We wanted and we did it.

Yes, yes, our friends’ reaction to our destination was the same as with so many others. “Bangladesh ???” – first disbelieving, then torn eyes with a look somewhere between disbelief and horror. Why not? Bangladesh is passing everyone – or are all passing by Bangladesh? We wanted to change this and found after a short search the homepage of our future organizer. The planning went smoothly (the homepage can already be very helpful) the communication in advance perfectly, even via Skype we have discussed the tour. We would like to emphasize the competent advice. We were looking forward to a 14-day journey that would take us to all parts of the country and which we had already roughly planned. Admittedly, we already had offers from two other tour operators. The Lonesome Traveler was different. It was not promised everything and from the beginning the motto “less is more” spent, because what we did not have on the list, were the travel times, which can be considerable in Bangladesh. In the end we decided to go on a tour on the west side from Dinajpur in the northwest to the Sundarbans in the southwest. And what was that tour! One that we asked ourselves “what was that?”
There is nothing to highlight or any “highlights” in itself. The journey was intoxicating and fascinating in its own way. Scattered, village life, hectic, noisy cities, peaceful silence and again and again encounters with locals, which made the really excellent mix perfect. Unfortunately, it is not possible to describe the impressions that we gained during the trip here as an equal, because we simply do not have the right words. Dinajpur, Rajshahi – what lively cities! The Kantanagar temple with its Hindu pilgrims, the market around it, the evening boat trip on the Ganges, which was not intended, the region in the Jessore – may be that the village communities make up the real appeal of Bangladesh. But how could one recognize this without having experienced Dhaka? You must have seen the old part of town around the river port or the Kawran Bazar.

We are frequent travelers and actually thought we were pretty cool. Even in supposedly poor countries we were already often. But Bangladesh has once again made us “travel”. It has been a long time since a tour has taken us so far and the experiences are still so many weeks later. One reason may be the many spontaneous visits were on the way. Markets, villages, crafts and children. Children, children, children who were totally excited, no matter where we went. Again, the motto of the agency was “the way is the goal” and that is probably the best basis for a trip through Bangladesh, which often seems like a journey through time. The Ganges delta was just the culmination of a successful trip.

Thanks to The Lonesome Traveler, top performance! Thanks to Holger, our German guide who knows the country and its inhabitants very well and has given us many insights. His way of traveling, dealing with situations, residents and us was refreshingly different and always sincere and honest. After a short time we had the feeling to be traveling with a good friend. In a new, sometime…

Andrea & Tim (March 2017)