Our small tuk tuk pulled up to the main railway station in Dhaka during rush hour. And it was the day before Eid al-Fitr, the celebration of the end of Ramadan. Bangladesh’s population is over 90% Muslim and on Eid, everyone travels to their home villages to celebrate with their families. The train station is normally busy at rush hour but add in the eve of Eid to the timing as most people are from the outlying areas of the city and the station becomes overloaded.
I could barely open my door as people were passing by so closely to get inside the station. I slowly got out and stood up to see thousands of people everywhere. As we walked into the train station, I stayed close to my guide as you could tell this wasn’t a normal stop on the typical tourist route. I had wanted to see how the locals live their lives instead of just hitting the main attractions. And I was now getting a taste of how the locals live!
My guide and I weaved our way through the crowd positioned in many different lines to get onto the train platform. We passed through a security line and I could see the main platforms ahead. It wasn’t unlike train platforms in most parts of the world.
I was thinking this is pretty normal. And then I quickly realized how not normal this situation was when an empty train slowly pulled into the station. Masses of people rushed onto the platform and started boarding the train before it stopped. But the most eye opening sight was the huge amount of people that were jumping off of the platform, crossing the track and running down the outside of the train.
“What are they doing?” I asked my guide. He proceeded to tell me that these people couldn’t get a train ticket because they couldn’t afford it or there just were no seats left. And their only option to get home to see their family was to ride on the roof of the train. This was one of a few trains during this time that headed north out of the city and they had no choice.
Not that I would try (actually I secretly wanted to), but I could imagine that a few people could safely ride on top of the train. But as I proceeded to watch the chaos, human ladders were formed to help each other climb from the ground, up to the train a couple meters high and then climb the side of the train car to the roof. The metal roof wasn’t exactly flat. It gently sloped down on each side. I began to be concerned as people began to cover most of the roof’s surface. And many people just weren’t able to climb on because it was too crowded.
I asked how long these people would ride on the roof and my guide said the train goes for about 10 hours but as people get off the train cars, that others from the roof can come down into the train car. He also said it takes 10 hours because the train goes slow since people are on the roof and literally holding onto the side of the train. I thought to myself that it’s good there are no tunnels or bridges the train passes through.
I jumped down into the tracks and joined the people that were trying to climb up the train as I wanted to experience this. Once I was down among the locals, I pulled out my GoPro and began to film what I was seeing. The guys on the roof were shouting at me and waving since they wanted to say hi. I really wanted to go up and join them for a few minutes but I didn’t know when the train would be pulling out of the station. Plus my guide would have flipped out. Oh yea, it probably wasn’t safe either.
As I got back up onto the platform (I think my guide was a bit nervous because he doesn’t normally do this), the train started to pull out of the station. I looked into each train car and it was packed like a New York City subway car at rush hour. I couldn’t believe the people on the roof or the people hanging onto the side of the train.
What an experience. I had read many articles and blogs on the internet about visiting Bangladesh and the city of Dhaka that I didn’t know what to expect other than there would be a ton of people. Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries on earth. Bangladesh has a land area about the same size as the state of Illinois in the United States. The state of Illinois has 13 million total people (even with the third largest city in the United States) while the country of Bangladesh has 170 million people. The entire country of the United States has 330 million people. It’s hard to imagine the state of Illinois holding over half of the US population.
I started out on my journey six months ago with no intention of visiting Bangladesh primarily because it is a third world country and not easily navigable by tourists. Plus if you google Dhaka’s safety, you will quickly find some not so great incidences of the recent past. But as I have fallen in love with traveling and learning as much as I can about different cultures, I have begun to think that just maybe it is possible to visit every country in the world. I have a goal to visit every US state before I turn 40 years old and I had a goal to visit every continent in the world before the age of 50! Well, I have five US States left to see in one year and I blew away my goal to visit all continents by 12 years with my trip to Antarctica last fall (click here to see my write up on achieving my goal to visit all seven continents).
So if I want to visit every country in the world, and I am passing through the area, I must stop through Bangladesh. And I am so glad I did! It is one of the most interesting places that I have ever been to. From the moment you leave your hotel, it is sensory overload. Sights. Sounds. Smells. Feels.
I visited Dhaka for three nights and here some helpful tips and recommendations that would help any non-native visitor plan their trip.
- Bring an air mask. The air is very dusty in Dhaka. You will need this if you are taking an open air taxi or even walking around.
- Visa on arrival. Most passports are eligible to purchase a visa on arrival.
- The cost is $50 USD.
- You will need to show proof of your flight out of the country
- Get a SIM card at the airport. If you plan on going out on your own, data on your smartphone will help you navigate the city. There are SIM card booths as soon as you exit customs in the international arrivals area. Grameenphone has the best coverage (sometimes 4G)
- Transfer from airport to hotel. Uber does exist in the country. However it may help to arrange a private transfer with your hotel when you arrive since they will most likely speak English and most taxi drivers do not speak English.
- GET A GUIDE! I can’t emphasize this enough. Getting a guide on your first day will help with many things: negotiating prices with taxis, finding locations to eat, negotiating a price to ride a boat out on the river, navigating the city and The Old City. Very few people speak English so having a guide was a must have the first day. The second day you could get by without a guide. I used the website Toursbylocals.com to find a local guide.
- Most interesting sites to visit (check out the video below showing my visit to many of these sites)
- Visit the Dhaka River Port in the morning and watch the chaos of people getting onto the boats jammed next to each other.
- Ride a small boat on the Buringanga River
- Walk through the main fruit auction near the Dhaka River Port where you will be surrounding by many guys carrying baskets of fruit and negotiating prices on the spot
- Ride a rickshaw. Truly a unique experience.
- Walk through Old Dhaka.
- Visit Ashan Manzil (it is closed on certain days so check before you go).
- Visit a mosque especially Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, the largest mosque in Bangladesh and 12th largest in the world.
- Visit the Komlapur Railway Station at rush hour. Go up on the walkover platform to get a view from above.
- You will not see other tourists. I didn’t see a tourist for the three days I was in Dhaka.
- No tourist scams. Besides beggars, you won’t have anyone come up to you to sell you anything (which is refreshing after traveling to other developed tourist areas where they know they can get money from tourists)
- No pubs or bars besides at hotels (it is a 90% Muslim country)
- Bangladesh is not super cheap as one may think. Expect to pay double what you would in Vietnam, one of the cheapest countries I visited.
- Stay at a hotel that has a restaurant. I didn’t see many restaurants other than local spots.
- I stayed at Hotel 71 which was not far north like all of the western hotels but was in the Motijheel district.
- Do not recommend leaving your hotel at night
- No one speaks English so it can be difficult to get around
Check out this video that shows my adventure through the crowded streets of Dhaka
SAFETY
I’ve written about this before but I have learned through my travels that there is a huge difference between what we read online and see in the media vs. what is experienced on the ground. The Unites States government has given Bangladesh a Level 2 risk level (Level 3 is the highest risk) due to pockets of ISIS causing disruption several years ago in Dhaka. While this sounds scary, I read many other blogs of visitors feeling safe while in Dhaka over the past couple years.
I usually have a heightened sense of awareness when I am traveling and when I arrived in Dhaka, I was extra cautious. However, when I went out with my guide the day after I arrived, I witnessed some of the friendliest people that I have ever met.
My guide and I went down to the main ferry terminal and actually boarded a boat to get a better view of the river. Of course I stood out because I was tall and had light skin. I received many stares. The local people rarely see white people so when they do, they just stare to observe. But I would quickly smile back at them and then their faces lit up with their smile back. It was so infectious. Everyone smiled. I felt so safe but also felt so lucky to be experiencing this.
And throughout the day, people would stare at me and after I smiled, their huge smiles came out. I stopped in a machine shop to get a photo and all the guys stopped what they were doing to get a photo with me. They were having the best time. Laughing. Smiling. Enjoying the moment. It was beautiful. One of the things I enjoy most while traveling is being able to get people to smile. It is beautiful!
Later at dinner in my hotel, tears came to my eyes as I thought back through out my day and remember all the smiles of these simple people trying to survive. They were working hard to make a living but they were happy. I think back to western societies and think how much we take for granted our lives and what we have. We are so lucky to have been born where we were and raised how we were.
Have you been to Bangladesh? I know not many people have been there so leave a comment below with any recommendations. And feel free to leave me any questions that you have if you are considering a trip to Bangladesh.
