http://www.joybangla.info Events, Travel and Info for long-term stays in Bangladesh Sat, 23 Aug 2008 09:23:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en ©Mikey Leung joybangla.info@gmail.com (Mikey Leung) joybangla.info@gmail.com(Mikey Leung) 1440 Events, Travel and Info for long-term stays in Bangladesh Mikey Leung Mikey Leung joybangla.info@gmail.com No no http://www.joybangla.info/blog/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg http://www.joybangla.info 144 144 http://www.joybangla.info/2008/08/06/indigenous-women-in-bangladesh-%e2%80%94-exhibition-by-bangladeshi-photographer-mahmud http://www.joybangla.info/2008/08/06/indigenous-women-in-bangladesh-%e2%80%94-exhibition-by-bangladeshi-photographer-mahmud#comments Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:47:54 +0000 Belinda Meggitt http://www.joybangla.info/?p=77 http://www.joybangla.info/2008/08/06/indigenous-women-in-bangladesh-%e2%80%94-exhibition-by-bangladeshi-photographer-mahmud/feed http://www.joybangla.info/2008/06/13/responsible-business-bangladesh-steps-up-its-game http://www.joybangla.info/2008/06/13/responsible-business-bangladesh-steps-up-its-game#comments Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:35:50 +0000 Mikey Leung http://www.joybangla.info/?p=71 http://www.joybangla.info/2008/06/13/responsible-business-bangladesh-steps-up-its-game/feed http://www.joybangla.info/2008/05/11/intrepid-travel-comes-to-bangladesh http://www.joybangla.info/2008/05/11/intrepid-travel-comes-to-bangladesh#comments Sun, 11 May 2008 13:17:48 +0000 Mikey Leung http://www.joybangla.info/?p=68 http://www.joybangla.info/2008/05/11/intrepid-travel-comes-to-bangladesh/feed http://www.joybangla.info/2008/05/08/the-dhaka-project-seeks-volunteers-funding-resources http://www.joybangla.info/2008/05/08/the-dhaka-project-seeks-volunteers-funding-resources#comments Thu, 08 May 2008 12:44:13 +0000 Mikey Leung http://www.joybangla.info/?p=67 http://www.joybangla.info/2008/05/08/the-dhaka-project-seeks-volunteers-funding-resources/feed http://www.joybangla.info/2008/03/02/nazimgarh-resort-a-taste-of-bengali-luxury http://www.joybangla.info/2008/03/02/nazimgarh-resort-a-taste-of-bengali-luxury#comments Sun, 02 Mar 2008 08:24:27 +0000 Mikey Leung http://www.joybangla.info/2008/03/02/nazimgarh-resort-a-taste-of-bengali-luxury http://www.joybangla.info/2008/03/02/nazimgarh-resort-a-taste-of-bengali-luxury/feed 10:03 ~story by Mikey Leung~ There are some rare moments as a guidebook writer that I am given a chance to enjoy the peace and serenity offered ... ~story by Mikey Leung~ There are some rare moments as a guidebook writer that I am given a chance to enjoy the peace and serenity offered to me by the natural beauty of Bangladesh, and I try to seek out these experiences whenever possible. One of these rare moments came as I sat on the terrace outside my room at the Nazimgarh Resort. The highway traffic hummed from a distance, but my attention remain fixed on the sound of a dozen different birds chattering away in the trees, most of whom were winter migrants like my Canadian self. I had just taken a stroll around the well-tended grounds of the resort. The sun broke through the winter morning clouds, painting the nearby mango trees in a golden hue. In short, I felt my soul replenishing. After experiencing the utter chaos of so many Bangladeshi cities, after dodging rickshaws, sewers and killer busses, after crashing out in some of the cheapest rooms the country has to offer, I finally had a moment of peace. A glimpse of what is currently quite rare in Bangladesh: luxury of a soon-to-be international standard. I'd been invited to Nazimgarh as their guest, to sample the service and to hear about the future vision of tourism development for the Sylheti region, specifically Jaintapur. My host is the intelligent and affable Nizam Kamran Chowdhury, a former politician and now Managing Director of the resort. As we sat in one of the dozen terraces, his visionary ideas for his region's development flew thick and fast. It wasn't long before he instructed his staff to pull out table-sized satellite images of the region patched together from Google Earth. Wielding a ruler, he showed me what the region will eventually become. The former member of parliament envisions a master plan that will promote its exhilarating natural beauty to visitors. The resort is in fact situated in a river basin that catches water from neighbouring Assam and Meghalaya---known as the wettest region in the world for its record rainfall. As monsoonal water comes down from the hills into Bangladesh from India, it floods the vast areas nearby the resort (no, the resort itself would not be flooded!). Chowdhury's ideas, if successful, will make this region the national hotspot for what I will bill "Monsoon Tourism." "The pre-conceived notion of tourism in Bangladesh is that it is a winter season," says Chowdhury. "But the monsoon itself is something that people would like to see. What is less known is that we are a few miles from the wettest places in the world." For most visitors, it is no secret that Bangladesh floods every year, and for this it is often painted as a victim to the natural calamities that befall it. But in fact, people have lived here for millenniums, and what is less known is that the annual floods bring with them a rich deposition of silt and new topsoil, breathing agricultural life force into the land, which gives rise to the rice that fuels its people. These same people have written lyrical folk songs about the region's beauty, in their unique dialect of Sylhoti, and have imbued the people here with a rich culture and heritage that forms a unique piece of the puzzle of the patchwork that is Bangladesh. "We are trying to open up these beautiful mountain rivers," says Chowdhury. "The colour of the water is emerald green. This is because the river is a sand river, and the water is filtered through the sand. It is one of the most pristine rivers in Bangladesh." Back on the ground, Chowdhury spoke of a multi-layered plan that would develop the infrastructure required to attract and support any manner of guest, local or foreign. The first project in this slate of ideas is the resort, which, once the other services come online (health facility, spa, beauty center), will become a most attractive and accessible destination, and hopefully remain more financially accessible than other luxury resorts I have experienced (but still far from inexpensive). During my visit in Destinations,,Interviews,,Responsible,Travel Mikey Leung no No http://www.joybangla.info/2008/03/01/tiger-collaring-under-controversy-in-bangladesh http://www.joybangla.info/2008/03/01/tiger-collaring-under-controversy-in-bangladesh#comments Sat, 01 Mar 2008 08:24:09 +0000 Mikey Leung http://www.joybangla.info/2008/03/01/tiger-collaring-under-controversy-in-bangladesh http://www.joybangla.info/2008/03/01/tiger-collaring-under-controversy-in-bangladesh/feed http://www.joybangla.info/2008/02/21/refugees-need-education-materials-at-coxs-bazaar http://www.joybangla.info/2008/02/21/refugees-need-education-materials-at-coxs-bazaar#comments Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:05:10 +0000 Mikey Leung http://www.joybangla.info/2008/02/21/refugees-need-education-materials-at-coxs-bazaar http://www.joybangla.info/2008/02/21/refugees-need-education-materials-at-coxs-bazaar/feed http://www.joybangla.info/2008/01/20/relief-tourism-in-the-sundarbans-the-ethics-of-diy-relief-work http://www.joybangla.info/2008/01/20/relief-tourism-in-the-sundarbans-the-ethics-of-diy-relief-work#comments Sun, 20 Jan 2008 10:50:06 +0000 Mikey Leung http://www.joybangla.info/2008/01/20/relief-tourism-in-the-sundarbans-the-ethics-of-diy-relief-work http://www.joybangla.info/2008/01/20/relief-tourism-in-the-sundarbans-the-ethics-of-diy-relief-work/feed