Bangladesh

 

How  much do you know about Bangladesh? Yes, people might say it’s that country in the news: “Massive floods hit Bangladesh, killing thousands of people and leaving millions stranded under no roof” would have been the headline in the news. I recognize myself, I sort of grew up with this kind of news about Bangladesh, neighbouring other headlines of the 80’s: the civil war in Lebanon, the sad Iran-Iraq conflict or the Nagorno-Karabah issue. Geography of the place is the answer to this, Bangladesh having 7% of its territory under water. All the major rivers crossing it, mighty Brahmaputra or Yamuna, form an incredible web navigable waterways criss-crossing the country. Rhe huge Bay of Bengal has at its mouth the largest delta in the world-Sundarbans- beeing also the largest mangroove forest and litoral. The volume of water flowing around bangladesh is equal to the volume flowing in entire Europe. It’s a nature wonder, and is the home to the national symbol of Bengal: the legendary Bengali  Tiger. Other things might arouse to our ears about the country is poverty related topics. On the UN list for many years till very recently, Bangladesh had the (in)famous title of the poorest country on earth. They also head the table for the most corrupted country, still being very instable politically-and the battle for power is still disrupting the life of its people. After India was born as a republic, the exchange of population started on religious grounds making Bangladesh a very large muslim populated country. It was called East Pakistan, and authority from Pakistan overlooked the territory. After a long struggle for national  identity, and a bloody fight for Bengali language over Urdu language, an intense conflict in ’71 set Bangladesh free and a new state was born. It’s one of the biggest muslim populated countries, only Indonesia and Pakistan having a larger population. While the first two are large, the problem is that in a country of medium size are harboured a wooping population of 144 millions souls. Adding that the continuosly deforestation is very dangerous, and the floods are never ending, relocating millions of people, the future doesn’t sounds great.

The fact that is very little visited is an advantage for adventure and soaking up local culture. It’s not shaped either for tourists needs, so the people are genuine. My fellows know that i have a deeply affection for muslims, result of my living in the Middle East, and a new destination for me is a delight. They are very welcoming, clean hearted people, but the media paranoia changed this. It started as soon as I was at the remoted visa office in remoted Agartala, where I was granted a Bangladeshi visa in my last day of the validity of my Indian one. The consul also arranged for me a bus to get to Dhakka. Half hour later I found myself-the only passenger-in an deluxe bus with a driver, a helper and a company representative. The country is almost entirely rural, wandering around paddy fields of glorious green, walking along villages makes it so…naturally. The kindness of the population is legendary and the nature set is supreme. Warm is in the air and in the heart. Humidity of over 95% makes the travel hard to the core, but hey…that’s adventure. It seems everywhere you are like in the green house of the Botanical Garden back home in Cluj.

South East of the country along the shores, passing Chandigarh, is a stretch of long shores running along the coast. It passes Cox’s Bazaar-the holiday place for te locals-and ends with St Martin Island, the only coral island in the country. This stretch of 120 km of un-interrupted beach is considered to be the longest beach in the world and at one point south of Cox’s Bazaar becomes (in the lowest tide) the widest beach! Along with this runs the Burmese border, all of it closed since the fifties, since Burma (Myianmar) has no land border open with any of its neighbors. Still, a lot of smuggling goes on around here. One can be temtped at the idea of just walk to Burmese teritorry, but land mines encounter is something to have in mind.