My Bangladesh trip lasted from October 5-27. The trip was a long awaited and one of the most anticipated ones. Any trip to Bangladesh is a special one as I get to meet my friends and family and revisit old and create new memories. This trip in particular was full of everything. I ate so many varieties of foods, went to so many places than planned while trying every form of transportation from rickshaw to airplane, and shook hundreds of hands. Everywhere I went, hospitality exceeded my expectations. As I traveled places and observed locals and their lives, I saw the difference between 8,000 miles.
I saw lives being lived on minimum needs and I also saw lives that resembled the west. I saw constructions, economic activities everywhere I went which indicates development in progress and people are and will be getting out of poverty as a result. This is consistent with my article on the global poverty The State of Global Poverty; It’s The Opposite of What You Think
Okay, enough talking, let’s see some photos. Photos are as captured. Please do not draw a conclusion about Bangladesh from these photos alone. Enjoy!!
My wife while visiting BRAC garmets factory in RajbariPrior to watching Venom with my nieces and nephew
My wife looking through the train windowMy brother in law and his newly married wifeMy in-law family
Wedding feast
Me and my two nephews and a niece on a autorickshaw crammed in a seat for twoOne of many huge ships that carry thousands of people a day to many parts of Bangladesh, waiting at Sadarghat terminal, DhakaPeople crossing Buriganga river on a boat, DhakaAhsan Manzil, former residence of Nawabs (Rulers) of Dhaka behind me. Built in 1872Dhaka Central Jail. Built in British eraA thirsty guy at a Railway station, Dhaka. Look at the cup and the chain and remember this guyThe university I attended for a year in 2006 and met my now-wifeFishing boats, Chittagong. The thirsty guy is coming back after drinking water from the river (not true)Ships for the purpose IdkProbably a oil tanker, Chittagong
Mymensingh Railway station
The same thirsty guy drinking here tooThe foods I can’t get enough of
She wasn’t instructed to hold the phone like that. I saw her playing and took this photo
What a comfortable journey! Probably the best way to ride a train, a way still unknown to Americans. Once they know, we’ll see people riding Amtrak like this. The breeze just cools your body as you ride, no need an expensive air conditionerLook at the thirsty guy to the right. Has a drink in handWe toured the inside of Coca-Cola factory
Brother-in-law getting marriedEveryone’s looking like-What is this huge animal!Traditional fishing equipment
Looking at me and thinking of a good lunch. I was that close
While I enjoyed every minute of my stay and there were plenty of subjects to pass time with, I nevertheless, felt the emptiness left by my nephew, Subas. The inevitable destination he rushed to once seemed so distant and that shockingly left me perplexed about my own mortality.
SHAHED I. NOYON 
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