. But we saved the very best for last. For a woman, pretty much the ultimate Bangladeshi experience is going to the parlour.  Nowhere else outside of 1964 can you experience the hair teased, set and sprayed routine that a Bangladeshi parlor can offer! And you too can proudly walk out made up with eyes that Cleopatra herself would be proud of! 

We decided that the Bangladeshi make-over parlor experience needed a motivation, (this was Lindsey's last night in the 'desh after all!) we needed a reason to be looking so extra special. So we teamed up the outlandish hair and make up, with bright coloured saris and headed to the photo studio for ....GLAMOUR SHOTS! 

Bangladesh know how to do Biryani and they sure know how to do posed non smiling photo-shopped fake background glamour shots! Most middle/upper class Bangladeshi's have wallets full of  pictures of family members glammed-up in front of fields of tulips or snow capped mountains. It's so popular that the photos can be taken at any of the 563 photo shops in Chittagong! 

So on a regular Sunday night in Chittagong, Lindsey, my housemate Glenna and I embraced the ultimate of ultimate of Bangladeshi experiences; hair, makeup and sari wrapped at the parlour, followed by glamour shots in the back room of a little photo dorcan!

I think Lonely Planet need me to help them write their next Bangladesh book update, because they seemed to have missed this ultimate experience off their list!

Enjoy the evidence of this hilariously glamorous evening! 

Global Hand Washing Day!

Oh dear, I know, I've been terrible! It's been weeks since I last posted! But I'm back into home life now post holidays in Nepal and Bangladesh adventuring with Lindsey, so I now have a bazillion photos to ensure future blog posts can't possible dry up until 2047. 

Before I left for my Eid break to Nepal, I celebrated Global Handwashing Day at a local High School! We organised an afternoon session at a Chittagong High School to demonstrate effective handwashing practice in a fun and interactive way!

It would sound like a strange thing, going to an Australian high school to teach children to wash their hands with soap and water, don't parents teach that kind of thing? In most developing countries, where good infrastructure is a given, that's usually true. But here in Bangladesh, poor water and sewerage infrastructure and access to and knowledge of soap means that training children (and adults!) on hygiene can be life saving!

Handwashing with soap and water is the most effective and inexpensive way of preventing diarrheal and acute respiratory infections, which take the lives of one third of child deaths in Bangladesh each year! Isn't that figure astounding!

Below are some pics showing the fun handwashing demonstrations and set up at South Patenga High School in Chittagong.