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.

Nepal - Day 3

The alarm rang at 06.30 this morning but (this is unusual!) no one of us had problems getting out of bed, of course not, the Mount Everest flight was scheduled to depart at 07.45. Scheduled I said, in fact we took off at 11.30 due to poor visibility in the morning. Ferdi was feeling better this morning so he came with us. Buddha Air is the name of the company we flew with – so we were pretty nervous whether they would actually take us to the world’s highest peaks or maybe to Nirvana…

This is one of the pics we took from the plane. Mt. Everest 8848 mt. (the dark big fat triangular one on the left)

They took us to the peak, but the flight wasn’t stunning, we were even a little disappointed that the plane didn’t go closer to the peaks. Nevertheless the view was well worth it and it was kind of a big moment to see the official top of the earth.

Back on earth we went to Patan – the oldest of the three kingdoms of Kathmandu Valley.


The temples are impressive. Not only the Hindu but also the Buddhist ones, where we were allowed to enter as foreigners.


What is a pity though is the fact that this country simply lacks of money to look after them properly.


In the afternoon, we went back to Kathmandu, lunched at our preferred Italian restaurant to get a break from the Chilli-Curry-Rice-Mixes. We did some intensive shopping and when the bad conscience about the consumption rave packed us we checked out the temples on Durbar Square, whose architecture we highly appreciate. The nine-year-old living goddess that lives in one of the temples did not want to greet us, she was busy with “a ceremony” the guide said. Her position as a goddess is limited for the years in which she is still “pure”, that is until her menstruation starts.



Back in the Hotel we did some kilometres of running on the jogging track of the hotel, then gym and Spa – real relaxation….





Ps. we also went to this special painting school where Buddhists teach and learn how to draw and paint beuatifully colored kinda cotton canvases which take hours and hours of work and extreme accurancy.

Some orange folwers sold outside one of the main temples of Kathmandu. They're used here both as decoration and as something to workship the gods with. Very interesting and once again very colored!

Nite nite you all!
I'm seriously tired...

Nepal - Day 2

Ladies and gentlemen,

tonight on stage exclusively for you: second day in Nepal! Bhaktapur city!
We woke up kinda early this morning cos we really wanted to do a lot of stuff today! So at 9.30 or 10.00 we went for breakfast at the hotel cafe which, since this is the Hyatt Regency, offered us enough food for the whole week! So we thought we'd have breakast, lunch and dinner all together at 10 in the morning! Amazing!
After that, Jaco and I went to book the tickets for our Mountain Flight of tomorrow morning. We're gonna fly over the Top of the World at 8 tomorrow! We'll leave the presidential suite at 6, have breakfast (oh by the way, we managed to get free breakfasts for the whole stay! cos hot water in our suite does not work properly!), and then at 7.45 take off, direction Mt. Everest 8850 mt. over sea level! Im soooooooo excited and lookin forward to that!


Going back to what we did today... we took a cab and went to this medieval city called Bhaktapur. Here, compared to Dhaka, taxis are really expensive, cos the Communist regime poses high taxes on petrol and also does not allow to sell more then ten litres to each car or van. So at every gas station you'll find a huge line of cars, trucks and vans waiting for their turn.
With 16 dollars we got there after a 30 minutes drive through kathmandu outskirts. as soon as we got out of the mini-taxi five or six people kinda jumped on us trying to sell us every sort of things! They even spoke Italian and kept on telling us that our moms would like the stuff they were selling! Dude, we assured them several times that was not the case! But that really did not do much!




These first three pics here are of some temples we found first in Bhaktapur! Here there are different kinds of temples. I dont really no much about the difference in styles but you can talk to our guide-guy (Sir Rojahn) who is pratically a native of this place and nos everything of every single place we go to! Even though we were with him we got this drunk guy who offered himself as a guide for only 4 dollars for like 3 hours and showed us around a bit! He didnt no much but we taught him how to use the camera and took good pics!


Here is one of the first pics our drunkie guide took! As you can see theres still room for improvement but he got better and better!


This is what is called the Golden Gate. Its not even painted with real gold but it looks very cool and it the entrance of one of the three king palaces that are on Durban Square in Bhaktapur.


This one is probably the biggest temple in Nepal or something like that! Its five stories high and the statues at the sides of the steps are: two men, two elephants, two lions, two griphons, and two Gods; and each couple is ten times stronger than the previous one so you make your calculations and see how much more powerful is a god compare to a men in Hinduism.



Here two pics of the one of the most common and probabily most profitable jobs in this city: pottery making. The first guy is actually making the stuff from clay, whereas the lady is just paintin all of them. Theres this one square where all the pottery is laid out in the sun to dry it and prepare it to be cooked.


After Bhaktapur we took another cab and went back to Kathmandu and precisely to Thamel, the restaurant area. We went to Fire and Ice, the first good Italian restaurant i find here in Asia, and had a pizza for lunch.
We then walked through Khatmandus busy streets and checked out all the shops that sell fake North Face stuff! Very cool!

Then we got to the less touristy area of the city and here we found all kinds of shops and boutiques, selling everything, from pashminas to all stars (fake), from meat to spices of every kind and color!



Then at like 6 we went back to the Hotel and went for a 3 km run in the park! Then a lil gym, a cool shower and dinner! Now, its awfully late and I gotta go to bed! Love you all, even those ones who sometimes really piss me off (eh...)! Thanks mom and Dad, this trip is great! EVEREST tomorrow!!!
Nite nite nite nite y'all!
N.

Nepal - Day 1

Hey hey hey hey,

It has been a very intense day today, I´ll explain you why…


This is a pic we took from the airplane! Guess wot mountain is the big darker one on the left!? Mt. Everest 8850 mt. = the Top of the World

First thing, Ferdi woke up very ill, and had some symptoms of Malaria and Dengue.
He was worried so he decided to go to the Hospital and was planning to miss the trip and fly to Singapore to get some better medical treatment.

Constantin, Nicolo and I grabbed a cab to go to Zia International Dhaka airport, while Ferdi was in Dhaka Hospital taking some blood tests.
He finally made to finish them and succeeded to arrive in time for the check in.
(He did not have anything of that, just a normal flu)

Our plane was a Fockker F28, a very small plane, of Biman Bangladesh Airlines.
(not very encouraging…)
Just want to say that this plane is not allowed to fly in Europe any more, too old---




We arrived to Kathmandu and the Hyatt minivan was waiting for us in the airport.
They took us to the hotel and here the problems started.
(We booked the hotel in expedia.com the 4 of us in one room, and it was impossible for them because only 3 people can feet in one room.- it was an expedia mistake.)

After an hour of discussions and the expedia confirmation we managed to get one room for all of us , plus the breakfast of everyone of us for free for for every day, not bad…

A couple of hours later, we checked out the facilities of the hotel, Spa, gym, and surprisingly a running truck of 1 km, that runs through the temples, the yen gardens, etc.
Nico and I (Jacopo) runned 2 km, then did some gym and finally relaxed in the Steam bath, Sauna and Jacuzzis… (because of the very exhausting day…jaja)

Ferdi was stil not feeling well so he stayed in bed for dinner (room service.)
Consti, Nico and I went to the best steak restaurant in town, (at least what the lonely planet guide says) it was really pleasant to eat some good meat and hamburgers after 2 exhausting weeks in Dhaka and 3 tiresome days in the village…



Tomorrow we will go to visit a city called Bakhtapur, which is known worldwide for its hindu temples and because it is the oldest city of Asia.

We´ ll tell you tomorrow how it went.
Good night everyone. Peace.