The really poor Bangladesh…
Here is the small Austrian department of your group travel. We arrived well in Vienna and rave about the great trip and the wonderful impressions we got from you and your great team every day. Even on the return flight we had pictures from Bangladesh in the head all night! It was a really impressive great trip! Thank you for that! Although – with the image that Bangladesh “enjoys” abroad, it’s certainly not that hard to surprise people positively? What surprised us most was the fact that there are no unfortunate people (apart from the unfortunate ones in the big cities). For us, Bangladesh was above all the land of the many small villages we visited. Nowhere real distress or misery, but radiant faces, toothpaste advertising everywhere and we do not just mean the children. It was a pleasure, especially since we were prepared for the worst by reports, and then that! Thank God we are one of those people who are happy to teach and with this image of Bangladesh we went home and we can now pass this on.
No, we did not have a coffee trip and we did not drive past real life. We are in the middle of it! And even if according to our guide there is the highest concentration of NGOs, this does not mean, conversely, that everyone is necessary, nor that the country would not be able to cope without it. Not at all one should reduce the country to its alleged neediness. In return, of course, we are already asking ourselves what kind of image of Bangladesh is being brought to the world by the many different aid agencies? Are not these NGOs at least partly responsible, for a completely wrong picture of the country abroad? Back to our trip: From Dhaka to Bogra (Mahasthangarh) to Dinajpur, to Jessore, to Bagerhat, to the Ganges delta, to Barishal and by a giant ship back to Old Dhaka. The tour was very relaxed, which means we had time from the beginning, reason for the hurry was never and that was good. We could do more than just take photos everywhere. We got to know and love Bangladeshi. Information became competent and in an unheard-of charming way, Holger knew how to entertain – and that’s what we expect from a journey. Jewel, is more than just a cute little companion and boy for everything. In a way, he already represented the country at a young age and he was Everybody’s Darling in an instant. At no time did we have the feeling here, someone just does his job, there was more, there was heart!
Even the most beautiful and exciting time will pass sometime. But, we will come back. All our thanks go to the LT team, our wonderful guide and to Jewel. Thank you for one of the most beautiful trips we have ever made, and all without grand palaces, golden pagodas or big game safaris. We wish you and your (optional) home dear Lonesome Traveler all the best. We’ll meet Again!
Anita & Rene (in October 2018)