Even with the fast choice, by the time we backed up and loaded the truck, it was 8 PM. Too late to drive to Dhaka. We drove over the bad roads to Sylhet and stayed in a hoel there. Left early for the long drive to Dhaka, stopping for breakfast in the middle. Unfortunately Dhaka traffic reared its ugly head and we spent almost two hours for the last part of the trip. Lunch with Humayun, a few hours at the university while Babu visited home and we were back on the road again. More Dhaka traffic and then free again. I’m now on the long ferry ride from Mawa Ghat crossing the Padma River – the 14 km wide river formed by the joining of the the Brahmaputra and Ganges. Then 3 hours to Khulna.
While here, we noticed that there is an interesting mixture of Bangla and English developing in Bangladesh. When people tell each other phone numbers they always use English numbers, one, two three, rather than ek, dui, tin. I practice me little bit of the Bangla alphabet and see many transliterated English words. The rest house we are staying in says “Hostel” above the door. Restaurants use the English word “Restaurant”, in the Bangla alphabet. It certainly helps me that the word is familiar as my vowels are still shaky.