Remembering Bangladesh

It’s the school’s Spring Break for Jayden. He has a whopping 3 weeks of holidays this year! 2 weeks of Spring Break, followed by the Eid Al Fitr holidays. We’re not going anywhere this year, unfortunately, ahem… Gotta save some money for the summer holidays. What to do?


Jatiyo Sriti Soudho (National Martyr’s Memorial), Bangladesh

This time of the year, last year, we were in our India home. At the same time a tragic incident happened in neighbouring Bangladesh. One of Anu’s nephews in Bangladesh whom we just got to know the year before, met with an accident and sadly passed away. We hope his family has healed. God, continue to make the family strong, to strive on as before, to continue to have hope in your kindness and your strength.

To all the Christians out there, have a blessed Good Friday and Easter!


Anu’s rediscovered family in Bangladesh, Hob Nob Café, Banani, Dhaka, Jul 2022 - Hriday, may God bless his soul, is the tall chap in blue on the left. His mother and sister are standing in front of him. Swapan, one of Anu’s long-lost cousins is on the extreme right. Beside him, is his daughter. Swapan’s wife is in the middle standing behind Anu’s aunt. Swapan’s young son is the boy on the extreme left of the photo




More photos of the girls!


And here’re the boys! (No, the aunt doesn’t count)


Jackfruit, the national fruit of Bangladesh! The family brought a whole jackfruit, plus more, for us, to bring away. We politely declined, but we had a jackfruit feast in Dhaka!


Now, how else can you end a meal, if not with paan?! Thank God the Bangladeshis are just as hooked on paan as the people from North-East India (Anu included)

Ending the post with a few random pictures of our short 1 day stay in Bangladesh (thanks to the likes of Al Jazeera Airways and SalamAir – see my post, The Long Way Home Part 1).


The swimming pool of our Dhaka hotel, the Raintree Dhaka






And finally, more of Bangladesh’s National Martyr’s Memorial

A Tragedy in Bangladesh

Some very sad news came to us from Bangladesh when we were visiting India 2 weeks ago. A young and promising nephew we met for the first time in Dhaka last year, was hit by a vehicle on 1-Apr, when commuting to work in the eastern part of the country. He passed away.

He was the eldest child among the children of Anu’s long-lost cousins in Bangladesh, and the only son of his family. He leaves behind his grieving parents, a younger sister, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. Good bye and rest in peace, Hridoy. May God bless your soul and strengthen your love ones on earth to live on with hope and strength, in your memory, so that you may be proud of them. God bless.


Hriday is the one in blue on the right – Hob Nob Café, Banani, Dhaka. They came all the way from their village in Sreemangal in the eastern part of Bangladesh just to meet us.


A lighting storm in Hatirjheel, Dhaka as seen from the Hatirjheel Bridge 2 (Mahanagar Bridge) - This was the last place we were with the Bangla family before we went our separate ways. They left for the bus station to get back to Sreemangal and we went back to our hotel.




Leaving photos of Bangladesh’s National Martyr’s Memorial (Jatiyo Sriti Soudho) to end this post. May God bless the family, take away all their grief and restore hope. Protect them from harm, evil, sicknesses, strife and deceit. Amen.

The Eighth Year of Jayden

Jayden, at the Germany Pavilion, Expo2020, Dubai – Jan 2022

Finally, after 2 months of Jayden turning 8 years old, here’re photos and a summary of Jayden’s eighth year of existence. He’s bigger, but behaving just as little as before, and still ‘eating our heads’. JAYYYYDENNNN!!!

This was the year of Dubai’s Expo 2020 (it’s one year late due to pesky COVID-19). It took place from Oct 2021 to Mar 2022, and we visited it religiously every time we had some free time. (We had Season Tickets, and besides, there’re more than 200 pavilions to see, and lots of concerts and performances. What’s not to be liked??)


Jayden at Expo2020, Oct 2022, right after his birthday. Expo 2020 opened in Oct 2021. This is the Terra Pavilion, Sustainability’s main pavilion. Dubai’s Expo’s theme was “Connecting Minds and Creating the Future” through sustainability, mobility and opportunity. In line with that, the Expo had three main ‘Districts’ Sustainability, Mobility and Opportunity, with each having its primary pavilion.


Hah… a rare break from the Expo, to 'soak up' a bit of the Emirati wilderness – Wadi Shawka, Ras Al Khaimah, Dec 2021. Breakfast, after a night of camping. Yours truly literally 'soaked it up' – Lost my balance while climbing and felt into a friggin rock pool at the Wadi, and was completely wet from head to toe. Screwed up my trusty Redmi 7 phone! Thank God, wasn't hurt!


Merry Christmas 2021!!!


Koung Hey Fatt Choi! Welcoming the Year of the Tiger – Jan 2022


Trying out his skills at being a teacher – explaining to us the working of a volcano – Feb 2022. His ‘koko’ never, ever tried anything like that (explaining to us about anything, I mean)


Jayden at school, at the Year 2 corridor's entrance – No he’s not in Year 2. He’s in Year 4. But 2 of his past class teachers are on the panel behind him, his Year 2 teacher, Ms Rachel White, and his Year 1 teacher, Ms Louise Higgins (who subsequently moved up to Year 2). He's not in uniform because it was a Saturday, and he was there for a rehearsal of his school's musical play!


Right after his School Musical performance, ‘Sunny Side Up’ which he participated in – Mar 2022. (We recorded a song he sang, and sent it for the audition, and he was selected! One of the few Year 3 students who were selected). The girl in the photo, was one of the lead performers of the musical. Her screen name was Cindy, and Jayden kept calling her Cindy. Her real name I think is Melissa. She’s in Year 8 or 9, I think…


Finally, we could travel again! First overseas trip out of the UAE in more than 2 years – a trip home to his mommy’s birthplace, Assam, India. Here he is, with little cousin brother, Anshu, currently the youngest in Anu’s family, and the only cousin younger than Jayden on his mother’s side – Apr 2022


Another trip home, this time to Malaysia, but en route to that, we made a few stops – Here’s Jayden in Kathmandu, Nepal – Jul 2022


And then Dhaka, Bangladesh. That is their ummm… let’s see, their aunt, one of Anu’s cousin’s wife


Finally, in Malaysia, but not home yet. We made a family trip to the Mulu Caves of Sarawak – Here’s Jayden with aunt Hazel at Deer Cave, Mulu, Sarawak, Malaysia


Peace! Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia – Jul 2022


The sound of music, one of mommy’s smart ideas… Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia – Jul 2022


With cousin Stacey at Universal Studios, Singapore


Happy 8th Birthday Jayden! Low-key celebration, just the 4 of us at home. This would be the last birthday that he’d be having with his koko, for quite some time I think, coz Koko’s left to Singapore to continue his studies

Jayden really misses his brother, have cried many times thinking about his brother. His koko was his only friend, I think. Jayden’s a little sticky and sentimental, unlike Justin, who’s quite detached. Jayden needed Justin to sleep with him, and only stopped when we forced him to sleep alone after he turned 7 years old. Now, that his koko is away, maybe he’ll start finding his own friends, and growing up a little. We love you little one.

The Long Way Home - Part 1

Finally, here’s a summary of our recent trip home to Malaysia in July 2022. This was our first Malaysia trip since 2019, before the pandemic. Lots of changes happened in the 3 years since we last visited. So many of our family and friends have left our world, for a better world.😢 These 3 years had been a hard time for many. I hope the times to come are better. 🙏


Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Anyway, for this one home trip, we took 11 flights, through 11 different airports, on 7 different airlines, in 7 different countries. And all this, just because of the blasted airfares! (And some cool holidays on the way, ahem!) We’ve guessed from the start that the airfares for the trip back home would be high. (After all, this was the first summer break in the UAE since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic which people could travel without the strict COVID-19 restrictions. Plus, my leave coincided with the end of the school year, and the start of the long weekend Eid Al-Adha holidays!) But we never imagined that the tickets would be ...nothing less than an Extortion! - C'mon, 4 FRIGGIN TIMES the pre-COVID rates!?!! You can thank the airlines companies for this. I could almost hear their evil sniggering... “Now's the time for recouping our losses for the past few years, hahaha.”

6,000 friggin dirhams for ONE measly passenger to get to Penang and back!?! That’s close to what we paid for the ENTIRE FAMILY OF 4 prior to COVID! (It was 7K+ I remember for 4 of us – direct flight from Sharjah to KL, then train to Butterworth, and returning by flight from Penang to KL, then KL to Dubai via Brunei). 6K per person would cost us AED 24K!!! (We flew all the way to NZ and back in 2018 with less than that - 20K, and that was on a Cathay Pacific flight!). No way we’re gonna let the airlines do that. The only problem is that there’re very little choices to this. Normally, what we’ll do to overcome this, is to get the flights with a stop, or 2 in between. That usually brings down the price, but this time round, even the flights with stops are friggin over the top. I tried looking for flights to India (there’re scores of low-cost airlines flying between the UAE and India, plus we have lifetime Indian visas, hehe) and getting an Air Asia from India back to Malaysia, to bring down the costs. Heck, the Indian tickets’ airfares (even the low-cost ones) are as high as as the Malaysian ones! If not more!! There’re no Chinese airlines to choose from this time round to bring down the costs, due to China’s ridiculous Zero-COVID strategy (c’mon, the entire world has opened up. What’re you waiting for?) There’re no Saudi stops due to the Haj. There’s a flight with a stop in Sri Lanka for nearly a day, but we don’t fancy participating in the Colombo riots, or being stuck in Sri Lanka with no fuel to get anywhere else. Oh, what about Bangladesh then, sez the missus??

Oh yeah, why not, indeed? (And we can visit a country we’ve never been before, wink! That’s why I love the missus so much!) Oh, here’s one option – Salamair (Oman’s low-cost airlines) has flights to Dhaka for AED 2,300 for the 4 of us! Great! Now, let’s see, there’s Air Asia from Dhaka to KL, or we could fly Biman, Bangladesh’s National Airlines, for only a little more, plus the timing’s better. Alright, that’s done then, Dubai to Dhaka with a stopover in Muscat, Oman. 2 nights in Dhaka, then a flight from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur! Returning would be using a Scoot flight from Penang to Singapore, with a 2-night stopover to spend some time with Jason and family, then a Vistara flight back to Dubai transiting Mumbai! Less than 10K! OK, that’s the best option so far.

So, we got our Bangladeshi visas, we checked and arranged for all the friggin health apps, declarations, what you have… Then came the bombshell. Salamair cancelled our flight! ONE WEEK from the day of the flight! So, we had a mad scramble to find an alternative flight to Bangladesh! Shit, all the flights are even more expensive now! The cheapest tickets from anywhere in the UAE one way to Dhaka is now 8K (for 4 of us) on the same day (and on some crummy low-cost airlines)!! There’re no more Salamair flights to Dhaka until at least 5 days after our original flight date! Hey wait, the flights from the UAE to Kathmandu, Nepal are still reasonable (it’s the monsoon season, not a high season for Nepal, plus Nepal doesn’t celebrate Eid). And flights from Kathmandu to Dhaka are not too bad. No time to waste then, let’s grab it – Kuwait’s low-cost airlines Jazeera Airways from Dubai to Kathmandu, transiting Kuwait. Then, in Kathmandu, we have a 5-hour window to do our transfers for catching a Biman flight to Dhaka. Done then, all booked and ready to go for 4.8K. We have an extra country to get visas, and health declarations, but it's better than paying 3K+ extra. And so, we started our journey…


Jazeera’s flight from Dubai to Kuwait was delayed by an hour. Now big deal, since anyway, we have a 5.5 hours’ wait in Kuwait, till our flight to Nepal. That’ll reduce it to 4.5 hours. No problem. (But little did we know at that time what Jazeera is famous notorious for – delays!)


And here we are, Terminal 5 of Kuwait’s International Airport, reserved specially for Jazeera Airways. “Our new Jazeera terminal at Kuwait Airport has been designed to enhance your travel experience. Complete with self-service kiosks, parking facilities & more. T5 features a dedicated Customer Service team, self-service kiosks, duty free, dining outlets, complimentary Wi Fi at each gate and more. Our new gateway for Kuwait will make your journey easier and more enjoyable.” The truth can’t be further. If you don’t believe me, go try it yourself.

We were only there for ummmm… 8 friggin hours. Our flight to Kathmandu from Kuwait, was delayed by 4 F#*$in HOURS! The terminal has One Costa Café. One Indian tea and sandwich shop. One Duty Free Shop. One toilet. And like one seat for every 5 passengers! We were lucky we got there early and glued ourselves to some seats near some power sockets (hey, you think our phones are gonna last 8 friggin hours, when it’s about the only entertainment you get?!?) Or we would have to sit on the floor like many other travelers. Also luckily, I brought a book. Many have called it the worst airport, IN THE WORLD. And many have declared that they’d never fly Jazeera. Ever again. (Not us... we may have no choice...)




This is the result of the 4-hour Jazeera flight delay - a day off in Kathmandu, Nepal. Here's the view from our hotel, Hotel Moonlight. The temple on the hill in the photo above is the famous Swayambhunath Temple (which we visited way back in ummm 2010). Thanks to Jazeera’s delay, we bloody missed our connecting flight from Kathmandu to Dhaka, despite our mad rush. We cleared Nepal immigration in record time (I think like 15 minutes), by persuading everyone to let us go first, but then we had to wait for the bloody luggage, which took only about an hour to come out. Thanks also to Jazeera, I had an intense workout pushing the damn luggage trolley up the damn ramp from the Arrival Terminal to Departure Terminal of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan Airport. By the time we got to the check-in counter of our flight out of Kathmandu, I was red and sweating profusely. And the counter had closed, with no one in sight. (Hey people! Where are you? We reached there 5 minutes before the flight time!) We spent the next hour or two roaming around the airport looking for some, any Biman Airlines staff to assist. Finally, some staff came back (there were all assisting the flight take off), and the lovely missus smooth-talked some officers into helping us get the next flight to Bangladesh (on the next day), for just a cancellation and rebooking fee of USD 40 per person. Whew!


Nah, here’s another view of Nepal – Nagarkot, a hill station near Kathmandu

Finally, Bangladesh. Thanks again to Jazeera, we had to cut short our Dhaka stay from 2 nights, to only one night. Luckily, the hotel (Raintree Dhaka), had a free cancellation policy of up to the day of arrival, and they graciously accepted our cancellation request, without any charges. Kudos to Mr Suman Dey, the manager!


Guess where this is?! China? India? Nah, this is Hob Nob Café, in Banani, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Here’s us with the Bangladesh side of the family! Surprised?? Yeah, we have some Bangla links! Anu has some long-lost cousins on his father’s side in Bangladesh. We’ve met some of them before, years ago, when they visited us in our Silchar home in Assam, India, when we were there. They’re not exactly from Dhaka city. Their home, Sreemangal is near the Indian border, about 180km from Dhaka, but they came all the way just to meet us! What a privilege!


Breakfast at the Raintree Dhaka, Bangladesh – That red shirt that I’m wearing is a gift from the Bangladeshi family. Dhonnobad!

From here onwards, our plan went smoothly. Thank God. Next stop, Kuala Lumpur. (To be continued…)