Arriving in Bangladesh was a surreal experience. We've spent so much time in Thailand now that we know what to expect - but Bangladesh is entirely different.

Our tickets to Chittagong from Dhaka had been bought for us by Rilla's family (thank you!) and we had instructions on how to retrieve said tickets and board our plane (thanks Pippin :P). After a fair bit of negotiation and a call to our emergency backup contact in Dhaka, we were issued some tickets and on our way to Chittagong.

At Chittagong airport were, as Pippin had promised, two smiling faces waiting for us - Pippin and Monique. It was very nice to see people we knew and we were quickly ushered to a taxi and piled in. There were dozens of small children and women begging for money who followed us to the car and even knocked on the windows as we started to leave. This was a bit new to Chris and I - there hasn't been any begging like that anywhere else we've been.

The drive to our hotel was... very interesting. First of all, there were no street lights and since it was already night time, there was no light. There were rickshaws (bicycles with an elevated seat on the back for passengers), baby taxis (little taxis that kinda look like tuk-tuks), people, cows, goats, etc... everywhere! The roads were a stream of motion. Rickshaws don't have any lights on them and baby taxis only have one light. Without street lights, it was certainly an interesting and long ride home!

The hotel we stayed at is a Bangladeshi club set up as a response to the British club set up years before, where Bangladeshi people were not allowed. Through Rilla's family however, we managed to pretty much fill the club up with kiwis.

The next couple of days were filled with activities organized for us by Pippin and his family. There is no tourism in Bangladesh, especially in Chittagong. We had a couple of drivers and mini-vans who were there to take us places. Mostafa, our tour-guide for a few days, did a great job of driving 20+ of us New Zealanders around.

On our second day in Chittagong, we were fortunate enough to be able to visit the ship breaking yards. Ever wonder what happens to the overly sized cruise liners and oil tankers that are no longer wanted / needed? Well, ship breaking companies like those in Chittagong bid for them and tear every piece apart to sell as second-hand bits and scraps. Apparently the price for these ships is on the increase though, making it difficult for these companies to afford many ships. Large (and I'm talking REALLY large here) ships can be torn apart COMPLETELY in 4 months. As we drove to the yards, we could see all the shops where the second-hand bits from the ships are sold. There was a lagoon full of life boats, shops full of brass things, fancy couches, industrial kitchen-ware. Anything that once belonged on one of the ships can be bought in Chittagong. We even saw all the soaps and shampoos that once upon a time lived on some ship being sold in a shop!

The ship breaking yards were an 'amazing' sight to see. It really isn't a 'tourist' site though, we were basically trespassing through someone's work place and gawking. All the workers stopped working and stared at us (we were getting quite used to being stared at by this stage however). Chris managed to strike up several conversations with the workers and took lots of photos. The workers seemed to like lining up to have their photos taken so long as they could see the photo afterwards - which, with a digital camera, is as easy as pie. However, the working conditions for the ship breakers isn't great and there are lots of little children running around the debris who really should be in school. The environment is also suffering due to this business - there is a lot of oil, asbestos, bits of metal, rubbish just strewn around. Still, this work keeps many people employed.

We visited Rilla at her home and sat around just chit-chatting about the wedding. About 2 hours into this very relaxing afternoon I realized that Chris was the only guy among 5 girls who were gossiping and laughing about weddings and marriage, but I think he managed very well to fit in :) Plus, since it is not customary for women to walk on the streets alone in Bangladesh, Chris had to come to be our guard!

Speaking of customs, there is a particular type of clothing that Bangladeshi people wear, both for females and males. Women must cover up and so tend to wear long kameezes and men wear light shirts of varying lengths. Chris and I quickly noticed how much we stood out (not just because of the colour of our very pale skin) but also because of our ridiculously western clothing (I'm talking beige travel pants and long sleeve shirts... shaaaaaaame). So we went shopping which was heaps of fun! We both came out with some much more comfortable and local clothing.

Now, the wedding celebrations - WOW!

On one particular evening, we'd been told that we would be receiving a bunch of gifts that needed to be wrapped nicely. It was getting late but just when we thought it wasn't going to happen anymore, a whole entourage of Rilla's relations appeared at our hotel bearing gifts for us, all already wrapped! These included our wedding clothes - a saree for me and a panjabi for Chris. WOW! There were a lot of people around, noise, color. But what sticks in my mind the most are the camera guys - one guy with a GIANT camera and another with a ENORMOUS and powerful spot light! They walked around and shone their powerful spot light at people then proceeded to point their giant camera right in your face. Very interesting. Not sure where to look, what to say or do. Oh well. :)

The following day we rested - actually we watched Flight of the Conchords with Jono and Mark. But more importantly, this was the first day of the actual wedding celebrations. Traditionally, Rilla and Pippin would have had different celebrations like the one on this day, but they decided to combine theirs. The celebration was amazing. I'll try to describe it as well as I can but I'm not sure words can do it justice - perhaps some photos will help :)

A lady came around and helped all us girls put our sarees on at around 6pm. I've never worn a saree before so that was really interesting! Chris put on his panjabi and we were set. Everyone looked so smart in their sarees and panjabis! We didn't leave our hotel until quite late at which point we were chauffeured to the location of the ceremony. Once there we all lined up and held onto a gift basket each - these were gifts for Rilla's side of the family. Then we all proceeded to walk into the hall in single file, with Rilla's family on either side, greeting us as we walked in. Someone put scarves around our necks, someone else put a string of flowers over our our wrists, someone ELSE threw rose petals over our shoulders and someone else stuck some sweet goey cake in our mouth, all as we walked into this hall. Wow!

There was lots of music playing in the hall and we were directed to sit near the front. We lay the gifts on the stage and sat down. Pretty soon, Rilla was brought in on one of those chariot things, being held up by lots of strong men. She was put down on the stage and came out to join Pippin on stage, under a huge bunch of flowers. She looked... AMAZING! Totally like a model. The loud music continued for a while, and the guys with the camera and spot light from the night before re-appeared. They liked filming us.

There were some introductions and speeches made, then there was more music and an awesome dance performance correographed by Rilla's cousins. After the performance, we started hearing rumours that we were to sing "All My Loving" by The Beatles as a response to Rilla's side of the family singing "Pokarekare Ana" for us on stage. Apart from the fact that I had a horribly sore throat and sounded a bit like a frog, I don't actually know the lyrics to that song at all! Oh well, we all got up on stage and sang or at least mouthed the words. It was very amusing for us but very well received by our audience :)

After all that, there was a massive feast held upstairs. It was quite frantic so we waited until it had calmed down a bit before having some food ourselves... yum! :)

However, things got quite interesting after the food. Firstly, there was the dancing. There was lots of loud Bangladeshi rap being played by a band in the hall and some of Rilla's cousins were dancing around. Then they noticed all us kiwis sitting pretty in the audience and decided that could be no longer. So they dragged us up and we started to jump around pretending to know what we were doing. Let's just say that it's hard to dance in a saree, especially to Bangladeshi rap. Anyway, they looked much much better than us but we all gave it our best go and before you knew it, we were all up and dancing around. It was heaps of fun but very hot and tiring!

Then everyone got to feed Rilla and Pippin cake and put some tumeric paste stuff on their faces - this is called 'Gaye Holud' or 'yellowing the body' - blame Wikipedia if the spelling is wrong hehe. That was lots of fun too :) Apart from the fact that their faces were turning quite yellow after a while, I bet they got really full of sweets by the end of that part of the ceremony.

At this stage it was about 1:30am so we decided to call it a night. Rilla and Pippin were still being fed sweets and having their photos taken so we left them to it. But wow, what an experience! So much color, music, food. Amazing.

Unfortunately Chris and I didn't feel so well the following day and spent the next 3 days lying in bed complaining. Some kind of food poisoning. Not very pleasant but we survived. However, it did mean that we missed the second day of the wedding celebrations. :( :( :( That was very disappointing but oh well, I'm sure we'll get to see lots of photos and we definitely heard all the stories.

I think that's about it for now. Off to Dhaka next!