Bangladesh

Quick Facts

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Capital

Dhaka

Population

131,000,000

Government

Parliamentary Democracy

Religions

Islam, Hinduism

Languages

Bangla (Bengali), English

Calling Code

+880

Nationality

Bangladeshi

Local name

Introduction

The Bride

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With flooding during the Monsoon season acting like an annual killjoy, the Bangladesh economy has had a steep uphill battle, one which has so far been unsuccessfully fought; Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest countries.

So it goes without saying that you shouldn't expect all the comforts of modern life if you visit Bangladesh, a country whose tourist board says "Come to Bangladesh before the tourists". What you should expect is a south Asian nation where the people's traditional way of life can still be observed, even in the capital of Dhaka. You should also expect temples and monasteries dating back to before the turn of the first millennium. Bangladesh also counts to its credit the world's longest beach and the world's largest littoral mangrove forest. The latter, moreover, is part of Sundarbans National Park, which boasts large populations of Royal Bengal Tigers and spotted deer. So you'd better get to Bangladesh... before the tourists do.

Regions

Bangladesh is organised into 6 administrative divisions, named after their divisional headquarters.

• Barisal Division
• Chittagong Division
• Dhaka Division
• Khulna Division
• Rajshahi Division
• Sylhet Division

Cities

• Dhaka - The capital
• Barisal
• Chittagong
• Chandpur
• Cox's Bazar
• Jamalpur
• Khulna
• Jessore
• Rajshahi
• Sylhet
• Bogra

Getting there

Plane

Biman Bangladesh Airlines is the national airline of Bangladesh with its base at Zia International Airport (DAC) near the capital Dhaka. It has flights mainly to the southern parst of Asia and to Hongkong, Rome and London.
GMG Airlines is a bigger airline though and based at Dhaka as well, it has flights to and from to about the same cities as Biman, but flies to Milan instead of Rome.
Jet Airways has cheap flights between Delhi and Dhaka while also Air Asia has chartered budget flights from Kuala Lumpur and lowcost airline Air Arabia is planning to fly from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, making it possible to fly cheaper to Bangladesh compared to direct flights from Europe.

By bus and rail

There is a direct bus route that runs direct from Kolkata in India to Dhaka. The trip takes about 8-9 hours and runs several times a day. It costs about $10-$12 one way.

According to plans, trains are running again since late 2007 between Calcutta in India and the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, for the first time in over 40 years. Although there were connections from Calcutta to the border and across the border further to Kulna, there weren't any connections to Dhaka at all from the west. This direct option takes about 12 hours including border formalities.

Getting around

By rail

Bangladesh's rail service is covers most of the country and connects Dhaka with other major cities including Chittagong.