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From Dhaka to Chittagong

By 06/04/2009December 29th, 20095 Comments

Ali recognized us immediately the moment we stepped out of Zia Airport in Dhaka. It wasn’t very hard really. There aren’t many Chinese around. In fact, the number of foreigners on the flight could be counted with 2 hands. Our first meet up with Ali was a good one. He came with his friend Rubab (I am not sure if I got the spelling right!). Our first stop was the money changer, and then Ali treated us to Movenpick ice cream! I can’t believe we forgot to take a group photo with Ali when we arrived. We must have just been really engrossed with just talking to him.

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A photo of Ali and Farhat that was sent to us before we left for Bangladesh.

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Taken when we went to Movenpick. Ali has not been sleeping very much. He’s been busy mixing his music album which will be out soon! He is a singer and has his own band!

At Movenpick, we had a chat with Ali, and he said this to us… “OK I want to see your expressions… on the first day, I’ll be expecting 2000 people to turn up for the wedding.” Kee Sitt’s eye balls went really big, like ping pong balls. 500 people for the 2nd and 3rd event, AND… 6000 people for the actual wedding day! Wow!! That’s amazing! He said that the culture over in Bangladesh is to really invite every single person to the wedding, even if it’s the guy who works at the grocery shop that you just met 2 days ago.

It’s really exciting but I am getting nervous now! Ali reassured us that we should just hang out near the stage where the action is, and take random shots of the guests that arrive. Well, our first event is tomorrow night, so we’ll find out how it’ll be soon enough!

So today, we didn’t really do much except wait for our flight from Dhaka to Chittagong. We wandered the streets of Dhaka for a short while and captured some street photos. One of the things we found out was that the Bengali New Year Festival falls on the 14th of April, the day after we leave Bangladesh! We didn’t know about this festival before we booked the flight. So we’re going to miss it. :(

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Dhaka is pretty chaotic with people and vehicles. There are beggars everywhere, and it is really hard to turn away when they come knocking on your car window persistently. Oh, my heart!

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We found this place where lots of flowers were being sold. Later, we were told by Rubab that this is the central location where all flowers get distributed from in Dhaka.

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The buses in Dhaka are really banged up. I must say the drivers in Dhaka are really skillful. It’s super challenging to navigate past trishaws, people, crazy buses, three wheeled tut-tut lookalike vehicles… etc!

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We were stared at everywhere we went. Hehe, I think it’s really funny that even as we take a photo, the people behind us were ‘posing’ for the shot too!

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We did some videos on the street, and will try to upload them when we can! Internet connection is quite slow where we are.

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We had a following after a while.

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Finally, we left Dhaka on a 45 minute flight to Chittagong. The view of Dhaka from our little propeller plane. More updates to come!

Join the discussion 5 Comments

  • Ray Goh says:

    nice shots from the MkII… love the colours… i always find it awkward in 3rd world countries when taking people shots… they sometimes look at you with murder intentions… how do u handle it… obviously cant go up to everyone and ask for permission… i guess a telephoto lens helps…

  • Asther says:

    Yeah! Can see lots of diff. from the photos taken with ur new toy! I’m much more convinced to invest in one now. *itching to pick up the phone to make purchasing enquiries*

  • Grace Tan says:

    Ray: Well I suppose it helps being small in my case, and also smiley! I just approach people, all these shots were taken using my 50mm f1.4 lens.
    Asther: Yes! The 5DM2 is a superb camera! I love it very much. I got a 2nd hand 5D as a back up camera body, but I find that it doesn’t compare to the Mark2. The high ISO settings, colours etc are all so wonderful on the Mark2.

  • Fiona says:

    Love your travel photos too! how come so few! hehehehe
    On the 5D Mark II.. I beg to differ on the ISO.. it doesn’t really work as well as the Nikon D700… Actually, I’m quite disappointed with their ISO… =( Other than that and the fact that the buttons are stiffer and hurts my fingers, I love my 5D Mark II!
    Oooohh… have you guys tried the video? Take super romantic shots on a 50mm f1.2!!!

  • Royal says:

    awesome collection of photos….

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