Aircraft restaurant in Dhaka

mahmud

I had a rare experience to have dinner at an Aircraft Restaurant “Western Grill” located at Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh. This is an original aircraft. This F28 aircraft damaged by an accident in Sylhet airport. Later, Bangladesh Govt. sold that aircraft to Western Grill authority. Now, this is on of the rarest aircraft restaurant in the world. Every day, many travelers especially foreigners used to go this restaurant.
The interior decoration is also as like as an aero plane. Captain welcome us while we enter the restaurant, air hostages assisted us to take our seats. The foods also were delicious.
I think this is a rare experience.

I request all the members to have this experience while they will visit Dhaka in near future.

Dr.Barai

Thanks for the invitation. But I fear that with increasingly more terror trails from india leading to Bangladesh, Indians will be progressively more reluctant to visit this country. Their custom officials are really pathetic and much more corrupt than their Indian counterpart. Moreover anti-Indian brain washing is rampant just give an example a 9 yr old boy from an apparently educated and certainly affluent family told me that India has diverted all the river water meant to enter Bangladesh and what ever water we see here is coming from Bay of Bengal. And u know after the 1988 cyclone which killed many at sandeep and hatia islands there was a massive Anti India rally at Dhaka blaming India for this natural calamity!!!!!!!!!

mahmud

Hey Dr. I did not expect such political reply in IM. Bangladesh-India relation (good/bad) is the matter of politicians. Both Bangladesh & Indian politicians used to talk against each other to get votes of fundamentalists. Couple of days ago an Indian politician told that India should attack Bangladesh (is it so easy?). In Bangladesh, we also hear some HOT taliking about India from this kind of people.

But do you know the views of mass people of Bangladesh? Almost all people know about Indian contribution in our independence. Thousand of travelers every day pass Bangladesh border to go India for Traveling as well as Treatment. Just ask them about their view toward India. I personally have respects to India. If you check my earlier posts, you will find the fact.

So, please don’t talk like this way in India Mike.

Dr.Barai

Sory no offence intended. I have traveled Bangladesh extensively and do still continue to travel regularly. so I have some first hand idea about what I have mentioned. It’s a traveling forum and any prospective Indian traveler should know what’s the situation is like there.
Once during my return journey from Dhaka I was forced to spend the night outside Bangladesh custom office check post at Akhaura.The Indian side was willing to let me in but the Bangladesh site had some lame excuse and told me that formalities can only be completed tomorrow morning. I really do not want any of my countrymen to go through experiences like this.

biswassb

This forum is for travel and thus, politics should remain out of it. One exception should be the cases where travel is affected by politics. This is a case in point.

Travellers with Indian passport are very badly treated in Bangladesh. I have been to bangladesh only once and my experience is as follows: We were flying from US to Kolkata through Dhaka airport. We had approximately 10 hours between flights. First, the airport security took my passport and told me to come back couple of hours before the flight to get it back. We spend the whole day in the tiny airport. When I went to get my boarding pass and passport before the flight, they told me that my name is not on the flight roster. I showed my ticket, the man in the counter said that it could be fradulent. When I asked to get a transit visa to get a hotel for the night and sort it out the next day, I was told Indian passport holders can not get transit visa in the airport.

To make a long story short, I pointed to my wife and told the man that my wife with her US citizenship was going to call US Embassy in the next few minutes. He immediately changed his tune and said " Brother, why are you upset, please take a seat, let me see what I can do for you". Five minutes later, I had two seats in the next flight. Just the name of US ambassador will do. The whole episode was pure harassment because I was Indian.

I got the impression that at least Hindu Indians were treated very badly in Bangladesh. In addition, I also noticed in Kolkata that most Bangladeshis who werecrossing the border were mostly smugglers or job seekers particularly domestic help. There could be few who were indeed coming for medical care.

capt_mahajan

After Dr. Barai's initial reply, I wanted to put in my two bits. Didnt because i did not want to start an indo bangladesh thing here.

Still dont.

I will only say that
a) I have been saying for at least ten years that Bangladesh is an ideal country for terrorist organisations to set base in. however, that does not reflect the attitude of people there. bangladesh is not somalia. (somalia.. ah, thats another story. maybe another book!)
b) I have been about a dozen times to Bangladesh, starting from about 1980 and last in 2003, and have been treated very well by officials and non officials alike. not once have i felt discriminated against because i was a hindu/indian.
c) Indian soldiers have shed blood for Bangladesh, and India has accepted hordes of refugees. can this be forgotten in a hurry?

i wouldnt hesitate to go there again.

mahmud

Thanks capt_mahajan & sorry for all the travelers who had bad experience in customs or other Bangladeshi officials. Actually, this is not real Bangladesh. The Bangladeshis are hospitable. At least half dozen friends of India (who wrote me through IM) came Bangladesh last 2 years. Almost all stayed at my residence. They enjoyed the hospitality of Bangladeshis. I posted the details of their travel earlier.

If you go through lonely planet travel forum (Thorn Tree) you will find many posts about hospitality of Bangladesh.

Yes, I also recognized the contribution of Indian soldiers during our liberation war.

I again sorry & invite IM friends to visit Bangladesh again. Before that just send me an e-mail. I will arrange evrything.

biswassb

That is simply not true. As Taslima Nasreen portrayed in her novels, it is a real hateful country. That is my experience. If you are Hindu and got treated better by the bangladeshis, more power to you. But that is not what I have seen in Bangladesh. I tried to forget that incidence. After reading Dr. Barai's post I realized it was not an isolated case in Dhaka airport. I avoided Dhaka/Bangladesh in the last ten years.

mahmud

I will again say that you can not justify a nation only though some isolated incident. I am giving the experience of a foreign girl in India which posted in Thorn Tree forum. After reading this post, you can not say that all Indians harass women sexually. The post giving as under:

(http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/me...entid=0&from=1)

A post for single females in India

Look, I'm not here to scaremonger, however I felt the need to share my experiences from the last three weeks I have spent in India.

India - wow - the food - fantastic, the history and culture- rich, the scenery - beautiful.

However, as a single 27-year old female travelling predominently alone in India (my boyfriend had to go back to Australia for his grandfather's funeral at short notice), I have been sexually molested 4 times in three weeks.

Three times in the space of about 10 minutes outside Jama Masjid mosque in Old Delhi (the market outside), where three different men groped my breasts, bum and legs, and once in the open street of Jophpur where an old man swung into me and flicked his hand up the inside of my thigh. Each time, the said violator melted into the dense crowd, or upon my loud protests, scampered away before I could identify him.

At all times I have dressed conservatively (t-shirt or long sleeved shirt and long pants). At the mosque I was even wearing a headscarf(!) I have avoided eye contact and kept conversations to a minimum.

The tourist police have been very supportive, but unfortunately confirmed to me that this is not an uncommon experience.

I've decided to put this down to a little bad luck and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I still want to make the most of my time here. However, it shouldn't be ignored.

Don't be put off, but do be prepared. I would avoid markets during peak hours, or find a friend or another traveller (preferably male) to accompany you. Otherwise be prepared to stick your elbows out or block any stray hands. Also - be prepared to be followed and stared at. Its mostly harmless, but still a little unnerving.

During the short time I was accompanied by my boyfriend before he left for Australia, I wasn't hassled at all.

This is one time that having a guy around really comes in handy girls

mahmud

BTW, despite of such sexual harrasement, I will not recomend any solo girl to AVOID India.

MoritzK

bisswasb, I don't understand why you want to make it a point to judge the country based upon an incident you had? One of my best friends is German-Indian (his parents are Indian, he grew up in Germany), you don't want to know how often he has been singled out and harrassed by German immigration, despite having a German passport? He still doesn't advise people not to go to Germany, he encourages them.

Bangladeshi officials can be less than forthcoming, for Bangladeshis as for foreigners alike. So I'd let people know what to expect, but by all means don't discourage them from going there and having a great experience with the Bangladeshi people.

__________________
Tham Dee Dai Dee - Do Good and You Will Receive Good

PeakXV

I agree with Moritzk. Isolated incidents are hard to gauge because of real time situations &/or personality conficts that may fuel egos/responsibilities. Bangladesh seems to be, from most of the sticky threads - a safe and interesting country to visit. Here is one example:

Bangladesh - thoughts and advice from my recent trip

__________________
We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started ...and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

biswassb

That is the way it is. We judge everything based on our experience. It may not be to your liking and perhaps different from your experience. In addition, Taslima wrote numerous books that support what I saw in a ten hour stint in the Dhaka airport.

PeakXV

I thought Taslima is the one with the Fatwa on her head? Probably explains why she doesn't exactly get the executive treatment. I would imagine if I took a film crew into India ... wanting to make a documentary on a deep dark ritual/tradition ... I may well get a bash in the mouth too! Deserved or not ... its the law of the land. That doesn't mean that there is any excuse for customs officials stereotyping and assuming things of people ... just by the color of their skin or passport. That's unacceptable ..... but appears to happen more frequent in these current unstable times.

biswassb

Taslima Nasreen is the greatest daughter of Bangladesh. I am sure someday she will receive Nobel prize for her literary as well as work towards peace. Who are you to criticize Tasleema Nasreen and what that criticism is worth? She brought to light the scourge of a society covered under the name of religion. She is like Hirsi Ali of Europe. I salute all these brave women of the world who speak up and fought against religious oppression of women in the name of religion.