The Roads of Bangladesh.....

Friday, 04 August 2006

I get nervous everytime I’m out on the roads in Bangladesh…… its not so bad when you’re in Dhaka, as we don’t really go out very far from our hotel…. What worries me is when I have to go out onto the main highways of Bangladesh, travelling from region to region for hours at a time….
The view along the way to our destination is very different from urban Kuala Lumpur..... the paddy and jute fields, cows ploughing the fields, harvested paddy being dried on the roads, the never ending rivers, the rickshaws transporting various types of goods….

Now, I’d be able to enjoy all of this, if only I didn’t feel I was taking a risk every time I take a roadtrip out of Dhaka…. The drivers here are just mad, everyone thinks they’re a Schumacher, from the drivers of their little kancil-like cars, to the 4 wheel drives (inclusive of my driver at times), the public buses and the huge trucks, who incidentally are carrying twice the load they’re permitted to…..

Here’s how it goes….. we’re doing 100km/hr, and all of a sudden, we hear this blaring horn from behind, I look outside, and to my sheer astonishment, I see this bus overtaking us, with the bus conductor hanging outside like a broken branch of a tree blowing in the wind, yelling at us, and gesturing wildly for us to move out of the bus’s way…..

Here’s another terrifying picture….. as we’re driving merrily down the road, we notice a line of trucks on the opposite side…. Then one truck driver gets impatient and overtakes another, totally oblivious to our approach…. or ignoring our presence, it doesn't matter..... Our bleating horns go unheeded, and my driver has to get us off the road to avoid getting squashed like a roach…..

Everyday, I read in the newspapers that there has been accidents on the roads, involving many fatalities…. You wonder whether you'll be another statistic who has suffered the same fate.....Considering that we will be using the same route to our destination, how can one not worry…. The notion of queuing and waiting your turn is as foreign to these people as I, a Malaysian am to all the villages and the people I visit…. A silent prayer is always uttered before stepping into our vehicle, thankfully our drivers are good, no, actually they’re very good, so far, we’ve always arrived safely and in one piece….. still, I cant help but feel nervous come Sunday when its time for me to go back out to the villages again…..