Tuesday, October 20: Monkeys! and the Sweet Smell of Success...Oh, Wait...That's Urine

Contrary to what you might believe by the title to this post, the monkeys and the smell of urine are from two separate unrelated events. That's not to say that the monkeys didn't smell like urine. I really don't know. I didn't get close enough to get a good whiff of one. Anyway, I must digress. This was our last day in Nepal before we went back to Bangladesh, or at least it was supposed to be, but I'll get to that in a couple of paragraphs. We started the morning by meeting Krishna (our travel agent). He took us to the Swayambhunath Stupa which is more commonly known as the Monkey Temple. It is the oldest Buddhist temple in Nepal and is believed to be at least 2,500 years old. I probably don't have to explain that it is also well known for the large number of monkeys that make their home there. They are very comfortable around people and will harass you if you are not careful.

The temple itself was a series of buildings and monuments that were all very ornate. I felt a little uncomfortable because there were many Buddhists there practicing their religion, and I was trying not to get in the way. Of course it is a popular tourist spot, so we were not the only non-Buddhists there. We didn't get much of a tour by Krishna. He explained some things regarding Buddhism and the buildings, but I still did not come away feeling I knew very much about the religion. The temple was on top of a hill on the west side of the city, so there was a great view of the city. It was interesting to see the monuments and buildings, but I was a little disappointed overall.

The other thing that was very noticeable about the Monkey Temple was the amount of stray dogs that live there. We even saw a couple of dogs that had a litter of puppies. In fact, Phillip even got a picture of two dogs making a litter of puppies! If you want to see that picture, you'll have to ask Phillip for it.

The picture above is of a Buddhist holy man. I don't know what they are called, but in Kathmandu, they would go around and hand out flowers and put a red mark on people's foreheads for good luck. I found this out the hard way the night before as we walked around Kathmandu. I told the guy that I didn't want one but before I could even finish saying no, he reached up and put the mark on me real quick. Fortunately it came off easily.


And now for the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say...

Like I said before, this was supposed to be our last day in Nepal. After lunch, we went to the airport for our flight at 3:05. We got checked in and had some extra time, so we sat in a waiting area for a while. After it got closer to our flight time, we decided to go to our gate. We got to our gate to discover that there were a couple of hundred people packed into a large room. These people made up several flights to different parts of Asia and Europe. We also quickly discovered that the room had a very strong odor which we determined were from the restrooms in the corner. I'm sure the BO from the number of people packed into the room also didn't help the smell.

Anyway, our flight was late in boarding, but I wasn't going to be too upset as long as we made it back to Bangladesh that day. To board our flight we had to walk down a hallway and board a bus that would take us to our airplane. We made it as far as the bus. We kept waiting for them to take us to the plane, but finally after probably 15 minutes, we were told there was a problem and taken to another room. There we waited for awhile longer before we were told that there was a "technical problem" and they would let us know in 30 minutes whether or not the flight was going to go on this day. Of course, in typical developing world fashion, 30 minutes turned into two hours. Finally, they told us that our flight was canceled, and we would fly to Bangladesh the next day. Then we had to go back into the waiting room with the incredible stench and were given lousy boxed airline food to eat. We ate what we deemed to be safely edible and waited some more.

Eventually we were told that our flight would not be until 2:55 the next afternoon, and that we would be put up for the night in a hotel at the airlines expense. We were not happy! Another hour later, finally saw us leaving the airport about seven hours after we had arrived and taken to our hotel. Most of the people on our flight were Bengalis, and we were separated from them along with a couple of Bengalis that we think were a little more financially well off. I'm not sure where the majority of them were taken, but we were taken to a hotel that said on its front that it was a "real deluxe hotel". We were of course not impressed with how "fancy" the hotel was. Below are a couple of pictures of the hotel. You can see how "deluxe" it was. I can only imagine what the hotel the Bengalis were taken to was like. The only amenity that was nice was that it had cable TV and even had several American channels like ESPN and the Discovery Channel. This was nice since our flight didn't leave until the following afternoon and we had to figure out what to do for the morning. Needless to say, this day was not a very good day. Instead of being back in Bangladesh, we spent the night in a pink hotel room somewhere in Kathmandu.

This picture was taken in the stairwell. We saw this on a couple of the different floors. It was not real comforting.

And to make this day even better, it was dad's birthday! We were supposed to go to one of Phillip's co-workers apartment when we got back to Dhaka for a home cooked meal and cake. Fortunately, we were able to enjoy that meal another day. I'm sure this was a birthday that dad won't forget.

Monday, October 19: The Long Road Back

This day was not too eventful. We spent the previous night at the same hotel that we stayed at in Pokhara before we went on our trek. We of course went up to the roof in the morning to watch the sun rise over the mountains. Mornings are the best time to look at the mountains for two reasons: the color from the sun is awesome and mornings are when it is the clearest.


After watching the sunrise we finished packing for the bus ride back to Kathmandu. This was not something we looked forward to. We were hoping that we could make the trip faster than the seven hours or so that it took to get to Pokhara. We also took a different bus company because the first bus we had was not very nice. This bus was better with one exception. One of the seats in front of us was missing its window. This was were two twenty-something European women were assigned to sit. They were not happy about this, but fortunately for them, there was a free seat in the front for one, and after someone got off on the way, the other was able to move. There was not a whole lot to do on the bus, so Phillip and I got a lot of reading done and dad took a nap.
The picture above was taken from the bus as we left Pokhara. This was pretty typical of what it looked like outside of town. One thing we found amusing was how many people we saw standing outside brushing their teeth. We also noticed this in Bangladesh.

We made it to Kathmandu in the middle of the afternoon without too much discomfort on the bus. Along the way we said goodbye to Shailesh. He got off at a small town that was close to where he lived. We were very pleased with his services. If anyone is interested in treking in Nepal, I highly recommend him as a guide, and I have his email address. One interesting even did occur as we entered Kathmandu. There appeared to be some kind of rally or parade. There were a lot of people gathered and traffic was stopped. It looked like most of them were under 30. Most of them then piled into the backs of trucks or jumped on motorcycles and had a mini parade. We didn't find out what it was about, but I think it was something political because many of them were wearing red. We had heard about Maoist rebels setting up roadblocks occasionally in Nepal and stopping all traffic, so I was a little concerned at first. Fortunately, nothing negative happened except that we were delayed about 15 minutes.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Kathmandu relaxing and checking out the rest of the Thamel area. We did not want to walk too far since we were all extremely sore still. Luckily by this time, Phillip's medicine was making me feel better. I hadn't been very sick the last couple of days, but I didn't have an appetite and my stomach felt a little weird. I had been eating what I could, but I'm sure between that and the treking I lost several pounds in those few days. Once I got my appetite back, I made sure not to worry about eating too healthy.

Sunday, October 18: Victory!

This was the last day of our trek and was the easiest day even though we were very tired and sore. I have never been more sore in my life. For the next couple of days, I couldn't take a step without my calves screaming at me to stop moving. Fortunately for me, I wasn't as sore as dad and Phillip. Phillip's calves and thighs were sore, and Dad's calves and thighs were sore, and he also had bad blisters on his feet. We must have been a sight going up stairs. Elderly people probably could have raced us to the top and beat us.

German family we met on the trail.

Typical scene from the trail. Our guide waiting on us to catch up.

We started the last day of our trek early in the morning and made it back to Naya Pul by late morning. Dad did a lot better than we thought after he had trouble with his knee the day before. Phillip and I were both a little worried that he would have problems again this day. After we made it back, crammed into the backseat of a taxi. The taxis in Nepal were just wide enough that the three of us can fit in the back seat if Phillip sat in the middle and put his arms around us. Needless to say, after a few hours of treking, cramming into a car with Phillip's arm around me for two hours was not my idea of relaxing.

A victory candy bar in the taxi on our way back to Pokhara.

As we started on our way back to Pokhara, we came upon some kids in the street. They were singing and clapping and would not move for us. Our driver and guide tried to get them to move, but they wouldn't get out of the way until they gave them some money. We found out later that it was part of a Hindu festival called Diwali. On this day of the festival, children do what I just described. We learned in the evening that in the city, the children don't stop traffic, but instead they go from business to business singing and clapping and won't leave until they are given some money. On the way back to Pokhara, we probably were stopped by kids about 10 times. After about the sixth or seventh time, I was ready just to get back to Pokhara and was really starting to get annoyed. It was also annoying when children came around our hotel singing right about the time that we were trying to go to sleep. Luckily they moved on before it got too late.

Saturday, October 17: Disappointment & Amazement

I'm not quite sure where Friday ended and Saturday began. This was supposed to be the day that we woke up early and trekked to the top of Poon Hill to watch the sunrise. Friday night, right around the time I went to bed, my stomach started to feel a little weird. As I lay there trying to fall asleep, it kept getting worse. On top of that, I became very cold. At the elevation that we were at it was pretty cold, and the rooms had no heat. As the night went on, I wound up putting on as many clothes as I could.

My stomach got to the point where I thought I was going to throw up. I felt sorry for the lady in the room by the bathroom. I went there to try to throw up once or twice, and the walls were so thin, I could hear her roll over in her bed. I heard her make a comment to her guide in the morning about people in the bathroom in the middle of the night. I really thought my stomach was upset because of something I ate, and if I threw up I would feel better. I'll spare you too many more details, but I did wind up throwing up sometime in the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately, this did not make my stomach feel better. We later decided that I got Giardia which is what Phillip had when we were in Bangladesh. Fortunately, Phillip had some medicine for this. Unfortunately, I didn't know this in the middle of the night, and I started to get a little worried. What if I got really sick? We were two days trek from anywhere, and we don't have any extra days to take to get back. I'm sure the lack of sleep made me feel worse than I really was.

I did manage to get a couple of hours of sleep before we were supposed to get up. I was feeling better after I woke up, but I decided that I should stay back while the rest of them go to the top of Poon Hill. After the sunrise, they were to come back and eat breakfast before we left. It takes about 45 minutes to trek from Ghorepani to Poon Hill. After dad and Phillip left, I tried to get a little more sleep. I eventually gave up on that and went outside to watch the sunrise from town. The view from Poon Hill is amazing as you can see by the pictures here, but the view from Ghorepani was almost as great. I walked up a few flights of steps in town and found a good spot to watch the sunrise.

The picture right above was taken from Poon Hill.
The picture below was taken from Ghorepani.

Ghorepani and Poon Hill are amazing in that you can see to separate ranges in the Himalayas. To the northeast is the Annapurna range that we could see from Pokhara, and to the northwest is the Dhalagiri range. The mountains were dozens of miles away, but they still looked huge. The two panoramic pictures above contain he 7th and 10th highest mountains in the world. Can you guess which two? I'll post the answer below.

We were supposed to make a large loop on our trek, and go to Ghandruk next. This would be about an 8 hour trek and would be the longest day of the entire trek. With me having been sick and dad being exhausted each day, we decided that we would go back the way we came. The first couple of hours weren't too bad. We made good time, and dad and I both felt better than we expected. My stomach still felt bad, and I didn't have any appetite, but I didn't get weak or tired. Dad did great until we stopped for lunch at the last village before we got to the 3,280 steps that we had to go down. It wasn't very long after we started going down these steps that dad started struggling. His knees are bad, and he began having trouble with one of them. He got to the point where our guide was helping him. As we got further down the steps, he lost all his strength in the knee, and Phillip had to help him as well. We did eventually make it to Tikedhunga where we stayed before. We spent the rest of the day taking showers and napping before going to bed early. In the morning, we would finish our trek and go back to Pokhara.

Did you figure out which two peaks in the pictures above are the 7th and 10th tallest mountains in the world? In the picture below, Dhaulagiri I is the large peak on the left. It is the 7th highest at 26,795 ft. high. Annapurna I is the 10th highest peak at 26,545 ft. Of the two peaks on the right, it is the rounded one on the left. The pointed peak on the right is Annapurna South which is 23,684 ft. high and the 101st tallest mountain in the world. In the Dhaulagiri range on the left, you can also see Dhaulagiri II in the far distance just to the left of Dhaulagiri I. It is the white peak that you can just barely see. It is the 30th highest peak in the world at 25,430 ft.

Friday, October 16: Part 2

I realized after I made my last post that I wanted to mention the elevation change for this day but forgot. We left Tikedhunga earlier in the morning and ended in Ghorepani. A map I have from our trip shows Tikedhunga at an elevation of 1,480 meters and Ghorepani at an elevation of 2,860 meters. This is a net elevation change for the day of 1,380 meters. This converts to 4,485 feet. That means we ended our 17/20 of a mile higher than we started. Again for reference, the Sears Tower is 1,450 feet tall. That's roughly a third of what we gained for the day.

Our trek was only four days long, but we met many people who were doing the whole circuit around the Annapurna mountain range. This takes about 20-22 days. If anyone is looking to lose a significant amount of weight in less than a month, I highly recommend treking this circuit. We didn't have scales there, but we each estimate we lost at least five pounds. I bet if we had done the whole circuit, I would have lost at least 10-15 pounds.

Friday, October 16: Step by Step

This was the most physically exhausting day of my life. We decided to start the second day of our trek as early as possible, so we could get as far as possible before we got in the sun. Shailesh said it would take about 6 hours to get to Ghorepani, so we figured that it would take us at least 7.5 hours. Our day of treking started with 2 hours of going up steps. We saw on a map later that that section of the trail has 3,280 steps. This would be the hardest part of the entire trek.

This is what we did for two hours to start the day.

The weather was beautiful. It was clear in the morning and slightly cloudy in the afternoon with a high in the low 80's. This was actually the weather the whole time we were in Nepal. We couldn't have asked for better weather.


We stopped for lunch at a guesthouse on the trail, and as we were getting ready to leave, a group of schoolchildren came walking by us. They saw that we had our cameras out and of course wanted their pictures taken. They gathered around and kept saying "one picture, one picture" until we took a picture of them. Then of course after we took their picture, they kept saying "one picture, one picture." They got a couple of pictures, but we had to move on.





We finally arrived in Ghorepani in mid-afternoon. There were quite a few more people in Ghorepani. The popular thing to do is to get up early and trek to the top of Poon Hill to watch the sunrise. This was our plan too. Ghorepani had some things that the other little towns didn't have such as bookshops and a basketball court. We also saw some teenagers gambling in the street. They play a dice game. A couple of days later we also saw some younger children gambling in Pokhara. Of course we spent a good amount of our free time relaxing and recovering from the long trek that day.

Gambling

Thursday, October 15: Hitting the Trail

This was our first day of treking. It was supposed to be the "easy" day, but it was anything but easy. The day started off well. We woke up and watched the sunrise from the roof of our hotel. It was clear, and the view was amazing.

At 7:00, we met our guide and left for our trek. We had a two hour drive to the start of the trail. The first hour of the trek was fairly easy. We decided against hiring a porter to carry our packs. It was not very long before we questioned that decision. They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but I think in Nepal every one of them is uphill. Now imagine going up and down stairs for about four hours with a full backpack on. After the first hour dad started to struggle. I was doing ok until the last hour. By that time, we were in the sun and it was pretty warm. We made it to our stop for the day at Tikedungha a little after 1:00. The net elevation change for the day was +525 meters (1,700 ft.). For reference, the Sears Tower is 1,450 ft. tall. Needless to say, it was an exhausting day, and the next day would be even longer.

Nepal is an absolutely beautiful country. We spent most of the day treking alongside a river in a valley. It's water was an amazing shade of blue that I'm sure pictures will not do it justice. We also saw several waterfalls.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing. We did some reading, and I went for a short walk. I took the picture below of some goats on the hillside with pack donkeys passing by on the path right below them. Two things that were a common sight on the trail were pack donkeys and people carrying large packs. The donkeys all had large bells and always knew where they were going. People would carry large packs on their backs and would also have a large strap that would go up over the top of their head to help support the weight. Our guide said some of the porters would carry over 100 lbs. this way.

Our accomodations were pretty simple. All the little towns that you came to had guesthouses. Our room had three beds with hard matresses and pretty much nothing else. The toilets were squat toilets that were shared with other trekers. There also wasn't much in the way of entertainment in Tikedungha. This was fine with us. All we wanted to do was take a shower and relax. We also didn't feel bad about being asleep by 8:00.

Wednesday, October 14: On the Road Again

This day was mostly spent traveling from Kathmandu to Pokhara. In the morning we met our guide for our trek. His name was Shailesh (pronounced soy-lesh). He is 26, and he said he just got back from leading a group to the Everest base camp. Compared to that, our trek should be a walk in the park for him. After we met him, we headed over to board our bus for the trip. It is only about 120 miles between Kathmandu and Pokhara. However, due to the traffic, curving mountain roads, and the potholes, it took us over seven hours to make it.

We eventually made it to our hotel in Pokhara at about 3:30. We had some time to check out the town, so walked around and eventually wound up by Phewa Lake. It was very beautiful and peaceful. It didn't take long for me to like Pokhara better than Kathmandu and Bangladesh. It was simply a lot quieter.

Phewa Lake

Phillip had been talking about eating at a steakhouse that is in Pokhara, so we decided to eat there. Phillip said his steak was good, but mine was pretty tough and chewy. Pokhara had many of the same shops as Kathmandu, so there really wasn't any new shopping. It was a little cloudy, but we did catch a couple of glimpses of the Annapurna Range through the clouds. We were really hoping it would be clear the next few days. The next day we drive two hours in the morning to where we start our trek.

Tuesday, October 13: On to Nepal

This day was basically a travel day. We left Bogra in the morning and drove to Dhaka. It was interesting to drive back to Dhaka when it was daylight the whole time and we were not jet lagged. Below are some of the interesting things we saw along the way.

Water buffalo on the way to the market in Dhaka.

If you're going to tow another vehicle, just tie the bumpers together. But don't forget to have someone in the vehicle being towed.

The cars in Banlgadesh ran of compressed natural gas (CNG). Here we are filling up. All of the large trucks were diesel.

When we got to Dhaka, we had just enough time to eat lunch and drop off some luggage at the MCC guest house there before we had to go to the airport. Our flight to Nepal was on Biman Airlines which does not have the best reputation. Unfortunately, we did not have another option unless we wanted to fly to India and then to Nepal. From flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu is less than 1.5 hours, so we decided that we'd take our chances with Biman.

The official tourist slogan of Bangladesh. Notice that "tourist" is not plural. Don't feel like you need to hurry to visit Bangladesh before the tourism rush. If you come in your lifetime, you will probably beat it.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly on the flight, and we made it to Kathmandu pretty much on time. We also got our flight glimpses of the Himalayas on the plane. I'm not sure if we saw Mt. Everest at any time, but all the mountains are impressive.

Our first glimpse of the Himalayas from the plane.

When we arrived in Kathmandu, we were met at the airport by Krishna. He is a travel agent that was recommended to Phillip. He took us to our hotel, and later we went to his office to make arrangements for the next several days. We stayed in the Thamel area of Kathmandu. It is the main tourist area. It was nice to not be the only white people around anymore. Being stared at all the time is uncomfortable. The tourists in Nepal were largely European. We did meet several other Americans. Nepal is similar to Bangladesh in that it also somewhat chaotic and the traffic is also best described at controlled chaos, but it also seemed to be more developed. I don't know if this is because we were only in the tourist areas or if the whole country is that way.

Thamel

The rest of our day was spent on the Internet, eating supper, and walking around Thamel. There are a lot of shops in Thamel, but they are basically only about eight different shops. There are Internet shops, little grocery stores, bookstores, tea shops, trekking shops, t-shirt shops, silk/pashmina shops, and shops selling things like Buddhist and Hindu figurines. Almost none of the shops were original at all. The other thing that was common in Thamel were street vendors. People would come up to you all the time trying to sell you things. One of the more frequent occurrences was someone walking up to you and saying quietly "smoke, smoke." After a couple of times we realized that they were trying to sell us marijuana. It is illegal in Nepal, but it is still very easy to buy if you want. By the end of our time in Nepal, I was ready to go just to get away from all of the pushy people trying to selling you something.

Monday, October 12: Learning about MCC

Dad and I had a great night of sleep on Sunday night that got us adjusted to the time difference. Monday was spent checking out MCC and learning about what it does in Bogra. But first we had to follow the Colts/Titans game online. They played on Sunday night football, but it was early Monday morning in Bangladesh. It wasn't quite the same as watching it on TV, but at least they won.

Dad and Phillip watching updates of the Colts game.

After the Colts game ended, dad and I went with Nate to visit the house that Phillip and the other expats will live in eventually. (They actually moved in last week.) Phillip didn't go because he got sick during the night. The house is located in a little village a few miles from Bogra. The house has four bedrooms with a central living area. There is also a workshop there. The place is set up for them to try different ideas that may be used in the future. It was interesting to see some of the ideas they are working on such as system to recycle water and using more environmentally friendly building products.

The following are pictures of where Phillip is now living:

By lunch time, Phillip was feeling better. After lunch, Phillip, dad, and I went to visit an MCC partner program. MCC in Bangladesh does not have any programs that it does by itself. It only works with through other organizations. The site had a couple of different projects that it was doing. One program was purchasing manure from local farmers and turning it into fertilizer. They had two different ways to do that. First was taking cow manure and adding worms. It would take approximately 45 to go from manure to fertilizer. The second way was a mixture of several ingredients that would be left alone for about the same length of time. The moisture would drain out through holes in the side and would be collected and also used as liquid fertilizer.

Making Fertilizer

The other project that they were working on there was raising chickens in a chicken house above a pond. The idea is that a farmer can raise chickens, and the fish in the pond would feed off of the chicken droppings. This way the farmer can sell the chickens and the fish.


After visiting the program site, we visited several families that have benefited from MCC and its partner program. The first family we visited received a goat with the condition that its offspring be given to another family. Another family benefited from a program that crossbreeds cattle. Another received a loan to build a chicken house. This was my favorite day in Bangladesh. Dad and I both agreed that it was very interesting to see how MCC works and the benefits to the local community. We also got to see how some of the people who benefit from MCC live and how it impacts their lives. Everyone was very welcoming, and the children all like to have their pictures taken.


Not much exciting happened the rest of the day. By the time we made it back, we only had time to eat supper and pack for our trip to Nepal the next day.

Sunday, October 11: The Adventure Begins...Big Time!

I've already written about some of my first impressions of Bangladesh in a previous post, so I will not go too in depth about that here. I will say some of my first impressions are not quite my current viewpoint of Bangladesh. For instance, after a couple of days, the traffic did not seem as chaotic. Basically, there does seem to be some method to the madness. Everyone there is accustomed to the unwritten rules of driving, so it is not a crazy or dangerous as it first appears. Also, according to those who live there, if you cause an accident, (especially a fatality) you should expect some sort of street justice, so there is a lot of give and take on the road as a result.

We left the U.S. on Friday evening, but with the long travel time and the time difference, it was early Sunday morning when we arrived in Bangladesh. After we landed, I made it through immigration with no problem, and I waited for dad. I could see him, and it seemed like there might be a problem. Finally, after probably about ten minutes, he got through. Apparently they were having computer problems. It was also a relief when we saw that all our luggage made it too. Phillip met us at the airport, and he arranged for a driver to take us to Bogra where he lives. So after traveling for just under 24 hours to make it to Bangladesh, we immediately get in a car to drive for another three hours or so.

Fish Market

After we made it to Bogra, we decided to take a shower, get something to eat, and take a nap until noon. The nap in hindsight was probably not the best idea. We slept for about an hour, and for the first hour after I woke up I was not all there mentally. That also happened to be the time that Phillip decided to introduce us to the people he works with. I definitely wasn't the most talkative at that time. We had lunch with the three other Americans and one Canadian who work with MCC in Bogra. They are all single and in their 20's.

Pile of trash by the river

After lunch, we decided to walk around Bogra some. We walked through a market there and wound up on the other side of the river. On our way back it started to rain, so we found an awning to get out of the rain. After about 3o minutes, the rain let up, and we decided to head back. We still had about a 20 minute walk, and the rain had not completely stopped, so we decided to take a couple of rickshaws. This is where the real adventure began. Because it was raining, the three of us could not fit in one rickshaw and stay dry. It was decided that dad and Phillip would ride in one rickshaw, and I would follow in another rickshaw. Phillip told the my rickshaw driver that he should follow the theirs, and I don't have any money.

Rickshaws

So off we went. After approximately one minute, my rickshaw driver proceeded to stop and get off his bike. Dad and Phillip then disappeared from view as I tried to get Phillip's attention. After about 30 seconds, my driver then got back on the bike and started again. So here I am, it's my first day in Bangladesh, I don't speak the language at all, I don't have a clue where I am or where I'm going, and I don't have any money. Quite a few thoughts went through my mind over the next couple of minutes. I hope this guy knows more of where he is going besides for the other rickshaw. What if he doesn't? How do I find where I need to go? What if he wants me to pay him?

As all these things are going through my head, we turn a corner onto another road, and there's dad and Phillip! They had realized that I wasn't there and had their rickshaw stop and wait. So of course my rickshaw driver proceeds to pass them and keep going, but I did see theirs start as we pass. I figure theirs will pass us in a minute and all will be right with the universe again. Wrong! After a couple of minutes of looking for them in all the rickshaws passing us, I look out the back and don't see them in any of the rickshaws behind us. Oh great, I'm back where I was before. At this point, I'm trying not to panic, and I'm trying to decide what my options are. Finally, after a few more minutes, Phillip and dad pass me. What a relief. Apparently, as they started to follow me after I passed them, their chain came off, and they had to put it back on. What a way to start a trip to a developing country.

The rest of the day was not quite as eventful. That evening we went out to eat with the other Americans (and Candian) and their Bengali boss. Dad and I both struggled at times during the meal to stay awake. We did stay up to 9 PM. I estimate that I got 2-3 hours of sleep in a 52 hour period. Jet lag is not fun!

The first day was one I will not forget. Bangladesh is definitely another world. It's hard to feel comfortable when traffic does not follow the rules you are used to, the food is different, and everyone stares at you! This is something that I do not miss about Bangladesh. It is not a place many tourists visit, so white people really stick out. This means that everyone stares. It is not meant to be rude, but it is just they way it is.

"The Look" - Notice three adults staring and a child in the baskseat