Kolkata – Bangaldesh 2024 – James Stevenson https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com Sat, 27 Apr 2024 05:54:19 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/cropped-d03b549f-48ff-4f7b-95db-65376f96dae3-1-32x32.jpeg Kolkata – Bangaldesh 2024 – James Stevenson https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com 32 32 Bangladeshis love paan and cigarettes but no bidis and very little alcohol😩 https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/24/bangladeshis-love-paan-and-cigarettes-but-no-bidis-and-very-little-alcohol%f0%9f%98%a9/ https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/24/bangladeshis-love-paan-and-cigarettes-but-no-bidis-and-very-little-alcohol%f0%9f%98%a9/#respond Wed, 24 Apr 2024 12:35:25 +0000 https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/?p=2340
]]>
https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/24/bangladeshis-love-paan-and-cigarettes-but-no-bidis-and-very-little-alcohol%f0%9f%98%a9/feed/ 0
Navigation and ferries https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/24/navigation-and-ferries/ https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/24/navigation-and-ferries/#respond Wed, 24 Apr 2024 12:02:57 +0000 https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/?p=2329

I have always loved sitting down in the evening and planning the next day’s route. These recent days have been the most challenging because of there being no one to ask and there being a multitude of possibilities.
I do not want to go the most obvious direct routes but neither do I want to go very far each day because of the heat and my still painful leg. I also have to find a hopefully ac hotel.
The multitude of rivers and ferries can be confusing and timings of course non existent. So far I have been lucky.
That said, I do like the ferries and intend to take the maximum.
I am trying to take the most southerly route possible, eventually to Cox’s Bazaar. It should take me through Noakhali, infamous for the communal riots in early 1940’s.
For all of this I am a true disciple of Google Maps. I love using it and supplement it with a couple of other excellent apps, mapy.cz, pocket earth, and maps.me
A couple of random photos from ferry-

]]>
https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/24/navigation-and-ferries/feed/ 0
South (Sunderbans?) https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/23/south-sunderbans/ https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/23/south-sunderbans/#respond Tue, 23 Apr 2024 13:52:20 +0000 https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/?p=2320
  • I was thinking about visiting the Sunderbans, Bangladesh side, but couldn’t quite find anyone to ask, or find any local information on how to go about it.  It involves tourist boats that go through the massive mangrove forests that cover an enormous territory in Bangladesh and West Bengal.  Maybe it was too much for just one person anyway.
  • So I rode along the most southerly road I could find and headed east through a very rural Bangladesh of fish farms involving huge expances of water (mostly too saline for rice).  This was very pleasant cycling. And eventually a ferry across a huge river.  I arrived in the town of Mithbaria.
    Room tonight is 1500rs. nice and with AC. Last night room was not so great at 1000.  Did have AC.

    Tonight unable to find any alcohol 😩.  Last night had to take a ferry to find the bar, dark and seedy like in India.

     

    ]]>
    https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/23/south-sunderbans/feed/ 0
    Into Bangladesh https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/21/into-bangladesh/ https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/21/into-bangladesh/#respond Sun, 21 Apr 2024 13:48:43 +0000 https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/?p=2309

    1. In Despite the huge crowd crossing the border I was escorted through the Indian side then the Bangladesh side where they gave me a visa no problem.  They are very particular about one having a hotel reservation for some reason which I had done the night before.
      A SIM card and money exchange and I was on my way to Jashore (old name Jessore) about 40-50 kms. away.
      I was very much an object of curiosity immediately with the first question always “where are you from?”.

    Road was good and somewhat less traffic than on the West Bengal side.
    I have found so far along the way that some people (guys of course) speak Hindi and when I have asked them where they learned it they said from Hindi movies.  It is always a relief because English is not very common.

    Last night, in Jashore I was able to buy 2 small cans of Hunter beer and tonight one of those cans would have cost me 800 taka or about 600 r/s.  I declined.

     

     

    ]]>
    https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/21/into-bangladesh/feed/ 0
    The most dangerous highway https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/19/the-most-dangerous-highway/ https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/19/the-most-dangerous-highway/#respond Fri, 19 Apr 2024 14:28:49 +0000 https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/?p=2302 It took forever to get out of Kolkata….I thought I was when going through the wide avenues in the generically ugly new Kolkata of IT parks and drab modern office monstrosities- probably desirable for cyclists- but no, it went on to traffic chaos near the airport.
    That continued for the next 50 kms. or so on the most hideously dangerous road I think I have ever been on. Just 2 lanes on what seemed like a never ending town with every sort of vehicle driving with aggression and impatience.  And this is a national highway?  This is not a road for the faint of heart.

    ]]>
    https://www.cyclingaboutindia.com/2024/04/19/the-most-dangerous-highway/feed/ 0