Escape from Bengal
After three days of waiting out the Bangladesh political blockade in Khulna I'd had enough. The first 2 days were great, I met a lot of interesting people as I wandered around the streets of Khulna (which were still jammed with cycle rickshaws even though there were no cars). One guy I met was trying very hard to sell me a trip to the Sunderbans. When I finally convinced him I wasn't interested (even though it is a UNESCO site)he just invited me to hang out with him. I never did figure out his means of income. He showed me a journalist ID, told me he was studying to be a lawyer, claimed work at the nearby university, and also told me that he dabbled in real estate. But the fact that he was trying to sell me a trip to the Sunderbans made me suspicious that he might just be a hustler. Hanging out with him was great fun though. We had lunch at a great cheap resturant near the court house where all the lawyers eat. Then we took a cycle rickshaw for about an hour to a village outside of town so two friends of his could pay some sort of property taxes. Then it was off to the university to meet the athletic director and some of his other friends there. The best part though was asking him questions about the people of Bangladesh and their politics and attitudes, especially towards Islam, Pakistan, India, and the influence of Indian culture in their everyday lives.
On day three I just slept, tried another great restaurant, watched movies on TV and tried to figure out if I should wait out the blockade or try to get around it. I was sick of my hotel and didn't have too many more options. I had already switched from a hotel that my guidebook describes as "the ritziest place in town" and which was actually the nicest place I had stayed at so far on this trip (but not the most expensive at only $15 a night). That place smelled like moth balls in the bathroom and fire in the bedroom and didn't have hot water, but did have lots of bugs. The new place had even more bugs and was open to the street on which all the demonstrations were going on so I had a non stop stream of political propaganda being broadcast from loudspeakers nearby. I stuck that out for 2 nights but couldn't take a third.
On day four I woke up determined to leave town. My options were to: take an ambulance, which would have been comparatively expensive (about $30) but would make for a great story and I would be able to reference one of my favorite songs in the subject line to this blog post; hire someone to take me on a motorcycle, which would be cheap at only $6, but I would be worried about riding on the back of a bike for 4 hrs and 110km with no helmet and no safety gear; or to buy a bicycle, strap my pack on the back and ride for two days, which would have been the most expensive, but also the most interesting, though I had no idea what I would do with the bike at the border.
I opted for the motorcycle and it was a great choice. We went through all the tiny villages on a back route to avoid the blockade checkpoints. The scenery was just beautiful.
The border post on the Indian side has a chalkboard with the traffic statistics from the previous day. For Wednesday Nov 22nd it showed 1 outgoing and 4 incoming foreigners (that is non Indian and non Bangladeshi).
Arriving in Calcutta I went straight to the airport to buy some tickets. Travel agents in India are quite dodgy and many don't accept credit cards and many airlines haven't discovered online booking yet so I feel best buying them at the airport if there is no online option. I was going to buy a ticket on Air Deccan to Delhi for the next day but there was a flight on Indigo (an airline I had only heard of in the past few weeks and never bothered to look at their website) that was leaving in three hours for the same price. That was a very easy decision. The plane was probably the newest plane I've ever flown on. I've always joked that from and within the USA you can tell the planes you are flying on are quite old because they always have ashtrays and "no smoking" lights. This is the first plane I've ever flown on that instead of the "no smoking" lights had "no electronic devices" lights.
Indigo, Calcutta to Delhi. A lousy picture of a great airplane.
Delhi is again another transit point for me. But I have train tickets and more plane tickets to buy and there is a 360 year old mosque that I didn't get to go into the last time I was here, plus another restaurant to track down.
The Khosla Cafe was easy to find and nothing special, but they did serve up a good potato omelette.
I just found out that the blockade was suspended yesterday at 6pm.
On day three I just slept, tried another great restaurant, watched movies on TV and tried to figure out if I should wait out the blockade or try to get around it. I was sick of my hotel and didn't have too many more options. I had already switched from a hotel that my guidebook describes as "the ritziest place in town" and which was actually the nicest place I had stayed at so far on this trip (but not the most expensive at only $15 a night). That place smelled like moth balls in the bathroom and fire in the bedroom and didn't have hot water, but did have lots of bugs. The new place had even more bugs and was open to the street on which all the demonstrations were going on so I had a non stop stream of political propaganda being broadcast from loudspeakers nearby. I stuck that out for 2 nights but couldn't take a third.
On day four I woke up determined to leave town. My options were to: take an ambulance, which would have been comparatively expensive (about $30) but would make for a great story and I would be able to reference one of my favorite songs in the subject line to this blog post; hire someone to take me on a motorcycle, which would be cheap at only $6, but I would be worried about riding on the back of a bike for 4 hrs and 110km with no helmet and no safety gear; or to buy a bicycle, strap my pack on the back and ride for two days, which would have been the most expensive, but also the most interesting, though I had no idea what I would do with the bike at the border.
I opted for the motorcycle and it was a great choice. We went through all the tiny villages on a back route to avoid the blockade checkpoints. The scenery was just beautiful.
The border post on the Indian side has a chalkboard with the traffic statistics from the previous day. For Wednesday Nov 22nd it showed 1 outgoing and 4 incoming foreigners (that is non Indian and non Bangladeshi).
Arriving in Calcutta I went straight to the airport to buy some tickets. Travel agents in India are quite dodgy and many don't accept credit cards and many airlines haven't discovered online booking yet so I feel best buying them at the airport if there is no online option. I was going to buy a ticket on Air Deccan to Delhi for the next day but there was a flight on Indigo (an airline I had only heard of in the past few weeks and never bothered to look at their website) that was leaving in three hours for the same price. That was a very easy decision. The plane was probably the newest plane I've ever flown on. I've always joked that from and within the USA you can tell the planes you are flying on are quite old because they always have ashtrays and "no smoking" lights. This is the first plane I've ever flown on that instead of the "no smoking" lights had "no electronic devices" lights.
Indigo, Calcutta to Delhi. A lousy picture of a great airplane.
Delhi is again another transit point for me. But I have train tickets and more plane tickets to buy and there is a 360 year old mosque that I didn't get to go into the last time I was here, plus another restaurant to track down.
The Khosla Cafe was easy to find and nothing special, but they did serve up a good potato omelette.
I just found out that the blockade was suspended yesterday at 6pm.
posted by Jake at 10:56 PM
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