Bangladesh!

I have just arrived to Thailand and I am writing this from Chiang Mai. Last week I spent in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is crazy. It is like India, but more of everything. More people, more traffic, more poverty, more attention. However I met some really nice people who really helped me out with different things. Thanks to all of you if you are reading this.

This is from a club - Toastmasters - in Calcutta. People from the club gather every tuesday and holds prepared and improvised speeches. Then the other members give feedback to the presentor. It is all about improving presentation skills. I was introduced to this group by an entrepreneur that I stayed with, held a speech about my trip and recieved some great feedback. This thing is really a great idea and Toastmasters is an international club.

One of the guys from the clubs owned an ice cream shop, so we went there to stuff us a little.

For a newspaper in Calcutta.

Complicated story. I had to cross the border to Bangladesh with my two bicycles - the Indian and the Swedish. Fortunately I got some help. It was amazing, normally I am quite restrictive with giving money away, but one of these guys that helped me carrying was deaf and mute, so I gave him 100 taka, which is around 1 euro, for helping me. He got so unbelievably happy. He tried to hide his happiness but he just couldnt.

My two bicycles at the room in a guesthouse.

The ferries in Bangladesh are crowded. Accidents happen all the time.

Random brother.

Totally squint-eyed guy.

I found a place by the road where people could leave me in peace. Normally they crowd up just some seconds after I stop. This was a library and the children went to school. I tried to help them a little with their English. They were so happy that I could understand what they had written.

This is what happens when I stop somewhere. People come from everywhere. It is quite insane. It was hard to get this picture.

Village where i stopped.

Roads in Bangladesh are very beautiful. Very green and lively landscape.

Niceee cycling.

There is a lot of water in Bangladesh. Rivers and ponds and lakes everywhere.

Ok, in Bangladesh I was done with my Indian bicycle. After Bangladesh came Thailand and here I will repair and go with my Swedish bicycle again. But I went 2500km on my 30 euro Indian bicycle without gears and I thought that was worth celebrating.

So by accident I met this man, must have been a cause of the law of attracion. He took me to his office and there we had a preparty. Bangladesh is a muslim country and alcohol is not really available but I was lucky.

We listened to old English music on his LP-player.

And then we went to buy flowers and decoration for my bicycle. I planned to decorate it on the street and let people join in. Not every day I have the chance to create such a party so I thought I might as well just take the opportunity.

And this was the result, a huge crowd helping me decorate the bicycle. I gave a man some money and told him to make a banner. It says "Bombay to Barisal" - which is more or less the stage I made with the bicycle. And I like how they got my name "Viktov Predan".