Right, we have a blog...

We will try to post something more substantial and photo-filled later, but for now, let's just stick to an exciting update about our where-abouts in rare and slow Internet land!

We did finally make it out of Bangkok and to Dhaka, Bangladesh. After a very, very wet and flooded day in Dhaka, we took a 24 hour steam-driven paddle wheel boat south to Mongla. Yup, pretty cool! From there, we visited the Sunderbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, the city of Khulna, and Bagerhat, a world heritage site with the famous 77-domed mosque.

Heading back to Dhaka, we spent a lovely day making friends with the guards at the Dhaka International Airport awaiting my sister Jennie's arrival from Delhi. We were too cheap to pay the admissions fee for the arrivals hall, and they were gracious enough to let us sit on a bench just inside the gate to avoid some of the beggars and stares we were experiencing. The reason we had time to make friends is because Jennie's flight was also delayed, eventually cancelled, and replaced with a completely different one. Of course, no one could tell us this, and in the end, we picked her up the next morning after an inquiring phone call to GMG Airlines at 7:30am, an astonishing answer that she was landing in 10 minutes and that we should just call her cell phone to confirm she was on the flight, and then a frantic taxi ride to the airport. Despite a very long night in the Delhi airport, she made it!

We spent some time exploring Dhaka with Jennie before taking a night bus North to the border with India. The border crossing required the writing of our information in massive logbooks a total of 6 separate times, a few more cursory passport checks, and one cup of cha (tea) while waiting for Josh to return from the bank with certificates that we'd paid the travel tax (Jennie and I were waiting with the one uniformed official trying to be as charming as possible). The whole thing only took 2 full hours!

We are now in Darjeeling, India, enjoying misty mountains and lovely cups of tea. We take the "Toy Train" tomorrow back down the mountain and head off to Nepal and Kathmandu! We have plenty to say about Bangladesh, so watch for that when we get a chance to post again. The country was beautiful and full of helpful and friendly people. On the other hand, we experienced more shortchanging, overcharging, and lieing to than ever before. But, if you want to feel like a celebrity... this is the place to visit! We stopped people dead in their tracks, including one bus so that a passenger could snap a photo of us, and had more stares... a stop to check a map produced an audience of 3-4 people, to buy two mangoes about 25, and a stop to ask for directions about 45 (plus the 13 children who were already following us). No, I exaggerate not!