North Bengal
The Eid vacation offered me another exciting opportunity. My cook/bearer, Tomas, invited me to visit his village. Tomas is a Christian, so the experience did not involve any ritual sacrifice. I invited my friend Beckley along and the our trip began at 6:30am.
Because of the Muslim holiday, we had the rare opportunity to drive to Tomas' village relatively unhindered. This trip would be totally impossible on a normal day due to the overwhelming traffic in and around Dhaka, but because most people were at home with their families, we were able to take the 3 1/2 hour drive to North Bengal. Tomas' village is located somewhere in the northwestern part of the country, but I'm still not exactly sure where. The drive was a beautiful one, and along the way we crossed the longest bridge in the country.
We arrived to the village and began an incredible day. Tomas was so proud to show us his home and his village and we met most everyone in town. The property consists of a concrete home and separate outbuilding for preparing the food. There was an in-ground oven in the courtyard and a very sanitary outhouse and deep water well. There is also a small garden with papaya, jackfruit and other trees, as well as a pond for fishing. Tomas owns a small rice paddy which is sharecropped by other people in the village. In exchange for growing the rice, the sharecroppers give him half of the harvest. It's a fair amount, but still not enough to last a year.
After relaxing and eating some wonderful food prepared by his wife, we tried our hand at fishing in the pond with a net. Beckley got a frog and I got a crab, but we came out fishless in the end. Luckily someone with more experience was there to help us city slickers and we had an incredible lunch of fish, added to the veritable buffet of other Bengali delights.
Post lunch was spent chilling with the extended family, then we got in the car and slept most of the way back to Dhaka. All in all, it was the perfect way to spend a day off.
Here are some photos of the day. The rest are here.
Bangladeshi traditional dress, the lungi.
Fishin'.
Um-hm. Fishin'.
Because of the Muslim holiday, we had the rare opportunity to drive to Tomas' village relatively unhindered. This trip would be totally impossible on a normal day due to the overwhelming traffic in and around Dhaka, but because most people were at home with their families, we were able to take the 3 1/2 hour drive to North Bengal. Tomas' village is located somewhere in the northwestern part of the country, but I'm still not exactly sure where. The drive was a beautiful one, and along the way we crossed the longest bridge in the country.
We arrived to the village and began an incredible day. Tomas was so proud to show us his home and his village and we met most everyone in town. The property consists of a concrete home and separate outbuilding for preparing the food. There was an in-ground oven in the courtyard and a very sanitary outhouse and deep water well. There is also a small garden with papaya, jackfruit and other trees, as well as a pond for fishing. Tomas owns a small rice paddy which is sharecropped by other people in the village. In exchange for growing the rice, the sharecroppers give him half of the harvest. It's a fair amount, but still not enough to last a year.
After relaxing and eating some wonderful food prepared by his wife, we tried our hand at fishing in the pond with a net. Beckley got a frog and I got a crab, but we came out fishless in the end. Luckily someone with more experience was there to help us city slickers and we had an incredible lunch of fish, added to the veritable buffet of other Bengali delights.
Post lunch was spent chilling with the extended family, then we got in the car and slept most of the way back to Dhaka. All in all, it was the perfect way to spend a day off.
Here are some photos of the day. The rest are here.
Bangladeshi traditional dress, the lungi.
Fishin'.
Um-hm. Fishin'.
posted by jc at 4:24 AM
1 Comments:
WOW! That looks like a lot of fun. I miss my cousin.
~dre'
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