Holiday in BD

Heyho! Back in action after the holiday with Noemi that was really great! Instead of sitting at the Rafflesia, we have been roaming around in this mega city /mega country for close to 10 days. It was nice to come out of my apartment that turned out to be more of a shell lately, that except office, closes out the outside world completely. Having her with me made it easy to roam around without any problems. There is no such term as "getting used" to people staring. There is only a term called: ENDURING. Of course, being moody, sometimes it is easy and sometimes it is extremely annoying. Don't worry! I've managed without beating up anyone! :)))))))

Let me give you some info about this country. Recent estimates say, the size of the population is ~162,221,000! Can you believe???! 162 MILLION! As a comparison: Russia's total population is around 142 million and it's territory is 120 times bigger than Bangladesh's!! Dhaka, the capital, carries close to 15 million people.

Anyhow, after a time you do not see all this. You only perceive your own things. Right or wrong. And you even start enjoying yourself! How can this happen??!?! I have no idea :D

Mar meseltem, hogy Noemi meglatogatott. Eldontottuk, hogy utazni fogunk ebben a 162 millios lakosu orszagban, foleg a Bengali obol partjan, es ugy is tettunk. Vizen, foldon, levegoben :D Jo volt kicsit kimaszni a lakasbol . Egyedul nem szeretek jarkalni es hat a kollegakkal neha elmegyek ide-oda, de mas volt magyarul kiabalni vagy eppen magyarul kacagni :D

We have been: traveling by speed boat, by car, by train, by plane ; shopping, concert, dinner, playing canasta (where I could still hold my overall winner position, but I'm afraid not for too long :)), sightseeing, thai massage, and so and forth. We have planned to enjoy as much as we can: and we did so!

Our first destination was Chittagong, that has much less population than Dhaka, still green, still nice, situated on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. Being there before by the night train, I have arranged this travel but our colleagues did not find it safe enough for the 2 of us to travel by night, hence we took the day train. The first thing: we traveled backwards to our seat position. For 7 hours! :))))))) People asking for phone numbers, e-mail ID's, questions, all the staring looks ...we only survived by playing canasta :D

Next morning we went to see the famous tourist destination of Bangladesh's: Cox's bazar. Located 150 km from Chittagong, it is an unbroken, 125 km sandy sea beach and it is the longest in the world of its kind.

Vonattal utaztunk Chittagongba. Menetirannyal ellentetesen. En mar mielott elindultunk eszrevettem, hogy ez a resz kimaradt a jegyvasarlasnal az intezonek...de mar nem volt mit tenni. Noemi persze szidott mindent mint a bokrot...en meg csak hangosan kacagtam. Telefonszam, e-mail cim keres, nev, eletrajz, stb...egesz uton ez volt. Mindenki bamult. Na de nem szamitott, mi kanasztaztunk es ettunk valami combot. En csak megkostoltam, mert ugy nezett ki mint egy afgan futofurj lab...jo sovany es hosszu, de Noemi szerint ez igazi bengali tyuk volt. Neha sikoltoztunk a kacagastol, ami elegge zavarta az utasokat. Amikor csendben voltunk akkor neztek, hogy mi tortent. Hat na...nem volt esemenymentes, az tuti.

Masnap reggel elindultunk Cox bazarba. Ez az orszag leglatogatottabb turista uticelja. A Bengali obol partjan, 125 km hosszu homokos tengerpart. Ez a vilag leghosszabb tengerpartja. Az igazgato ideadta a ceg terepjarojat es szuper kenyelmesen utaztunk. Mint ket kiralykisasszony :D

Laboni beach, the main beach of Cox's bazar was only 50 m from our hotel. We knew there will be crowd but we didn't know we will be so famous like Paris Hilton on the red carpet! Our driver was with us and after a time he stopped the crowd from selling us eggs, horses, cars, shells, jewelry, even sand :D

I loved taking pictures and although Noemi was very much relaxing on a beach chair, I chased her to take pictures all the time. I cannot bear to see her sitting idle :D

A tengerparton nagyon sokan voltak. Eloszor nem. 5 perccel utanunk erkeztek vagy 200-an. Volt ott minden. Eladtak volna a homokot is. Lo is volt elado. Tojas is. :D Eltudjatok kepzelni?

As we walked to the beach we have seen a lot of puppies but my good friend stopped me from caressing them, threatening me with fleas! ghrrrrrrrrrrrr

Voltak kicsi kutyak a tengeparthoz kozel, de Noemi nem hagyta, hogy magammal vigyem...a bolhak miatt :(( Pedig olyan sepek vojtak :((

Quad :) Quadoztunk es dudaltunk a parton. En a kekkel, Noemi a piros quaddal. Ez szupi volt. Mondjuk fel oramba telt mig a baratnemat ravettem. Vegul alig tudtam leallitani:D

My fav activity is still: chasing- and being chased by THE WAVES

Sunset into "the" sea/ Sunrise "from" the sea is my favorite scenery therefore I sat down and watched the sunset. At one point heard Noemi laughing, asking me to look back. Huh, what a crowd. They were so silent! I have no idea when they gathered around me! You can see my right side fans...I had the same crowd on my left side :D

Nagyon hiresek voltunk, ahogy az alabbi foto is mutatja. Ezek az emberek olyan csendben voltak, hogy amikor szolit Noemi, hogy nezzek hatra...meglepodtem. Nem tudom, hogy kerultek oda.

What a fame :)))

Seagull hotel. It was a 5 star hotel but the facilities were not really on this level. Noemi wanted to re-design the rooms and half day she was talking about this:)) We re-designed our room. Started with the painting that resembled to the cover page of the movie: Scream! I told, I will not sleep with this painting above my head. So I put the painting in the wardrobe and put some paper ads instead of it. Looked much better.

We went to swim at the hotel and tried the jacuzzi. For 5 minutes noone was at the swimming pool area. After 5 minutes all the people, starting from the management to pool cleaners, were present. The next year's re-construction plans have been finalized that day, for sure :D What a crowd again! On the top of this, we received a call at 11 PM from reception if we want massage. Well, we did not want! Mainly not at that hour!

Amikor lementunk a szalloda kertjebe furodni, csak ketten voltunk. 5 perc mulva a managertol a takaritoig, mindenki ott dolgozott. Tervezett es kivitelezte. A tetorol kotel letrat engedtek le es takaritottak az ablakot :D :D :D Hihetetlen volt! Aztan ejjel 11 kor felhivtak a recepciotol, hogy szeretnenk-e masszazst. Jo, hogy Noemi almost volt amikor valaszolt, mert ha teljesen maganal van...meg nem allunk a recepcioig :D Nem akartunk masszazst abban az oraban.

Lunch at the hotel

I like this picture of Noemi's a lot! Szep leanyka!!!!!

Mermaid coffee. This was a real beach restaurant with awesome music, very tasty food, (e.g. Hungarian goulash or french crepe) and very nice people. We have been playing canasta while the food was prepared. Jo volt ez a tengerparti vendeglo. Nadbol es fabol, eredeti es kellemes, szuper zene es kaja. Volt magyar gulyas, palacsinta es mindenfele sajtos inyencseg..

I do not intend to hurt anyone who likes crabs. I know how healthy is, I know how fancy is to like them...I do not mind. I consider them scary animals whether I see them on TV or in reality, therefore the thought of eating them is largely avoiding me :D The below shows the remaining "crabbies" after the dinner. What are you actually eating then? I am wondering if crab is food for thought or food for hunger??

Ezen a tanyeron lathato a rak eves utani maradek.

Eloszoris nem szeretem a rakot. Sem eloben sem teveben. Masodszor: ha ennyi mindent otthagysz a talon, akkor mit is eszel???

Na, tolem bekeben ulhetnek/uszhatnak a polipok, rakok, bekak, kalamarik, satobbik... Csak Noemivel ne fusson ossze egy sem!

On the way to Enani beach, that is mostly preferred by tourists. Located 35 km from the main beach, it is a golden sandy beach, ideal for sea bathing. We went there since it has been told to be free of crowd. Well, this was not the case. But the drive till we reached made it a highly worth trip to be done. Masnap elmentunk egy masik tengerparti helyre, ahol allitolag nincs tomeg. Jaj, dehogynem. Meghozza nagy tomeg! De az ut szuper volt. Mindenhol megalltunk, ahol senki nem volt a parton. We stopped many times during the trip. Wherever there were no people we ran to enjoy the sea. But only for 10-15 min. After this: cars, buses, rickshaws stopped and we quickly went to the car to find another serene beach part ;) Kb 10-15 percet voltunk egy helyen. Arra megallt busz, riksa, auto es mar fotoztak is. Ki mivel erte :D Mi menekultunk az autohoz.

We liked these boats that resembled to the viking boats from early 8th till 11th century. The scenery was pretty much alike, although we could not distinguish the merchant, the pirate, the explorer and the warrior:) A viking csonakok!

Some more sea pics...

The other side of the road was Noemi's favorite shooting spot. Az ut masik oldalarol nagyon szep fotokat keszitett Noemi.

Time has stopped at this part of the world and we liked seeing these calm, happy, curious people in front of their houses talking about only one thing: us... :) Whenever we stopped by the road, entire families came out along with their neighbours. It was funny. Mintha megallt volna az ido. .. Az emberek kiszaladtak a hazaikbol, jottek tyukostol, gyerekestol, neha egesz pici babastol es bamultak. Jott az egesz somszedsag es rokonsag :)

We own the beach!!!!!!!! :) There was more than 40 C outside and the sea was around 25. It was lovely! Well...had to quit swimming this time.

:)

Few pics of ships from Chittagong port. Some of them looked like 100 years old. Ezek a hajok kozul nehany, tobb 100 evesnek nezett ki. Nehany eppen sullyedt el. Vagy legalabbis nekunk ugy tunt...

Happy Birthday Noemi! After the celebration we went to the Radisson's for a Cuban- African- Latino Jazz concert: Motimba. The event was nice. I personally think it was too short :D

Noemi szulinapja! Isten eltessen :) Ezutan elmentunk agy latinos-afros-kubai-jazz koncertre, ami szerintem jobb lett volna ha nem er olyan hamar veget :D 3 orat tartott...

The biggest shopping center of South-Asia is in Dhaka. Called Bashundara city. We spent a whole day there and seen only 3 floors out of 8. We had to go back the 2nd day to see the rest :D I liked the bargaining part where even "fixed priced" shops gave us discount :D I did not try this before but it turned out that I am really good :D Del-Azsia legnagyobb bevasarlokozpontja, a Bashundara city, Dhakaban van. Elso nap 3 emeletet lattunk a 8-bol es egesz nap ott voltunk! Masnap visszamentunk! Termeszetesen es alkudoztunk kemenyen. Szuper sikeresek voltunk :D

Na ennyi mostanra. Koszi Noemi es remelem hamarosan tali.

Thanks Noemi for visiting me. Hope to see you very soon. x