Trip Back from the Villages.....
Thursday, 10 August 2006
I guess sometimes when things get really unbearable, something happens to lighten my mood and make me smile again…. Even if its just for a short while, its a relief nevertheless…. Today’s my last day at the villages, we will be going back after lunch, taking a 1 ½ hour ferry ride across the Ganges River and a 2 hour drive back to Dhaka….. And with this trip being our last trip to the villages, it is something to be happy about…. During the course of my 5 day outing in the Madaripur region, I’ll categorise some of my experiences into the following categories….
The Good….
After work yesterday, we set off to the riverbank of the Ganges River…. We saw the locals setting up their stalls, selling fish and prawns (they were still jumping around!!), and food…. We then got on a huge sampan, well, it also had a motor, so we went off on a 30 minute “cruise” along the river, and floating in the middle of the river, watching bigger ships and ferries go by, getting swamped by the waves as they go by…. It was very peaceful, and having the breeze in our faces was a huge relief after a stressful day at work…..
The Bad….
The bus drivers are as arrogant as usual, hogging the roads, and even preventing us from overtaking at times…. It can be scary sometimes to be behind such vehicles, but even more so if you’re a passenger of one of these crazy drivers…..
An example of a bossy and arrogant bus driver (if you look real hard, you can see the bus conductor hanging out the door)
The Ugly….
I noticed human faeces floating on the surface of the Ganges River as I boarded the ferry on the way home from the Madaripur region…. Urgh, I wouldn’t be buying any fish or prawns from the Ganges River anywhere near that region…..
The geese that were left at the top of the bus on the ferry mentioned above…. In the sweltering summer heat exceeding 35oC, the poor geese which were clearly distressed and dehydrated were left on the top a bus with the owner nowhere in sight….
The poor neglected geese
The bus that crashed into a ditch as we were on our back to Dhaka…. We must have arrived soon after the accident as there was no traffic jam, and I could see the bus driver struggling to get out of his seat….
The Irritating…..
The ants that invaded my computer bag and their attempt to conquer yours truly….. I was working on my computer, when I suddenly felt something (in this case, many things) crawling all over my left arm… to my horror, I found it filled with ants, going all the way back to my left shoulder, across my th left side of my chair, and my computer bag….. it looked as if it was alive due to the number of ants on it….. I miss MM and its lack of ants!!!!
The Funny….
We were very tickled when we noticed a village boy in his lungi (sarong), as he ran along the road in our direction….. what made us laugh was that he was pulling his lungi upwards as he ran, sometimes pulling it up too high…. He wasn’t wearing any underwear…. Enough said…..
The Beauty…..
We were trying to overtake one of those crazy buses I wrote about earlier, when we were forced to duck behind a bicycle with a cart due to an approaching bus….. the cart contained 4 to 5 girls, and we teased our driver for purposely doing so….. one of the girls noticed us laughing, and proceeded to give us the sweetest smile I’ve seen in Bangladesh…. That’s enough to make my day….. for today anyway :)
I guess sometimes when things get really unbearable, something happens to lighten my mood and make me smile again…. Even if its just for a short while, its a relief nevertheless…. Today’s my last day at the villages, we will be going back after lunch, taking a 1 ½ hour ferry ride across the Ganges River and a 2 hour drive back to Dhaka….. And with this trip being our last trip to the villages, it is something to be happy about…. During the course of my 5 day outing in the Madaripur region, I’ll categorise some of my experiences into the following categories….
The Good….
After work yesterday, we set off to the riverbank of the Ganges River…. We saw the locals setting up their stalls, selling fish and prawns (they were still jumping around!!), and food…. We then got on a huge sampan, well, it also had a motor, so we went off on a 30 minute “cruise” along the river, and floating in the middle of the river, watching bigger ships and ferries go by, getting swamped by the waves as they go by…. It was very peaceful, and having the breeze in our faces was a huge relief after a stressful day at work…..
The Bad….
The bus drivers are as arrogant as usual, hogging the roads, and even preventing us from overtaking at times…. It can be scary sometimes to be behind such vehicles, but even more so if you’re a passenger of one of these crazy drivers…..
An example of a bossy and arrogant bus driver (if you look real hard, you can see the bus conductor hanging out the door)
The Ugly….
I noticed human faeces floating on the surface of the Ganges River as I boarded the ferry on the way home from the Madaripur region…. Urgh, I wouldn’t be buying any fish or prawns from the Ganges River anywhere near that region…..
The geese that were left at the top of the bus on the ferry mentioned above…. In the sweltering summer heat exceeding 35oC, the poor geese which were clearly distressed and dehydrated were left on the top a bus with the owner nowhere in sight….
The poor neglected geese
The bus that crashed into a ditch as we were on our back to Dhaka…. We must have arrived soon after the accident as there was no traffic jam, and I could see the bus driver struggling to get out of his seat….
The Irritating…..
The ants that invaded my computer bag and their attempt to conquer yours truly….. I was working on my computer, when I suddenly felt something (in this case, many things) crawling all over my left arm… to my horror, I found it filled with ants, going all the way back to my left shoulder, across my th left side of my chair, and my computer bag….. it looked as if it was alive due to the number of ants on it….. I miss MM and its lack of ants!!!!
The Funny….
We were very tickled when we noticed a village boy in his lungi (sarong), as he ran along the road in our direction….. what made us laugh was that he was pulling his lungi upwards as he ran, sometimes pulling it up too high…. He wasn’t wearing any underwear…. Enough said…..
The Beauty…..
We were trying to overtake one of those crazy buses I wrote about earlier, when we were forced to duck behind a bicycle with a cart due to an approaching bus….. the cart contained 4 to 5 girls, and we teased our driver for purposely doing so….. one of the girls noticed us laughing, and proceeded to give us the sweetest smile I’ve seen in Bangladesh…. That’s enough to make my day….. for today anyway :)
posted by zufar | 7:44 AM
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