First Impressions of Bangladesh

So today is my first Friday in Dhaka, Bangladesh having arrived on Monday night. Friday is the Muslim holy day and the Christian equivalent of a Sunday. For many Bangladeshi’s who work 6 day weeks it is the only day of rest. For a city that is constantly roaring with life, Friday is relatively quiet, especially in the morning when many Bangladeshi’s attend their local mosque.

Before arriving in Bangladesh I had a whole host of preconceived ideas (and fears) about what Dhaka would be like. Most of those ideas were based on the time I spend in Chennai in Tamil Nadu in South India in 2004/5 when I was volunteering with AVI.

So after 4 days how does Dhaka compare with my expectations? Well it is pretty much as I expected in many ways and very surprising in others. Exiting the airport the heat, noise and smells that are so readily identifiable as South Asia hit you but the swarming crowds are kept away by what can only be described as a cage around the arrival gate.

The road between the airport and the hotel in which I am currently staying was as chaotic as any you could experience. Pedal rickshaws, autorickshaws (called CNGs in Bangladesh), motorbikes, cars, the most antiquated and dilapidated buses and all manner of trucks all compete for every available centremetre of the road. This creates a chaos of gridlock, blearing horns, dust and exhaust fumes. Every intersection creates an interesting negotiation exercise as these diverse vehicles avoid having to give way to anyone or anything unless it is absolutely impossible not to. This of course, as only South Asian’s can, is done with much horn sounding, but no anger or even frustration.

Nevertheless, this gridlock does strangle transportation in Dhaka to such a degree that an 8km trip across the city can take over 1.5hours. You could walk that in less time I hear you say? Well probably but the key reasons why you would think twice about it are that there are no footpaths and so you would be competing with all the other traffic for space - the fumes, heat and beggars all add to the disincentives.

The city itself offers a diverse panorama of sights, sounds and smells from the harrowing all the way to the tranquil and beautiful. The heightened contrast of opposites co-existing side by side ­- slums outside mansions, mounds of rubbish next to manicured gardens, pedal rickshaws competing with luxury 4WDs, rich business people accosted by the homeless and destitute – abounds.

Interestingly, the people on the streets are at least 90% male. Women are largely tucked up at home out of sight of all the men spending their day standing on street corners watching the world go idlly by. The men are very friendly and those with basic English use the rare opportunity of coming across a Bideshi (what Bangali’s call all foreigners) to practice their English. Everyone stops and stares when a Bideshi goes past.

The only place where women are relatively common on the streets is around the main university where wealthy and middle class women have largely been allowed the freedom to be educated (even if it only for the purpose of attracting an educated husband).

So what have I been doing for the last few days in this crazy city? Well I have been spending time in a very nice hotel – Rigs Inn in the suburb Gulshan, undertaking an induction/training programme with other Aussie volunteers who will be working in Bangladesh at the same time – some in Dhaka, others in far flung places in the regions of Bangladesh. They are a diverse group, some fresh out of uni, others are professional communications advisors, occupational therapists and policy advisors –all are good fun (in a somewhat rugged yet decidedly nerdy way (if that is possible to imagine)) and great contacts to have in this country.

I have also spent time looking for some more permanent digs. Given that most apartments in Dhaka have at least 3 bedrooms (culturally, small households are not common in Bangladesh), I have decided to share a place with two other Aussies - Matt and Casey -who are going to working with the UNDP and Unicef respectively. Pretty happy to have landed with these guys – Casey is a really chilled out Brisbanite and Matt is pretty cool (that will be 50taka Matt for saying that in this blog) – but he has a hairdo that looks a lot like Kramer’s from the Seinfeld and the voice and manner of a very eager Lano from the comedy duo Lano and Woodley (ok maybe I should give that 50 taka back). All in all, I think they will be great housemates providing some much needed sanity - and we are all looking forward to creating our own sanctuary in this crazy city.

So how do you find a place to live in Dhaka. Well, its pretty interesting to try find a place to rent in a city that hasn’t embraced real estate agents, classified advertising or the internet. So what do you do? Well you identify a suburb and then drive around the streets looking for “To Let” signs. When you find an appropriate looking place with a “To Let” sign out the front you have a chat with the resident security guard for that apartment building asking all the right questions about size, rent whether the landlord is likely to accept Bideshi and when the place will be available. Depending on the mood of the security guard, he may or not decide to break the monotony of his day standing in a little booth in the carpark of an apartment building watching the world go by, to show you around the said apartment which is up for rent. What will you generally find in these apartments? I could write another blog on some of the things we have found, apartments which bright green walls, apartments littered with dead cockroaches, the prevalence of “maid’s quarters” which consist of a windowless rooms tucked behind the squat toilet next to the kitchen, etc....

We had thought that yesterday we had found a place that all three of us liked, it was brand new in a suburb called Lalmatia. Unfortunately, today we found out that the landlord had decided that he wanted to rent the place to a family (code for I don’t want to rent my new apartment to loose Bideshi who I don’t trust!) So will we now have to decide whether to accept one of the places we looked at previously or whether we will keep trawling the streets of Dhaka searching for the ever allusive “To Let” sign!