I love Bangladesh!

"Your country?!"

Literally, this is how every local in the street will approach you. No "hello!" Just straight up "your country!?" And when you answer them, they say thank you and then they go away satisfied, or for the most adventurous ones, they start small talk.

It is now 10:14pm, February 15th. I am sitting on a bench at the bus station, waiting for my 10:35pm night bus to Khulna, south Bangladesh.

We arrived in Bangladesh on Feb 1st, after 40 hours of train in india to go from Kerala to Kolkata, one quick nap at Sumita's house, and a quick flight from Kolkata to Dhaka. It has now been two weeks since we got here.

Most of our time has thus far been spent in Dhaka, the capital. But the first impression is of a country of extremes. Indeed, even more so than its neighbor India, Bangladesh is to me the most chaotic place, the dustiest and most polluted place, yet also the most welcoming place (perhaps a close tie with Indonesia Sulawesi and Sumatra) I have seen in my trip. Oh, and boy was I wrong when I thought that bus drivers I. Indonesia or India were the absolute craziest ones on the planet. Ufff! Bangladeshi bus drivers are by far, the craziest, and yet at the same time the most talented drivers ever. Give them a formula 1 car and these guys will crush any world records...

Curious detail about Bangladesh or at least the central region to date is the fact that is hasn't rained in months, and so leading to all of the suffocating pollution to cover pretty much every inch of surface in the landscape. From building facades, to plant and tree leaves, to windows, and vehicles. Basically, wherever you look other than along the river shores, it feels like an atomic bomb landed a while ago and nothing, dusty surface wise had ever been cleaned since then. A bit of a gloomy feeling...

Thanks to Mouli, we connected with her uncle, Dr Khan, an active low key and small scale philanthropic man who welcomed us with wide open arms and incredible hospitality...him and his whole family.

After spending a few days north of the city in the more recent suburbs, slowly lethargically adapting to the culture and chaos, and eating more food than our stomach could fit, Dr Khan hosted us for a few days further north, in the country side, in a small village (40,000 people!) Where he has been working on integrated social project to alleviate the poverty since the early 90's.

Oh, I forgot to mention, both Angelina and I really wanted to see Bangladesh, not from a tourism perspective, but purely from a social development work perspective.  So this has been the only focus of our stay here thus far. (Angelina actually flew back from Brazil tonight, after being on the road for 20 months! :'(  

So we spent 4 days in the village of Kanchanpur learning about the village culture and the work of Dr. Khan, as well as to some degrees, the work of BRAC and Grameen. Very interesting to see how when these three stakeholders are press and active in a same place, things do change. We even got to sit down for the whole duration of a Grameen collecting agent collecting the dues from all the Grameen borrowing women of the village; 78 of them! Quite an experience, especially when chatting with the collection agent afterwards...where we were told that Grameen bank is basically Apure for profit bank and that aside from making cash, they didn't actually really cares about the livelihoods of the villagers. And indeed, the whole season was solely focused on collecting cash. Not a second spent on checking in with the women about the health of their businesses, or even any kind of business or financial coaching. We also learnt that basically, Grameen's focus was to lock its borrowers into borrowing more and more and the minute they stop borrowing, Grameen drops them from their chart, wow! Am still trying to ask around about this as it seems to unreal and contrary to Grameem's mission to be true.

This village, or the Union of Kanchanpur to be more precise, is probably by very far, the most developed, organized, clean and beautiful rural farming village I have ever seen or imagined. And the people were just so unbelievably kind to us, and respectfully curious about us and our origins. We are now actually working on putting a crowd raise online fundraising initiative for Dr Khan to raise funds to put together a video documentary to showcase the social business mode! He has been working on for the past 20 years.

Did I mention that in two weeks here, walking around the streets of the center of the capital city, we have only see one foreigner!?

This country is not a tourism destination...and for obvious reasons...but travelers don't know what they are missing.

One thing I have learnt about traveling to Bangladesh is that being a fair-skin Brazilian woman is definitely a huge advantage to make friends all over. As strange as it might sound for a cricket worshipping culture as the Bangladeshi culture, apparently about 75% of the population are addicted fans of the Brazilian soccer team (the remaining 25% are addicted to the Argentina soccer team). Furthermore, being a highly conservative religious country, a white woman walking the streets attracts a lot of attention from the men for obvious reasons, but also from the women by pure admiration and fascination. So just a tip for the travelers out there...

The only disturbing and frustrating factor of our stay so far, and this I believe only applies to Dhaka, is the traffic. Dhaka is not a big city. From northern suburb to southern river shore, probably 20 km maximum. Yet, on good day, it will take between 1.5 to 2 hours by bus. And on a bad day, up to 3 hours!!!!!! One way! So yeah, upon returning from the village, we decided to set up camp downtown, in the more industrial yet super cultural area of Gulistan. Only 20 min walk from the river shores. And trust me, the shores are just an unbelievable spectacle of culture, colors, kindness, smiles, generations, etc...
Every morning, starting before dawn, and up to perhaps noon, there is a gigantic fruits and veggie market, on one side, and the transiting of all the produce from one side of the river to the other, by old wooden boat. We went two days in a raw and could never get enough.

And at night, the narrow river bed turns into the Venice of darkness. Hundreds of small wooden boats, ferry over back and forth passengers, by groups of about 6 to 8, from one bank of the river to the other, and for sole source of light, the moon and the stars, and sometimes, a cell phone here and there. Magical! And to top it all, these hundreds of tiny boats have to navigate back and forth zigzagging between the hundreds of gigantic long distance passenger ferry steamers, who also navigate for the most part, without light.

So obviously we had to do it...take a small boat and cross the river, and return. :-)

Since around the world Bangladesh is synonym with micro credit and Grameen bank, and since both Angelina and I had come here to see the Grameen phenomenon from closer, off course we made it to the center...first to pay our fees for the social business lab to come, and then to chat a bit with some people around the place about the work of Grameen in the social business area. A few hours later we were visiting s tiny company of 7 people working out of the basement/parking garage of this car dealership...and all 4 of them blind, getting a second chance on life by being employed for the first time and not having to beg anymore. Oh, and these 7 people are basically manually binding note books...500 notebooks per day!

(Gosh! Am now sitting in the bus en route to Khulna. It's 11:30pm. I thought I was going to be able to sleep through the 10 hours journey. Ha! Yeah right! My seat is right behind the driver, on the aisle side, for more leg room. But the front row seats are separated from the driver area by a width wide solid thick metal fence, like the ones you see on TV on the buses used to carry prisoners to the jails. I guess given the way the drivers drives, it is jus a way to protect us from any violent crash and to fly through the wind shield. Really!?)

Valentines day yesterday was quite a cute and funny occurring to watch throughout the city. Both conservative Hindus and Muslims both bought quite much into this now commercial pseudo lovers day. People walking around flowers in hand, and with some red tough on their outfit, and for once, looking like actual coupes and not total strangers whose behaviors are daily ruled by the conservatism of religions.

Today was quite a special day. Not only was it Angelina's last day on her long world journey, and we both attended Yunus Center social business design lab all day, learning more about small pseudo social business ideas, about the way Grameen actually goes about social businesses, and also meeting inspiring and interesting people from different parts of the world. What a fantastic way for Angelina to end her trip, and for me to perhaps transition into the second part of my journey, and where social business will most definitely play a bigger role and give me a lot to think about for my post journey plans and ambitions. So let's see...

Anyhow...it is now late, my tablet battery level is almost empty, and the bus driver is going crazier and crazier, so time to closer the tablet, and try to focus on not focusing on the road and the unbelievable speed at which the driver is zigzagging through the road at night and after the rain.

Just one last fun fact about Dhaka thus far: the technique to get on a bus here is the same as the technique to surf a wave...when you see the bus getting close, start running...and then jump on.

Oh, and if you want to make a nice gift to a random local in the street, just shake his hand in public. :-)

Amma's ashram...and the backwaters of Kerala.

...and the backwaters of Kerala.

February 2nd, 5:31pm...I am laying down on my bed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, finally catching up a bit with my blog.

When landing in Mumbai after spending the holidays in Morocco with my family, the plan was simple: meet up with Angelina, go check out the tea plantations, ruins and boulders hills, and the backwaters of south India, and then go with the flow and see where it takes us.

My only longer term plan was that for my 34th birthday, I wanted to be taking my 2nd course in Rajasthan, or in Pokara. So I had from January 10th to march 1st to travel around.

Since both Angelina and I really wanted to see Bangladesh, and since both our India visas were to end the first week of march, it made sense to try and squeeze Bangladesh in February and take advantage of it to renew our visas.

So, our last stop in south India would be the famous backwaters...

After reading the forums, we decided on Alleppey as our destination. Very touristy, yes, but the most central and recommended location.

Arriving by boat from Kottayam into the little town of Alleppey was just gorgeous, a little channel of water filled with water lilies and lotuses forming like a carpet floating above the water, and covered by gigantic ancient trees. Spectacular!

Aside from the channel of water itself, the town is nothing special. The usual noisy and dusty traffic with rickshaws, cars and people overcrowding the partially paved roads.

We quickly found a place and headed to the ocean beach on the other side of town. 20 minutes of bus later we arrive at this gigantic and plain broad sandy beach. Not a tree nor anything else to hide from the sun. Only sand...and garbage EVERYWHERE!!! Scandalous. And the worst part, not a single trash can around. (On the way back, I was unable to find a single trash can neither at the beach, nor in the bus, nor in the town. I had to wait to get to the guest house to through my plastic bottle!!!)

Though she we arrived the beach was pretty empty, soon after, and just as the sun was setting, it suddenly filled up so quickly, that it felt almost over crowded. Very strange.

Since we were unsuccessful in booking a canoeing trip for the next day, we packed up and decided to be as curious as can be and headed out the next morning to an ashram further south. The ashram of the renown Hugging Mother, in Amrita.

Hmm...I think the unplanned 5 days we spent in this ashram will leave me thinking and reflecting on this experience for many many years.

When arriving by bus in this tiny "village/bus stop" on the sea side, and after walking in a tiny little alley, we got to the front gate of the ashram, we were both speechless by how inspiring and surreal the place seemed like.

Thousands of people from all over the world walking around, dressed in white cotton clothes for the most part, and looking so peaceful and relax. Beautiful temples. Delicious cafeterias. More than decent room on the 7th floor of one of the three or four 15 floor buildings of the ashram. A swimming pool. A beach. Yoga. Meditation. Chants. Thousands of people lining up to receive a hug from Amma, meditation on the beach at sunrise and sunset...

Almost like how heaven is portrayed in many movies or cartoons.

So you can only imagine how we felt when we arrived.

And plus, we were showed a video about all the charity work that Amma, the guru, was involved with, which made us even happier as to the potential for us to get involved and learn and help during our stay.

Hmmm...given both our experience in traveling and spirituality, it didn't take Angelina and I long to discover the other side of the coin.

If all the foreigners seemed to be on their own little clouds the locals were all so not welcoming and actually quite cold.

It was shocking to observe how devoted and passionate people around us were about Amma, and how they put her on such a high pedestal.

The atmosphere didn't feel healthy at all.

And the more we read the literature available onsite and the worse it got.

Some literature publicly displayed in big all over the place even said something like: "You don't need life nor death, you don't need suffering nor happiness, you don't need love nor hatred, you don't need family nor friend. All you need is Amma's love." Or "Serving Amma is serving God." Yet, you could also read "We are all equal, and all one. God is in each one of us. The world should be about oneness."

Ufffff!!!! It was actually kind of scary at the beginning to be there and realize all this cult like blinded behavior that was going on. But then it just made us laugh.

Everyone is different. Some people are stronger and others are weaker. We each need different things to help us go through the ups and downs of life. For myself, I have learned that self confidence is key. Others need God. And that's OK. I have now accepted this fact. I only wish those people would rather take full control of their life rather than putting it into the hands of someone else.

3,000 people are permanently residing in this ashram, of which about half are foreigners!

Amma, through her NGO Embracing The World, has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to India and to other developing countries to help with causes such as natural catastrophes, education, women empowerment, health, hygiene..., and environmental awareness and development. And guess what? As soon as you walk out then gates of the ashram, all you see on the beach, on the paths, and in the village, garbage, plastic, cans, paper...all over...and guess what else? Not a single trash can!!!!!!!

The worst part is that the ashram is publicly proudly promoting its huge recycling and compost centers...and yet, it has done absolutely nothing to provide help or education to it village about environmental protection. Absolutely shameful!

And when we asked "why?" The response we got from the person in charge of the recycling center was "it's all about politics. The villagers and the district government do not approve of the ashram's presence in the village nor about its work, so Amma is playing the political game of patience and lobbying". Which, when you read the literature of the ashram, you realize it is just a another lie, as apparently Amma is a close friend of the national and the district governments and is continuously rewarded and praised by the government for her good work. Very strangely suspicious I say.

Angelina and I decided to go outside the gates and pick up all the liter on the beach and near the fishermen's area one morning. When we wanted to repeat this and get people to join is the next day

Oh, and another frustrating and suspicious thing was that of all the numerous organizations and initiatives that Amma is chairing and involved with, absolutely no one in the ashram was able to give us a piece of information. Even worse, no one seemed even aware of these organizations or initiatives.

The feeling we got is that people just land in this ashram. Drop their bags. Close their eyes and ears to anything else that's happening outside of their sight and daily life within the ashram...and they blindly devote themselves to loving and serving Amma.

The funny part is that one of the ashram rule is to serve at least an hour per day. Whether helping clean the room, cook, composting, sorting at the recycling center, guide new comers...but at least one hour per day of selfless service. But here is the catch: since you are only serving to help the ashram sustain, you are actually doing nothing at all for people outside the ashram, and only contributing to making the ashram good, clean and functional place to leave...for others but also for you. So not really selfless actually...and even worse...that way Amma does not have to spend a dime on the maintenance of the place. Perhaps only on water and electricity...but that she compensates with the $5 she charges per person per day for accommodation and basic food.

So great business model Amma.

I don't know enough about the whole business of this ashram and the other things Amma is involved with, but it does seem like another one of those sect scams. To be further researched...

One thing that got me thinking though, is to understand what the purpose of an ashram is supposed to be. Not having been to any other ashram before, I don't have much of a comparison base.

Is the purpose to totally disconnect with the reality of the world, and live in a surreal spiritual environment until you manage to find your balance and inner peace and strength? Is the purpose to spend your time focusing on yourself and facing and solving your personal life issues? If the purpose of an ashram is aiming in that direction, then the center of attention that should be promoted all over is YOU, and not Amma, no?

But if the purpose of an ashram is to learn to live in the community totally secluded from the reality of the world, without much awareness of the actual context of the culture and the location is ashram in on, all the while joining a whole new minority religion of which you can only see the benefits because of the seclusion of the ashram, then I guess this ashram is doing it all right.

Although, one open and strong minded person could also very well decide to spend some amount of time in this ashram in order to take full advantage of the facilities while successfully blocking out all the sect like processes and behaviors. In that case, the place would be like as mini very affordable resort to resource yourself and meet new people.

I guess I now really want to see more ashrams in order to better understand.

Munnar or the tea plantations of south india...

January 21st, 9:02am...we have been sitting in a public bus headed toward Kottayam since 6am.

Munnar is what we could call a hill station. Perched at about 1,500 meters of altitude, and mostly surrounded by thousands of hectares of tea, cardamon and black pepper plantations all around as far as the eye can see.

When arriving in the relatively small yet beautiful town of Munnar, what caught my attention at first was its center displays a huge catholic church, a huge mosque, and a huge Hindu temple. It is the first time that I see such massive religious temples representing both three faiths, in such a tiny location.

I thought I had seen what tea plantations are supposed to look like when I trekked to Hsipaw in Burma last year. Well, I was quite wrong. Munnar and its surrounding area in that part of India display such a fascinating and also artistic kind of tea plantation structure. From afar it looks as if someone had painted the whole valleys with a huge paintbrush leaving lush green trails of each hair of the brush on the canvas. I can easily see Van Gogh get inspires buy such sight!

Given the size of the town and the fact that apparently we were there during some sort of high season, finding a place to stay was no easy business...but we found one. The good thing about such topography is that even though the place is filled with tourists, you almost never feel that way.

Our first day we wandered around and headed to a trekk we had been suggested. 12km. About 25% of the way into the trekk, a local stops by us with his ca and offers to give us a ride down the road. Why not?!
It so happened that this guy was a plantation owner on his way home. So he offered to drive us as far as he could while still on his way, and took pleasure in telling us about the area and sowing us what fresh pepper and cardamon trees look like. The cardamon trees were such a surprise. I would never had imagined that cardamon grew that way!

After a good half hour he dropped us off on the side of the road.

The location we thought he had dropped off had nothing to do with where we thought he had dropped us off...a small tiny little factor, yet of major importance, we neglected on the little map we got from the tourist office was "the map is not at the right scale". Oh boy! I think that reading the map was more confusing than not having any map at all!

So we walked for quite a while until we found a village with a bus stop and decided to not fool ourselves with the distances suggested by the map, in order to not arrive after sun down. Waiting for the bus on the side of the road was a lot of fun. We were probably the very first foreigners trying to catch a bus from that location. So you can imagine the face of the locals when they saw us, hanging out there with our cameras and our bandanas. But interactions started quite fast and was quite fun.

Back in town and after a long time, I went out, at night...not much street lighting around town at all, trying to find a scooter to rent so we could head out at dawn the next morning to catch the sunrise at what they call Top Station, 35km away.

Perhaps due to high tourism, but the locals were far from being the nicest people...far. It took me a couple of hours to find someone who was kind enough and helpful and willing to rent me a scooter. The process was actually funny, as because the seat would not lock up, we first tried to fix it at a sop next door, but since that didn't work, we ended up going all the way up the hill and to his house. It was freezing and I had no idea it would take so long. But I got a scooter finally! :-)

The 35 km the next morning was a real challenge. Not only was it dark and cold, but the road was a real mess. Potholes all over the place, and zig zagging all along and around the hills...to arrive at the view point location...entirely clogged by the fog and clouds. Though it was kind of nice to be above the clouds, it was a potty that all we could see was clouds. But lucky us, aside from a couple of teenage locals, we were the only ones there for a good two hours.

On the way back, snacking and drinking hot chai along the road dominating the valleys of plantations wasa real treat.

After a while, we found a beautiful spot with a huge flat rock in the middle of a plantation and on the hill side, overlooking the valley. So we stopped there to eat some fruits and meditate for an hour. Wow! Priceless! We even needed up taking a nap on that same rock, in the sun.

Munnar is a beautiful place, but because of its size, and touristy crowd, it does not really call for a long stay. So after two days, we had enough and took off...to the backwaters of Kerala!