Bangladesh may confound your
expectations. For example, you probably think tourism is all about looking. You
get the guidebook, or book yourself on a tour, you go somewhere, and you look
at the things you’re supposed to look at: churches, museums, forests, beaches.
Sometimes you go look at the people you’re supposed to look at: Thai hill
tribes, African pygmies, whirling Dervishes. But in Bangladesh, you’re the
attraction.
|
I
am the attraction
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Wherever you go in Bangladesh, people
will find you fascinating. It takes different forms: in Dhaka, people will
watch as you go by, quite a few will say hello or ask where you’re from, and
rickshaw drivers may become involved in small accidents because you are so much
more interesting than the passing traffic. But out in the country, the interest
hits another level of intensity altogether. Head to any of Bangladesh’s lovely,
quiet villages, and you will understand something of what Britney Spears’ life
is like (if the paparazzi were friendly, kind and only meant her well, that
is).
Stop to stretch your legs on any
rural roadside, or take your spot on one of Bangladesh’s hundreds of
river-crossing ferries, and watch the crowds arrive. They come seemingly from
nowhere – one minute you can be kicking back in a bucolic idyll, watching cute
baby goats forage among the rice paddies; the next, 30 people are standing
around you, quietly, earnestly and unblinkingly staring. Occasionally someone
will drag up a bit of English from somewhere (though often, the crowds found it
entirely unbelievable I couldn’t speak Bangla – they may not have known other
languages existed), asking you ‘what is your country?’. If there are children,
some giggling will eventually ensue. And, because this is the 21st century, a
few people in the crowd may pull out their mobile phone cameras to take a few
snaps of you for later viewing by anyone unlucky enough to have missed the
show.
 |
|
I
remain the attraction
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If this was India, they’d probably want something
from you. In Bangladesh, they just think you’re implausibly interesting. It’s
this almost complete lack of exposure to tourists that makes Bangladesh one of
the most delightful countries to visit, or one of the most pointless. Because
in Bangladesh, there’s really not much in the way of tourist attractions. Not
in the way you think: it’s not because nothing happens here but cyclones and
famines. It’s just that no one much visits, so they haven’t set up many of
those things designed to separate tourists from their money.
So instead of taking a hill tribe
trek, or eating a tapas plate at an olive oil plantation, you’ll find you end
up doing a lot of the things the locals themselves do. For example…
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