Sunday, March 13, 2011

Lanes optional, Horns a must

We have arrived! After a long flight with a stop over in dubai we have made it to Dhaka (the capital of bangladesh). 

Our first task, getting to the office of Friendship.  We were picked up at the airport by our translator Jasim.  He ushered us into a cab who then put all NYC cabbies to shame.  Roadways shared by bikes, cars, buses, and rickshaws (more on them later) where the lanes painted on the ground apparently serve as mere decoration.  When approaching another car/bike/rickshaw who is taking half of your lane while you take up another 2 simply honk and keep on going.  Pedestrians challenge themselves to a human game of frogger to keep things from getting boring.  Against all odds we arrived safely at the office where we were briefly oriented and introduced to our second translator, Monir.

In store for the afternoon, a trip into the village for our first meal in Bangladesh, Pizza.  We were 'not ready' for bangladeshi food yet, one has to acclimate first.  We were, however, apparently ready for our first ride via rickshaw. 

There is no way to really do justice to riding on a wooden carriage (extremely generous) with three people when meant for only one.  With every bump the six inches of wood we were sitting on seemed to laugh at our clinging.  We were now experiencing the lanes optional scene from the rickshaw perspective fortunately our driver was armed with a bicycle bell. 

Exhausted from jet lag and our first bengali language lesson we called it a night.

1 comment:

  1. Glad yall made it! I need you to prepare me honesty...seriously!

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