Day 12:
We rested after getting back early in the morning with the night bus from Cox’s.
We went to Nando’s for lunch, a South African restaurant with excellent chicken sandwiches.

Went and bought my bus ticket to Kolkata, I’ll leave on the morning of the 13th, and after about 13 hours end up in India.
Pretty amazing that I can get a ticket to a different country for less than $10. They didn’t even check to make sure I had a passport or visa. I guess they figure that’s my problem once I get to the border.

While Donny went to an orientation session for the new students in the language program he participated in, I took the opportunity to visit the liberation war museum. It was a fascinating museum; even after reading Donny’s blog and hearing him tell about the country’s history, I couldn’t really understand the importance of it until now. It seems like a huge part of history that’s overlooked too often.

I took the bus across town to visit Donny. This was my first foray without him doing the talking, so I was a bit nervous. The bus system isn’t exactly straightforward. I got to the bus stand, asked a guy for the right bus line. I got lucky because the guy I asked was the ticket seller for the correct line, so I got my ticket and waited. When I was on the bus I just asked the guy next to me where Gulshan 1 was, and he kept telling me “not yet” with hand gestures. While waiting for Donny I watched India v. Pakistan on a tv in a mall; it seemed to be the popular thing to do.

Donny took me to Time Out, where I got to try a salty and spicy mango drink, and Bangladesh’s take on Mexican food. Afterwards, we tried some Paan. I expected it to be sort of like Snus (the Swedish version of dip) but it was nothing like that. Donny has the pictures from this experience, so you’ll have to check his blog in the coming week to see what that was like.

A view across the lake in Gulshan 1:

Day 13:
For lunch Donny had me try Biryani, a dish made with rice and ghee, with chicken in the middle. This was probably my favorite Bangladeshi dish I’ve tasted since being here. I also tried Bourhani, another salty/spicy drink, this time made with yoghurt.

We went to the tailor to pick up our shirts and suits. The shirts looked phenomenal and the suit jacket fit great. Granted, the hot, sweaty tailor’s shop is not the ideal place to be trying on suits, but the material felt light and airy. I’m pretty thrilled with how it turned out; my biggest concern now is how to take it with me!

While at the tailor’s shop, we wanted to get a beach shirt made out of a light woven fabric that Donny had seen earlier. We wanted some wooden buttons for the shirts, but the tailor didn’t have any. So his assistant led us through a maze of shops across the street to the button district. Every button, every style… it was pretty overwhelming. We found some that we thought would look good, bought them, and headed back to the shop.

As if that wasn’t enough of a market experience, I told Donny I was interested in finding a straight razor. I really put him through his paces in Bengali, there was endless misunderstanding about what kind of razor we were actually looking for. We saw everything from Mach 3s to some crazy Chinese-made thing that looked like it would take your nose off. With our luck and patience running out, we gave up and headed over to Aaron’s house. He was having a get together since it was his last day in Bangladesh after a year here. We had dinner at the International Club. That was another interesting view into the ex-pat life. I’m not sure how often these ex-pats associate with each other, but I can’t imagine spending all my time in a place like that if I had the opportunity to live in a foreign country.

Day 14:
The morning was spent making plans for India.
I have a flight out of Delhi on the 16th, and arrive in Kolkata on the evening of the 13th. My main goal is to see the Taj. I was able to book a plane ticket from Kolkata to Delhi, leaving on the morning of the 14th. I’ll spend the day in Delhi, then take an early train to Agra on the 15th, tour Agra, then get a train back that evening, and head straight to the airport for my 5am flight to Stockholm.

After getting that sorted out, Donny and I headed to the cricket game!
On the way there, we passed by the Grameen bank. This photo is especially for Jeff:

This is the bank’s headquarters. Donny and I actually saw a local branch in the north on the way from Joypur Hat to Bogra, but passed by too quickly to grab a photo.

This game, Bangladesh vs. India, was part of the tri-nation series, hosted in Bangladesh this year.

One of Donny’s friends who we were watching the game with had a friend who worked for the Bangladesh Cricket Board. At the end of halftime, he came and found us, and led us over to the VVIP section! This section is so exclusive that we had to go outside the stadium, walk around, and walk past several levels of security. Lucky for us, we literally got to walk past those security guys.

The view from our new seats:

The game was fascinating. I thought it would be way too long (I already think football could be a bit shorter) but the 7 or so hours just flew by! We stayed till the end, unfortunately Bangladesh was outclassed and ended up losing by 7 wickets.

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to update the blog when I’m in India, but I’ll certainly write all about it once I get to Stockholm!