29 November, 2004

Dhaka, Chittagong Bangladesh

I was posted to my office branch in Dhaka Bangladesh in June 2004. We stayed in Baridhara, an expatriate community in Dhaka state capital. We were provided with a car and driver. Our two kids went to International School Dhaka (ISD). They enjoy the school life very much.


Processed food are expensive since most of them are imported especially from Malaysia. Supermarket are plentiful. However, most of the time we went to the local wet market for fish and veggies. Bangladesh main activity is textile manufacturing. They export labour to foreign countries mostly to the Arab region and Malaysia.

Our two elderly children did not join us since they goes to college. The two younger ones goes to International School Dhaka.


Paksi
Paksi
Paksi
Eid prayers
Eid prayers
Eid prayers
Eid prayers
Ready for dinner Paksi
Paksi
Paksi
Paksi
Paksi
Paksi
Birthday party
Family day
Guest from Telekom Malaysia

Dinner at our home

Family day
Family day
Ready for class at ISD
Humaira n frien
Going to school
Eid prayers
Humaira n teacher ISD School
Hazim n teacher ISD School
After meeting in Chittagong
Rickshaw called CNG

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Tabligh Conference in Tonggi
Tabligh Conference in Tonggi
Paksi eid 
Paksi
Paksi
Paksi
Our weekly social activities are very limited since there are no reasonable place for family outing. Driving in Dhaka is a nightmare. Apart from the traffic jam, the drivers are very keen to blare their horn. Bus, train and boat are the main transport and for short haul, motorised rickshaws are used (photo above). The weather during the 2 months in Dec and Jan are cool especially night time.

In one of the outdoor trip, we went to a park. They use human labour to drive the ferries wheel since labour is cheap. They provide attraction such as roller coaster(simple ride for the 7 years old), pools, cable car ride... 
Most of construction are still laborious. There are limited construction tools. Kids as young as 7 years help their parents to complement their salary. It was a pity sight but life has to go on.
Bagladeshi are very friendly lot. They welcome friends to their home. On another occasion, we visited them during Eid celebration and weddings.
We used go back to Malaysia during summer school breaks. In one occasion, we travel to New Zealand during the holidays. 

Dhaka also host one of the largest annual Muslims congregation at Tongi outside Dhaka. There will be speeches and sermons during the 3 days session. It was normally hosted during cool months of February. They stayed in tents and take ablution along the river bank.
We also visits villages of my office colleague.

Aktel (the company I am attached with) provided us with a full time driver named Hussein. During ramadhan, he invited us to breakfast at his house in Gazipur.

Hussein n mother
Hussein family members
Dinner with Hussein's family
Hussein house in Gazipur
Hussein sister & nieces
Cormilla
Cormilla

Aktel has a guest house in Dhaka. Staff from Malaysia on short term stint at Aktel stays here. It employed a full time caretaker. On one weekend we visited his village in Cormilla. We were well received and had lunch at their place.

On one instant, we visited the home of our cook at the guest house in Cormilla. It was a 1.5 hours drive. They have houses built of palm leaves,corrugated zinc and sawn timber. That remind me of my village when I was still young back in the sixties. Children gather around us since they rarely received tourist in their village.


We return back to Malaysia after 1.5 years stay.