I never would have thought that I would be able to say that I went on a relaxing holiday to India - but now I can!!
Luckily for me, the curfews lifted just in time for me to catch my midnight bus to Kolkata (~12 hour trip) a few weeks ago and together with a couple of friends - Elise and Phoebe - set out on a one week adventure, which involved spending time in Kolkata, Bangalore and Allepey - and more nights sleeping on buses and trains then in actual beds!
Highlights of the trip included:
- eating yummy fish without bones!! (I have fish for lunch at work 5 days a week that are really small with really small bones and they are driving me insane! Sometimes we even have goldfish sized fish - eek!)
- spending a full 24 hours on a houseboat in the backwaters of Kerala in Allepey. It was so amazingly nice to feel relatively isolated and was a massive contrast to the chaos of Dhaka and being surrounded by people constantly
- jeans and book shopping in Bangalore - never before have I been able to find so many long pairs of jeans that fit well!
- being able to go out for a beer and buying a new sari in Kolkata
An interesting thing was that I felt so much free-er in India than I do in Bangladesh. It's really difficult to describe - and probably had a lot to do with the types of places we visited (relatively well off) and the fact that I was on holidays. A major difference though was that I was able to communicate much more easily with people in general, due to English being more widely spoken. It made such a difference being able to communicate! (my Bangla is in dire need of improvement).
Another interesting part of my trip was that the visible poverty in Kolkata was far less than I expected the first time I went there (coming from Dhaka) yet was far more visible on my way back, after having spent time in Kerala and Bangalore. Amazing how our perspectives become relative.
Overall I loved India and can't wait to go back there. But I am also happy to be back in Bangladesh and going away made me realise that I am starting to get a lot more settled here.
Will hopefully upload some photos on here soon - it would seem that I currently have a virus on my laptop that has infected my camera - fabulous!!
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1 comment:
Hi Amy,
came across your posts while searching for blogs from Dhaka. Seems like you are ill often.
Take care of what you eat ... hygiene is not great here, especially when the cooks don't wash their hands properly after a potty session.
Also drink lots and lots of water. Thanks for all the good work you are doing for the those who cannot defend themselves.
Cheers!
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