Such a short trip but had a really great visit to Dhaka! I stayed with my friend Sobia (who went to UNSW with me!) and her family who were all super lovely and showed me heaps!

I flew out of Malaysia late on Thursday night. I was suprised by the people on the plane - pretty much all Bangladeshi people and like 95% men and most the women were with their partners rather than solo. I took ages to get through the airport as it was visa on arrival, which was $51USD. There were signs all in english which was great though and there are restrictions on who can enter the airport so outside there were a lot of people loitering and waiting for people I guess.

On Friday we went to the markets shopping. I was suprised to see mostly men out on the streets and working as shop keepers etc. We spoke a bit about the cost of living and also exports from Bangladesh with the garment industry being the biggest of late. There are heaps of public buses around the streets, all quite old but brightly coloured. We saw some cool stuff in the markets like snake poison for curing ailments, chickens being carried around dead all strung up as they were sold to passers-by and this random dude helped give Sobia's mum directions and walked for about 10 minutes with her to show the way. We had some food called fuchkas which are like shells made from flour/sesame then filled with potato, chickpeas, tamarin, cucumber and spices - really yum!! We spent ages looking at sarees but settled on a darker turquoise for me and a light green for Sobia. We headed to the engagement party around 730pm, it was one of Sobia's cousins getting engaged. It was really cool to see - there was the entrance of the groom and his family then the bride and hers, then some speeches and then we ate and there was a chance to go take photos with the couple. I couldn't get over the late arrivals and the speaking over those given speeches - very different to what I've seen in Australia, and I would expect at mine haha!

Saturday we went out in the morning to a farmers market and some little charity shops where I got some cute knick-knacks! We went through the vegetable markets as well which was cool because there was lots of foods I didn't recognise! In the evening, Sobia's parents' friends came for dinner which was lovely. We had some great discussions about religion and politics!

Sunday morning I was driven to the airport. It was very slow to check-in but easy enough through immigration this time. The flight was mostly nepalese people this time and people off to Kathmandu for trekking! I had a really good time in Bangladesh and was happy to have a friend to give me the excuse to go as I wouldn't have by myself!!