I'm one month away from departure for Asia! It's both scary and exhilarating to be planning and thinking about this trip. Athena and i have been chatting about all the details of our India trip and it's shaping up to be busy, while also letting us meet up with some of our LSE India connections.
So far my rough plan looks like this:
Singapore (4 days)
Bali (1 week)
India: Bangalore, Cochin (Kerala), Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi and..? (4-6 weeks)
Burma ....
I won't be planning too far ahead given that I want to remain spontaneous and open to either volunteering, working, backpacking or a combination of all three.
More later..
Sunday 29 November 2015
Saturday 17 October 2015
Saturday 11 July 2015
Tuesday 7 July 2015
Maximum in Bangladesh
Bangladesh.
Bangla = a Magadhan language spoken by the Bengali people,
Desh = Country.
It was cool and rainy when I left Canada a few days ago, and after an excruciatingly long two flights (broken up by a pleasant interval in London, including a lovely lunch at Peruvian restaurant Ceviche) I stepped off the plane and was taken aback by a blast of humidity.
It's been like that for the last 3 days.
Taken aback by humidity (glasses keep fogging up). Taken aback by the traffic (I thought Saigon was the worst place in the world for traffic- turns out Dhaka has it beat). Taken aback by the teaming mass of people, begging, jumping onto busses, weaving between cars, shouting hoarsely, bargaining, sleeping, holding hands (men, mostly), staring, smiling.
Taken aback by the kindness and chattiness and the average person's desire to help out.
This week has been exciting and tiring. I'm here with a colleague for an evaluation which involves visiting various NGOs across the country (but mostly Dhaka-based). Contrary to the previous trip where I met mostly government representatives, this time we have been privileged to meet mainly civil society representatives. They are eloquent and thoughtful and at times I feel a bit ashamed of my familiar tropes and assumptions about developed vs developing world.
This week has made me eager to learn more about disability and human rights. I had the privilege today of visiting the Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paralysed which does seemingly great work with people of disabilities of all ages. I babbled about a friend who is visually impaired (she has a lot of patience this woman, as I am constantly committing faux-pas around her). And wished and thought, geez, maybe I should have studied Occupational Therapy... maybe I would have something useful to contribute here.
It's made me embarassed about my ignorance of the world - one of the hotel staff was telling me about Alexander of Macedonia's time in India and what is now Bangladesh, and in my mind I was just thinking, "Macedonia? Random country in Eastern Europe? They produced a world conqueror?".
This week has reminded me that I'm not the fearless traveller I thought I was. Still got a ways to go. Bangladesh makes me feel uncomfortable and alien and western. I wish I knew more about Islam and about how to be patient and kind no matter how I am feeling. Basically it's shaken me up a bit and made me admire all the more my friends who travel alone to the most crowded, dirty, glorious places of Asia.
I have a feeling that I will leave this country feeling grateful for Air Conditioning, unsatisfied with a brief glimpse of South Asia and with many more questions than answers.
Bangla = a Magadhan language spoken by the Bengali people,
Desh = Country.
It was cool and rainy when I left Canada a few days ago, and after an excruciatingly long two flights (broken up by a pleasant interval in London, including a lovely lunch at Peruvian restaurant Ceviche) I stepped off the plane and was taken aback by a blast of humidity.
It's been like that for the last 3 days.
Taken aback by humidity (glasses keep fogging up). Taken aback by the traffic (I thought Saigon was the worst place in the world for traffic- turns out Dhaka has it beat). Taken aback by the teaming mass of people, begging, jumping onto busses, weaving between cars, shouting hoarsely, bargaining, sleeping, holding hands (men, mostly), staring, smiling.
Taken aback by the kindness and chattiness and the average person's desire to help out.
This week has been exciting and tiring. I'm here with a colleague for an evaluation which involves visiting various NGOs across the country (but mostly Dhaka-based). Contrary to the previous trip where I met mostly government representatives, this time we have been privileged to meet mainly civil society representatives. They are eloquent and thoughtful and at times I feel a bit ashamed of my familiar tropes and assumptions about developed vs developing world.
This week has made me eager to learn more about disability and human rights. I had the privilege today of visiting the Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paralysed which does seemingly great work with people of disabilities of all ages. I babbled about a friend who is visually impaired (she has a lot of patience this woman, as I am constantly committing faux-pas around her). And wished and thought, geez, maybe I should have studied Occupational Therapy... maybe I would have something useful to contribute here.
It's made me embarassed about my ignorance of the world - one of the hotel staff was telling me about Alexander of Macedonia's time in India and what is now Bangladesh, and in my mind I was just thinking, "Macedonia? Random country in Eastern Europe? They produced a world conqueror?".
This week has reminded me that I'm not the fearless traveller I thought I was. Still got a ways to go. Bangladesh makes me feel uncomfortable and alien and western. I wish I knew more about Islam and about how to be patient and kind no matter how I am feeling. Basically it's shaken me up a bit and made me admire all the more my friends who travel alone to the most crowded, dirty, glorious places of Asia.
I have a feeling that I will leave this country feeling grateful for Air Conditioning, unsatisfied with a brief glimpse of South Asia and with many more questions than answers.
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