well after the shopping, we had to go back to the hotel to rest and pack for the 2nd part of the tour, we where to set out of the hotel at midnight so as to arrive at chitagong for around 6am. i wasnt really looking forward to the drive, our driver bless him had a way of breaking every couple of seconds and you can just imagine how depressing that was for our internal organs.

i prayed that i would sleep which thankfully i did whilst saying the dua for travelling.

i woke up a couple of hours later with a neck that was twisted in a way that no human should ever experince, i'm sure i heard a crack when i stretched lol, the trials and tribulations of travelling, its all part of the experince.

we arrived at the hotel which looked fancy, we just wanted to get to bed as soon as possible which we did and completly zonked out.

woke up a few hours later, freshened up and made our way to 'adventure land':

we where there to have a boat ride on Fous lake and not to experince the rides lol.

when we got out the mini bus a little girl greeted me with a rose:

i wasnt feeling to good that day, slightly dizzy and not with it, so when i walked into the adventure land and saw a big wheel, i thought to myself, i will volounteer to hold every ones bags as there is no way i am going on any rides:

thankfully it was only a boat ride that was very relaxing with beautiful scenery to sooth my headache:
even our driver, uncle karim, had a go of rowing the boat bless:
by the time the boat ride was finished we where kinda hungry so we ate and then made our way back to the dreaded mini bus, we where going to the beach yipeeeeeeee.

a couple of weeks before i flew to bangaldesh there was a flood in chitagong which caused a fair bit of damage, killed 80 people and 800 where missing and apperently when we left a massive mud slide occured in the area killing many, i pray that allah grants patience to those families affected by the mud slide.

i love the sea, its scary and i hate the thought of being stranded at sea, but there is something about looking into the horizion and it can be very soothing and calming to the soul to sit back and watch the waves, i love how big and secret it can be, and i always remeber how every drop in the ocean allah knows about subhannallah.
fishing boats where every where we looked, so pretty
we where not the only ones at the beach, there where some local boys playing football, fisher man
i wasnt the only one looking into the horizon:

i couldnt resist writting my name on the sand, its tradition, a person cannot visit the beach without writting there name:
i have to say visiting the sea made me feel tons better, i completly forgot about my headache so by the time we left i was back to singing much to the amusement of lady wild kat :)

i love the sea:

i have only one phobia that i know of so far, i am generally in control of my feelings and actions except when i see one of these creatures, then i lose control of my actions and can end up doing crazy stuff, i have a fear of cockroaches...

just saying the name, or in this case typing it sends shivers down my spine, seriously, and when i go abroad i always dread the thought of seeing one of these nasty bugs.

i do over react but i don't mean to, the fear really does take over and my first thought is to get as far away as possible from it, in Libya i once saw one and i ended up breaking 2 arm chairs and a sofa, no joke!!!!

well my first encounter with a cockroach was when we got back to the capital, i was in the hotel waiting for the lift, and whilst waiting i noticed something flying over our heads, so i pointed it out saying ' wow guys check out that moth' and i remember whilst saying it i realised that it didn't look like a moth, it landed on the wall opposite me closed its wings and as soon as it did that i noticed that it was a cockroach, the biggest i have ever seen, and at the same time the lift opened and all i remember doing was jumping right into the lift (which was completely packed) and banging against the buttons, the lift boy thought i was mad as well as the rest of the people in the lift, who where trying to get out, but i was preventing them, muttering under my breath 'oh god oh god oh god oh god' when the lift doors closed, i fell against the door and sighed, and it was only then that i noticed every one looking at me, and all i could do was smile and say 'sallamu allaykum'.

no one said anything back, i guess to them i was one crazy foreigner, lol.

did you know that cockroaches are the only creatures that can survive a nuclear bomb!!! so how the hell is it supposed to die from a shibshib (slippers) and not only that, they can live without there heads for a week!!! freaks and for you sea food loving people, the lobster is the cousin of the cockroach yuk yuk yuk.

i don't even know where this fear stems from, my mum once told me that she walked into a room in Libya when i was a baby to find me sat down sucking on something, and when she came closer she found to her horror that i was sucking on a cockroach!!!! people that story traumatised me and i blame my fear on that.

aaaaaaaaaah, any way change the topic, we where in dhaka for like 2 days before we started the 2nd part of the tour, so it was our chance to do any shopping that needed to be done and the best place for it was the capital, so off we headed to the biggest mall in Bangladesh, bushundra city 9 storey high:

when we got there the girls all headed for the sari floor, where we had so many people at or every beck and call wanting us to select from the many different colours of saris:
in one particular shop, the man was so desperate for us to buy from him that he got one of the men to model a sari for us:
i asked the girls to tell him that the sari went very well with his moustache, very fetching indeed!!!!

alot of saris where bought during the shopping expedition, i didn't buy any but i enjoyed watching the array of colours and the haggling over the price, and the shop keepers are really willing to bend over backwards so that we would buy from them, in one particular shop they kept feeding us and giving us drinks, even when we politely declined there offer of food, i did accept coffee though, and it was pretty good.

on the topic of food, the names of the fast food outlets in the mall where very interesting:

tongue and tummy???? lol, you have to admit that its original

chicken ooops????? i just had images of people eating there and then running to the toilet shouting 'chicken ooooops' looool.

its funny how they name shops and take-aways in other countries, in Egypt i saw some hilarious named shops.

whilst we where shopping the adhan for duhur started, echoing all over the mall, which i absolutely loved, people where acting normal, because adhan is an every day occurrence, on the other hand i was totally mesmerised and loving the moment.

the prayer room was on the top floor, and some of us had to do wudu, when i walked into the toilet i found:

a lady sleeping in the toilet, so sad wallahi, she was completely out of it, was not aware that there where people around her making noise, i guess for her the toilet is still much better than the streets.

and speaking of the streets i managed to photograph quite a few street sellers as well as beggars, it was kinda freaky actually, we would be satin the mini bus chatting away to each other when all of a sudden from the corner of my eye i would notice a movement, i would turn around and the side window would be full of faces peering in, i swear it was like a scene from dawn of the dead, and some of the beggars where in a state, no eyes, limbs, tumours growing from all sorts of places, really sad, and the problem was if you give money to one person then the car will be bombarded full of people asking for money.

the older members of society always affected me, i hate seeing them begging:
popcorn sellers is a very common sight to see:
you can get towels:
i love this picture, his smile is so genuine, you can see that it reaches his eyes, bless.

there was one kid that was selling funky fun hats, i felt sorry for him because whenever he tried to come to our mini bus he would get shooed away and even slapped by this man:

he was begging for money, but i didn't like the way he was shouting and hitting the kid who was actually trying to make a living:
i really respect these kids who work day and night and i always felt so helpless and guilty when i saw them, travelling really does make you appreciate the life we have and take for granted.

the street kids can make such an impact on you, i have to say that i never did get used to the fact of seeing children sleeping on the streets:

the waking up bright and early was starting to lessen my singing mood in the morning, you see i am one of those people that wake up singing, lady wildkat can vouch for this, but day after day of waking up early was greatly reducing the bouts of singing.

most of the time the songs are so random, and they usually consist of Disney songs for some strange and bizarre reason, top on the list tends to be songs from mulan and the lion king!!

any way we where headed towards another palace:

but my interests where more centred around the trees surrounding the palace:
how cool is this palm tree, its has three trunks:
and the garden of the palace was pretty cool:

and they had there own lake where princess zulaika used to go, could you imagine having your own personal lake, the stairs lead down to it, all you would have to do is walk down the stairs into the cool lake, nice.... unfortunately my camera was dying so i had to preserve the battery for the rest of the day, so didn't manage to get a picture of the lake.

at first we where told we where not allowed to go inside the palace, and just as we where walking back to the mini bus, the superintendent himself of the area drove up, got out, introduced himself and asked us whether we had seen the inside, to which we replied no, so after a phone call he grants us access, our tour guide explained that superintendents are like kings, that's the status they have.

later we where invited to his house for tea, which we accepted (main reason being was that some of us needed the toilet, i wont mention who as she knows who she is).

that is where i was introduced to the dreaded jack fruit aaaaaah.

shortly afterwards we where on the move again towards another temple:

at the back of the temple i found a goat, so pretty..

there where stairs leading down to a lake where some people where bathing and washing clothes, the way they wash clothes is so cool, basically thumping the clothes against a rock or the stairs, see that's one way of managing anger, go wash some clothes and release all that frustration against a rock by dashing those pair of socks or shirt against it:
at the bottom of the stairs was a little bare footed boy, who looked so serious and for some reason my heart went out to him:
surrounding the temple where various old buildings:

my camera was slowly bleeding its life out from its lens (it needed charging) so it would be a race against time, trying to click as many photos before the power is taken away.

we where heading towards a 500 year old mosque, and on the way stopped at a mango grove, the area was famous for its mangoes, and i simply adore this amazing fruit that leaves you wanting more, every where i looked, as far as the eye could see where mangoes or 'am' in Bengali:

i spotted some more ladies washing clothes, that always fascinated me, bash bash bash against the stairs:

on the way back to the hotel i noticed bananas being sold on the road, freshly picked, now that's what i call a bunch of bananas:
the next day we where headed back to the capital, Dhaka, on the way back we stopped to observe the factories that make saris and longies (longies are the wrap around that men wear, in Arabic its mi'zar), its a very noisy place and you can easily get a headache from just standing there for 2 minutes, so can you imagine what the workers must feel being there all day:
this guy looks so depressed poor thing:
they really do work hard:
the ladies where also working:
we all bought a sari for a good price as well, its interesting to watch people haggle over a price, a good cup of Bengali tea in my hand, sit back and watch the action.

when we where leaving the village, i noticed a little boy carrying some wood, it amazed me how hard working the children are, an dhow thin they are: so it was back to the mini bus to start the journey back to Dhaka, for shopping.