Traffic woes continue – call in the army

With traffic at its annual worst, the government called in the big guns – the military police, at least.
This month is Ramadan, the month when Muslims fast leading up to Eid, probably the most important religious holiday of the year.  I don’t profess to be any kind of expert on the religious part, but here’s [...]

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Learning to drive

M is studying to take his Ohio driving test this week (he hasn’t had a U.S. license before).  Looking over the sample test questions today I was struck by the differences between here and there:
Question #7
When two vehicles arrive at an intersection at the same time, which one has the right-of-way when no signs or [...]

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Dhaka Traffic Worsens

Apparently with the change back to democracy the traffic situation in Dhaka has gone downhill – there are more unauthorized vehicles on the streets, and the higher number of VVIPs in government is a distraction for the traffic police who have to help facilitate motorcades instead of direct regular traffic.  From the Daily Star:
Return of [...]

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New bridge!

We have a new bridge in our neighborhood! Bridges are crucial here, because there is so much water everywhere – essentially each neighborhood is divided from the others by a lake, and traffic gets all tied up around the bridges that link the different neighborhoods.  So it is really exciting that there is a [...]

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Bus stop in Gulshan

Crowding onto a bus in Gulshan Circle, Dhaka. Notice how the one woman in the crowd hangs back and eventually decides to wait for the next one. Usually you’ll see just a couple women per bus, and they always have a tiny segregated seat up front.

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No more traffic in Dhaka? Is it possible?

From the Daily Star:

Mega transport project for greater Dhaka kicks off
$5.52b STP aims to ease traffic congestion, attach top priority to pedestrians’ movement
The government yesterday launched a long-term mega project to establish an integrated environment-friendly traffic management system in greater Dhaka to relieve people of the nagging traffic congestion.
The 20-year Strategic Transport Plan (STP) [...]

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Seaplane!

This week I got to go on a Seaplane trip for work! It was pretty neat. Here’s a picture of the plane before we boarded for the trip home – a whole bunch of kids swam out to where the plane was “docked” on sort of a sandbar.

We flew down to the [...]

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Getting around part 2

We bought a car! At least, we think we did. It’s not here yet.
So, if you read the last post you know that driving here is a bit of a dilemma. While car shopping we had a major debate between getting the largest SUV possible – more intimidating, which helps force your way through [...]

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