Talk about cutting things close. After three weeks of attempting to get my tourist visa for Bangladesh, it pretty much came down to the wire. I rocked up at the office at 11am this morning not knowing whether this phantom visa would ever be issued to me or not. I had my luggage in tow because, if my visa quest was a success, then I’d be heading straight to the airport to catch my 3pm flight. I really wasn’t bothered either way so it was sort of nice to have no control over the decision. As fate would have it, though, my visa appeared at the last minute and my decision had been made to head to Bangladesh after all.When I first arrived in Manila a month ago I was lucky to meet David, a photographer who’s been living in Bangladesh for two years. He put me in touch with a friend he has there and they’ve both really helped out with my questions but I’m still kind of shitting myself a bit. I don’t have a guidebook, a ticket out of the country, any Bangladeshi currency (I’m not even sure what it’s called!) and getting to this volunteering place will involve a 24 hour boat ride for which getting a ticket will be an adventure.
So while I’m wondering what I’ve gotten myself into here, I’m also really excited to travel to a pretty crazy place and looking forward to just taking things as they come. I’ve never really done anything this far outside of my comfort zone. In fact, I think Bangladesh will blow my comfort zone to smithereens and I’m interested in seeing how I cope. If it’s all too crappy for me to bear then I can always just leave so nothing to lose, right? Things have a way of working out, right?I have a feeling this will be quite an experience and am looking forward to find out what is in store for me. Then again, the warning that David gave me yesterday about trying not to catch Dengue fever at the Dhaka airport was probably something my nerves could have done without.
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