Dhaka – Abu Dhabi – Dubai – Abu Dhabi - Milano

Writing the last page is never so easy as it may seem...

This morning we left our Hotel at 0600 to go to the airport. The city was almost empty, it seemed completely weird and we thought the place is actually not that bad, imagining half of the people living here….
“A very warm welcome to Abu Dhabi, where the local temperature is 29 degrees Celsius.” – we couldn’t be more happy – two days of proper holidays in Dubai ahead of us… The arrival was a complete shock. From possibly the poorest city in the word to the richest place on earth….
The Etihad Airways Bus took us from Abu Dhabi to Dubai – an 1h20min drive through the desert… nothing to see but Porsche Cayennes, Lexus’, BMW 6er and 7er, SLs, CLs, MLs… We also figured out that EVERYTHING in the UAE is under construction, especially in Dubai. They’re currently building the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world. sth like 850 meters high… at most building sites, people (mostly Bangladeshis, Indians and Pakistanis) are working 24h in three shifts…After checking in at our Hotel, we went straight to the beach…walked around, chilled, swam… for dinner we went to the Marina for dinner– an artificially built harbor with tons of yachts and surrounded by sky scrapers . We wanted to go out afterwards, but no way, far too tired and jet lagged.
The next morning Ferdi and I went to the Old Town which is incredibly old – as old as the most modern part of Milan probably. Gold Souks, Spice Souks, and loads of fat American and European Tourist in tank tops and trainers… Then we joined the Italians at the beach – a very nice and clean palm beach with sand imported from Saudi Arabia. So what else is there to do in Dubai? Skiing of course! The slope is attached to the Mall of the Emirates, a huge mall in front of our Hotel with 450 Stores… It was completely weird to experience to ski inside a building on artificial snow, restaurants like in the Alps, artificial trees etc…. but very much Dubai style. After checking out a fraction of the 450 stores afterwards we took a cab to the bus station where our bus left for Abu Dhabi at 2300. At 0230 we then left for Milan…
It really was a great trip, a good mix of work and leisure, incredibly interesting in terms of what we saw, experienced, the problems we had, impressions we got, from shocking extreme poverty in Bangladesh, to impressive mountains and temples in Nepal, to incomparable luxury of Dubai. We are grateful for having had the opportunity to do this trip; the thanks go to our parents!

Thank you all people!
Consti, Ferdi, Jac, Nico

Ready to leave

Hey everbody,
sorry we left you uninformed for more than four days but things here got a little crazy. I myself got sick and have not been feeling real well in the last few days, and the others have been probably either too tired or too overwhelmed by this chity, namely Dhaka, to write a decent blog post.
So... yeah, basically this trip is over. We're leaving tomorrow morning at 9 from Dhaka Zia International Airport going to Abu Dhabi and then Dubai for the next two days, hoping to get some good food and breathable air in the Emirates.

We've done a couple interesting things at the Bank in these last four days. We visited two garments factories and the guys also went to a solar pannels plant (or something like that) while I was sick.
We also had meetings with the general managers of other sister companies like Grameen Danone which produces yogurt for the poor, Grameen Telecom which we really did not get what they are doing cos the guys barely spoke any English and Grameen Trust which replicates the microcredit models they use here in Bangladesh in other parts of the globe (they are even starting a project in New York City!)

I'm not gonna tell you day by day, meeting by meeting how things exactly went and what happened to us cos I'm too tired and can't be bothered! Sorryyyyyyy!

This experience as a whole has been a great success, despite of the quality of food, various illnesses, weird people and weird places. It's been amazing but we're more than glad to return to our normal lives tomorrow (to Dubai) and on Sunday (back to Milan!!)
And on Tuesday... back to Uni! Now, i really do not know what to write anymore. I'm too tired, too dizzy, too looow! Get back to you from Dubai maybe! I'm leaving the hard task of completing this post to someone whos in a slightly better shape than I, Jaco perhaps.
Actually not, cos we just figured out we wouldnt be able to post any photo cos we've already packed everything!

Baci
N.

Weekend in Dhaka

There is really not much to do in Dhaka. So what to do on a weekend?
Friday we slept till 1pm and then decided to do a boat tour in Old Dhaka. The lonely planet had said “if you only have time to one thing in Dhaka, take this boat tour. Hire a small boat for an hour go down the river”. This sounded very promising and so we did it. BUT instead of a chilled out boat cruise along the river this was 15 minutes spent on a garbage dump. The smell is indescribable, it is impossible to breath without using your jumper or so as a filter and to keep your nose shut. The water is black and the river banks simply consist of mountains of garbage. Thank you, lonely planet, it was a once in a life experience.

In order not to spend the entire Saturday in bed we went to Dhaka Zoo (pronouced djoo locally). The Lonely planet had described it as “despressing” and “not worth seeing”. So after yesterday’s experience – what was there to expect today? But we wanted to see a Royal Bengal Tiger (home in Bangladesh). So we went there, saw a couple of Tigers, lots of Indian Lions, etc. So it wasn’t all that bad…In fact us four were the real attraction in the Zoo (djoo) though, the locals stared at us more than at the animals. They have probably seen less Europeans than Tigers in their lives…

Since we are all tired of Asian food we found a way to cook pasta in our hotel room now. Take an electric kettle, add water, pasta and salt and press boil… works pretty well! Still we went for dinner to Bella Italia Restaurant… just because we cannot cook Pizza ourselves yet..

Day 18 - Meetings day

crazy eh! Anarchy is taking over, and human race is in serious danger! Breakfasts do not take place at the usual time scheduled by western civilization culture. A bottle of Red Label is waiting on our table for desperation to conquer our souls and for us to give up and give in. Yesterday night the Islamic conference went on till 1.30 am, leavin us not very much time to sleep. A lot of excitement deriving from the fact that an important meeting was planned for us the day after has accompanied us throughout the whole night. (Not true!)
Then morning came and we woke up. Anarchy started playing its devastating role. People kept the bathroom occupied for more then 45 minutes. So guess what!? I had to wait, and in the mean time I had been forced to keep on sleeping. Such a destroying effort!
We went to the Bank where we were told that God, namely Prof. Yunus, would “receive” us sometime after four in the afternoon.
We had to find something to do in the 6 hours of waiting, so… we called the Italian Embassy and arranged straight away a meeting with Mr. Noia who, despite of his last name, has proven himself to be one of the kindest persons we’ve met so far here in Dhaka. Yak, Tino and I had a very pleasant talk with him for approximately one and a half hour, discussing about almost every subject of our interest and concern.


We then had lunch, and time for the Meeting came. We arrived at 3.52 at the International Office, 8th floor, Grameen Tower, having already received a call at 3.50 from our dear coordinator Mr. Shamim who was all worried about our probable delay. We gathered with the other interns and headed down to the 4th floor. We were all put in a big room where we were instructed on how the meeting, which in a few seconds will turn out to be one of the most ridiculous things ever done, had to be. First we, the approximately 20 people in the room, would have to clap our hands when he walks in, second we take some pics, third he signs our books, fourth there’s no fourth cos by the time step number four comes Yunus would be gone already.


So yeah, basically we took some cool pics, smiled a lot and didn’t even geta chance to say “Hi, hows it going? To the Prof.”… whatever!
Think that a couple of guys from Canada had been here for 6 months waiting to see him while writing a film about him and his life and works and he honored them with only 5 minutes of his time, moreover he informed them that the movie can’t be made cos he had already signed a contract with another film producer therefore he’s legally bound to that project.


But anyways, even if, to me he looked more like a popstar or a Hollywood shiny actor, its been a cool moment, plus you don’t get to ““““meet”””” a Nobel prize winner every day.
Afterwards we went back to the hotel, chilled, watched a movie and then Yak and I decided to go for dinner at the only Italian pizzeria in Dhaka, which is called Bella Italia.
It took us about one hour to get there and a ride in a blue taxi cutting through the thick blanket of smokes and smog that covers the entire city.
We had a good pizza though. At ten we were back in our executive room, watched another movie, “I am legend”, with Will Smith, by the way, if you have some time to watch a movie… choose another one! And now… we going to bed!
Night night you all!
Baci
N.

Day 17 - Meeting Prof. Yunus

Hello everyone!

After the Kathmandu - Nepal dream, we came back to work in Dhaka.
This morning, alarm at 9.00h and arrival to the Grameen tower 10.00h, with the morning meeting with our dear coordinator Shamim.

When we arrived, we did not understand what happened, every single tree, plant was decorated with coloured ballons, it seemed that a birthday party was going on...
We went up to the 8th floor, and as I said before we started the morning meeting.

Shamim told us that it was a special day (as we already knew because of the ballons), it was the day of the anniversary of the center managers (!?#), and they set up stands of every sister company of Grameen Bank, Grameen energy (Solar panels), Grameen Danone (yoghourts), Grameen Netwear (export clothes), etc to show their products, and what they do to the Grameen employees...

Obviously, Professor Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Price Winner was present, in the middle of a dozen of photographers that kept on pushing everyone. He was going through every stand.
We were the only 4 people that were and looked europeans, he saw us, he suddenly stopped doing what he was doing and came up to us arms straight, wanting to shake hands.


During this moment we looked like stars, fifty people were staring at us, photographers everywere... He asked us from were we were, what were our names, we talked for 10 sec each and then he continued his walk to another stand.


We stayed a little while to visit the stands aswell and then we left to the international trade fair (it was interesting to see how a fair looke like in Bangladesh...)



In the afternoon, we did not had to come back to the bank, it was a very sunny day, so we decided to chill in the pool of the hotel. jaja.

After a while, we decided to go back to the room beacause today it was a very weird day, all the muezzins of the mosquees next to our hotel kept on shouting and kinda singing, and the traffic was particularly loud... it was impossible to stay outside...

We understood later that they were calling everyone, there is an islamic conference that is going on from 16.00h and still has not ended (it is 00.47h now and the muezzin keeps on shouting with at least 600 islamic followers, preety scarring...)



As Shamim told us, he has arranged for us a proper meeting with Professor Yunus tomorrow.
We will tell you tomorrow how it went...
Good night eveyone, i'll go to bed because it is quite late (I hope that this muezzin will stop shouting soon because I want to sleep well, tommorrow is the big day...)
Nite nite. Peace.
JB

Day 16 - Back to Dhaka

We knew we had to leave this amazing place today so we got up early and went straight to Thamel – the centre of Kathmandu. Not that we did much there – we basically ended up spending an hour at a shop where they were selling pashmina and lambs wool jumpers and shawls. They were all “export quality and good discount price for you ma frend”. Hence we bought “a few”. Thamel is a really nice part of Kathmandu, small streets with tourist shops but also art galleries and Asian antiques shops etc, and on almost every square you find a temple…

Back at the Hotel we had to go straight to the airport, to catch our Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight to Dhaka. The sun was shining, it was warm, with the Himalaya all around the Kathmandu Valley… shame we had to leave!

Once passed immigration at Dhaka Airport we went to Gulshan II to go to the tailor where Nic and Jaco had ordered shirts. Another place with “good quality cheap cheap” so also Ferdi and I ordered some and Nic and Jaco extended their collection. Now we are all broke and will starve for the rest of the trip;) or maybe ask Grameen for a loan…
C.

Nepal - Day 4

You all! why isn't anybody commentin on the blog anymore? We're very disappointed!

Trying hard not to think about you all forgetting about us, we decided that for one day we would enjoy tha Hyatt Hotel at its fullest.


So today we woke up at 10.00, went for a GREAT huge breakfast and then chilled outside in the sun and in the cool breeze of Kathmandu. We basically stayed in the outside hot-tub for 3 hours, played tennis, and sun bathed till 4.


Then we went to Thamel and shopped. I bought a couple of very cool cream pool-overs and a hat. Jaco got a couple pool-overs also and Consti and Ferdi got a lot of Cachemire stuff. Very cool!



Then at like 6.30 Jac and I went back to the Hotel for a couple of hours of SPA, that means sauna, hot tub, cold showers, and steam room! And... a lil work out in the gym as well!
Then for dinner we went to one of the best Italian restaurants I've ever tried abroad, which is in the Hyatt and its called Rox and had a salad and a risotto for me and garlic bread and gnocchi for Jaco. While Consti and Ferdi stayed downtown for dinner and went to the Everest Steak house.
Well, that's all for the day... just a lot of relax and a nice sun tan the morning after!!
baci baci
N.