Comments on: Bangladesh Village Homestay: Becoming One of the Family

By: Audrey Scott

Audrey Scott — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 18:03:42 +0000

@Golam: Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment. Many people thought we were crazy to visit Bangladesh and only thought of it as a place for natural disasters and poverty, but we knew there was a completely different country and culture to explore. What we found really left its mark on us – a people who were so incredibly welcoming and giving, even though many had very little themselves. And, as you also wrote, that Bangladeshis are very resilient and resourceful – they know how to create and do so much with very little. This is something we can learn from them.

We hope that our stories about Bangladesh do encourage others to visit. It’s a fascinating country.

By: Golam Faruque

Golam Faruque — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 06:33:34 +0000

Hi, I read your experiences visiting Bangladesh and I really enjoyed a lot. couple of years before, I have a friend called Ragnhild Beosta in Norway visited Bangladesh, I took her to my village Barisal, she enjoyed a lot, still she write from Norway remembering those village days. she saw, after Sidr how quickly villagers manage to recover the damage without any helps from outside.

She told me that when she planned to visit Bangladesh her well-wishers told to her not to visit Bangladesh because Bangladesh is full of disasters and odds happened, she don’t change her plan, and take out is, Bangladeshis are very friendly, poor but happy, very brave and can Fight back natural disasters very well.

Some bad people puts bad pictures in google to get donations from outside and it cause a bad image for Bangladesh all over the world, I will tell the world “please visit Bangladesh, happiness happens here.” see happiest people from a close look and enjoy there hospitality.

By: Audrey Scott

Audrey Scott — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:09:26 +0000

@Tim: Thanks for your kind comment! Really glad you enjoyed this story and photos.

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:23:20 +0000

Very touching post, enjoyed it very much. Thank you for sharing! Great photos too.

By: Audrey Scott

Audrey Scott — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 08:12:35 +0000

@Faruque: It seems in the last few weeks I’ve heard of several people returning to Bangladesh to find family roots. Interesting to learn about the population and migration movements from this area. And, that’s great that the three Indian women were able to travel well throughout the country without any male companions.

@Shivya: Thank you for your kind comment. There are still many places like this in the world, but it takes more work and effort on the part of the traveler to find them and to find an appropriate way to visit that also benefits the local community.

By: Shivya

Shivya — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:39:33 +0000

Very touching. I love that there are still parts of the world untouched by urban influences. You describe it beautifully

By: Faruque Hasan

Faruque Hasan — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:16:30 +0000

Sutopa, you are welcome to Bangladesh – the land of your ancestors. You will like the country. Last month three young ladies from India (one of them is now a US citizen) visited Bangladesh without any male companions. They searched and found out the villages in Sylhet (a northeastern district in Bangladesh) where their parents used to live before 1947. Perhaps you know about Srya Ghoshal, now a renowned Hindi playback singer; last year she visited her ancestral village near Dhaka with his father.

By: Sutapa Chattopadhyay

Sutapa Chattopadhyay — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:49:53 +0000

Thanks a lot, Audrey!

By: Audrey Scott

Audrey Scott — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:33:02 +0000

@Sutapa: Good questions you’re asking!

We did not fill out the form – we actually learned of ESDO (parent NGO) and Eco Connexion when we were in Dhaka. We went and had a meeting at their Dhaka office to learn more about the program and its objectives. Then when we were traveling around the country, we got in touch with them when we knew the exact dates we could visit Hatiandha and they arranged everything with a few days notice.

I agree that the booking form on the website is not very good (I’ve given feedback on this), but you can use this email address to get information: info@esdo.org

We stayed 2 nights/2.5 days and slept in a room at the house of the family you see above. It was quite a large, comfortable room with a double bed, mosquito nets, fan, etc. We also visited another family that was preparing to become a homestay family and they had two rooms available so that families or groups traveling together could stay. Eco Connexion takes care to ensure that every homestay family has good facilities and some training.

The group of people on the board of Eco Connexion are from the NGO, traditional tourism industry and rural development specialists. They really want to make the program sustainable and beneficial to everyone.

By: Sutapa Chattopadhyay

Sutapa Chattopadhyay — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:33:26 +0000

Audrey,
I visited the EcoConnexion website. Did you really fill up a form and did really someone contact you? Did they email you? Just wondering…also did you guys make the 3 day stay or did you stay more/less? Also, where did they put you up for the night? Curious about this…