5 Things That Surprised Me About Visiting Bangladesh

I recently went to Bangladesh: These are my impressions of visiting the country and the five travel experiences that surprised me most.

Visiting Bangladesh: my main travel impressions

Earlier this year, I travelled to Bangladesh and visited some of the main sights of the country, exploring places such as Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, and the Sundarbans.

My trip to Bangladesh was certainly one of the most interesting and memorable I’ve taken in recent years.

I travelled to Bangladesh with plenty of expectations about what the country would be like, but there were also many things I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

Many Western travellers associate Bangladesh with the other countries of the subcontinent, and this was also my point of reference, having previously travelled to India, Nepal, and Pakistan.

Of course, Bangladesh shares some history and cultural similarities with these countries, but you really need to experience the country on its own terms to appreciate just how distinct it is.

I found that Bangladesh offers a highly unique travel experience that is unlike that of any other country in the region – and I mean that in a good way.

These are the five biggest takeaways about travelling in Bangladesh, based on my own experiences visiting the country.

1. The people from Bangladesh are incredibly hospitable

One of my biggest uncertainties before coming to Bangladesh was what the people would be like and how this would affect my experience of travelling around the country.

Would Bangladesh be more like Pakistan, which I consider to be one of the friendliest countries in the world?

Or would my travel experience in Bangladesh be more like visiting cities like Delhi and Varanasi in India – places I certainly found fascinating, but where you have to be on your guard all the time because of the constant hassle by con artists and pervasive scams?

I was certainly happy to find that the people in Bangladesh are overwhelmingly friendly and hospitable, which is my main impression from visiting the country.

People in Bangladesh seemed genuinely interested in and happy to see a foreign tourist visiting their country.

If I had received a dollar every time someone wanted to practise their English with me or take a selfie, I’d almost be rich.

Something that really surprised me about Bangladesh was that everyone I encountered was completely honest and uninterested in scamming or ripping off foreign tourists.

This could be sheer luck, but this impression is based on numerous interactions and transactions with local people.

I’ve taken a few rides in electric rickshaws across cities without negotiating a fare in advance, and each time I was quoted either a genuine local price or one that was very close to it.

This was also the case when taking a shared motorboat across the Shitalakshya River to reach the fort at Hajiganj.

Rather than waiting for the boat to fill up with other passengers at the ghat, the boatman asked if I would like a private ride across, which I accepted without negotiating a fare.

It was certainly a pleasant surprise when he asked for only around $0.40 when we arrived on the other side of the river.

The same was true when buying all kinds of drinks and snacks from a variety of market stalls and shops in bazaars, railway stations, on trains, and elsewhere, with a fair price quoted each time.

This certainly made travelling around Bangladesh much easier than I had anticipated, and at no point did I ever feel unsafe or as though I had to be particularly wary of scams or other tricks.

2. Bangladesh is more diverse than you think

Bangladesh is a highly populous country of just under 180 million people, defined by its major rivers that flow into the Bay of Bengal, forming what is essentially one enormous delta.

I therefore expected my travel experience in Bangladesh to consist of chaotic cities that I imagined would all be a bit alike, with the countryside being rather boring, as I imagined it would consist mostly of flat countryside criss-crossed by waterways of all sizes.

Yet Bangladesh turned out to be much more diverse than I had expected, in many different ways.

First of all, the cities I visited in Bangladesh all left a completely different impression on me.

They certainly shouldn’t be lumped together, as each one is really unique in its own way.

After visiting Dhaka, the historic and culturally rich capital of Bangladesh, I travelled on to Chittagong without many expectations, thinking it would just be another chaotic city of several million inhabitants.

Chittagong couldn’t have been more different from Dhaka, as the city is enormously leafy and low-key, with the chaos also feeling much less intrusive.

The scenery in Bangladesh was also more diverse than I expected it to be.

Sure, there are a lot of rivers and rice paddies in Bangladesh, though these views never became boring, as they all looked different depending on where I was in the country and were just as evocative as the scenery I experienced while cruising the Nile in Egypt, leaving me with lasting travel impressions.

Moreover, Bangladesh is so much more than just its rivers, delta, and mangrove forests, though time constraints unfortunately meant I had to leave out sights from my itinerary such as the Chittagong Hill Tracts on the borders with India’s Mizoram state and Myanmar, with their distinct indigenous peoples.

If I had had more time, I could also have made a side trip to Sylhet in the north-east of Bangladesh and visited the tea plantations in the highlands near the border with the Indian states of Assam and Tripura, which looks like it would have been another amazing yet completely different travel experience.

Finally, the culture of Bangladesh is certainly more diverse than I initially expected.

Although Bangladesh is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, your impressions will be about much more than just visiting its beautiful mosques, such as the historic Sixty Dome Mosque near Khulna, as the country also has a substantial Hindu minority.

3. Some Bangladesh travel clichés are true, while others are not

Most of my initial expectations of Bangladesh were based on stereotypes you read about in the news or see on social media.

Think of massively overcrowded river boats and trains where people are even riding on the roof, as well as chaotic cities with insane traffic.

And yes, these are all things that you will actually encounter when travelling in Bangladesh, and for better or worse, they will form a strong part of your impressions.

There is a lot of pollution everywhere, whether it is the smog that gets to your throat or plastic and rubbish littered throughout the city streets and countryside.

Of course, there is also a lot of poverty you will encounter when visiting Bangladesh.

Yet Bangladesh is so much more than just these stereotypes, as you will also encounter impressions that are diametrically opposite to them.

There is a growing middle class in the country, and in the cities you can find trendy cafés and restaurants where you can enjoy barista-made coffee and all kinds of world cuisines, just as you would in Stockholm or Singapore.

The clichés about transport in Bangladesh are also only partly true, as while the cheapest travel classes on trains and river boats can be extremely overcrowded, I found that paying for a more expensive ticket gave me a quite comfortable experience.

It’s certainly worth noting here that people always take the most insane videos of overcrowded trains during major religious holidays, when half the country returns from the big cities to their home regions, so these videos don’t reflect everyday transport conditions.

When it comes to the chaos and pollution, I was surprised to see that some steps are being taken to improve the situation, whether it is the Dhaka Metro (MRT) currently under construction or the burgeoning number of electric auto-rickshaws and tricycles on the roads, which reduce emissions but also put additional pressure on the energy network.

Not everything is black and white in Bangladesh, and I’m curious to see what the country will be like in one or two decades from now.

4. Buying transport tickets in Bangladesh is challenging

Apart from the more general impressions I got of Bangladesh as a country, there are also some specific travel experiences that surprised me.

One of my main takeaways from travelling through Bangladesh is how difficult it can be to buy transport tickets, and this is certainly something you should take into account when visiting the country.

The problem is that you can’t really buy transport tickets online in advance, at least not as a foreigner visiting Bangladesh.

My experience with apps and websites like that of the national railway company of Bangladesh is that they either require a VPN to load from abroad or a local telephone or document number to sign up for an account and buy tickets, something I couldn’t get working.

There are some reliable third-party booking websites like 12Go that work with local travel agencies to acquire train tickets for Bangladesh, but these are sold at a heavy premium, and not all tickets can easily be acquired this way.

Finding online timetables showing which river boat routes are currently in operation and what hours they run is also difficult.

You should completely forget about booking them online, as you need to make an old-fashioned visit to the port to either buy a ticket outright or make a down payment to reserve a cabin in advance.

This pretty much leaves only one or two specific bus companies with a functioning online booking system, along with domestic flights, as the only options that you can easily arrange online.

Needless to say, given how important the railway network and river boats are to transport in Bangladesh, this creates massive headaches for foreign visitors.

Although I had made an itinerary that I hoped to follow, this was almost entirely binned on day one.

Instead, I spent a big part of my first day in the country inquiring at Dhaka railway station which trains still had tickets available, and going to the port to get more information on river boat schedules and make reservations.

It was almost like travelling in the days before the age of online booking websites, which will no doubt delight old hands who backpacked through Asia before smartphones and reliable internet connections became a thing.

Yet for more inexperienced travellers, or those with only limited time who need to stick to a tight itinerary, this makes visiting Bangladesh a lot more challenging, as you need a degree of flexibility.

My advice to others who plan to visit Bangladesh, based on my own travel experiences, is therefore simple.

Fly into a major city like Dhaka or Chittagong and make sure you stay there for two or three days to get acquainted with the country and arrange all your transport tickets.

Make a draft itinerary, but stay flexible and adjust it depending on which trains or river boats have availability and which have already sold out.

5. Travel by river boat in Bangladesh is an absolutely epic experience

One of the travel experiences that surprised me most in Bangladesh was taking an overnight river boat, which I did between Barishal and Dhaka.

Travelling by river boat – commonly known as a “launch” in Bangladesh – is such an epic experience, as it combines unforgettable views with total immersion in the local culture.

River boats in Bangladesh come in all shapes and sizes, with smaller craft plying the more narrow waterways and huge five-storey barges sailing along the major rivers between the main cities.

These launches often have brightly lit neon signs and all kinds of other colourful lights, which only adds to their unique charm.

The onboard accommodation ranges from camping out in the open on the lower deck among hundreds of other people, to basic cabins with just a bed, to en-suite VIP rooms.

I had booked such a deluxe en-suite cabin for my river boat journey across Bangladesh, which was certainly a highly comfortable way to travel.

Yet it is the unique atmosphere and the countless interactions with local people that make travelling by river boat such an unforgettable experience.

It starts with frantic scenes right before departure, as workers load all kinds of goods and people rush to board, with some even jumping onto the ship after the crew has taken down the gangway and the vessel is already half a metre from the quay.

During a river boat trip, countless local people will approach you because they are curious about you as a foreign tourist and want to chat with you, invite you to have a cup of tea, or let you try some of the traditional food.

The scenes on arrival are wild too, as river boats bump into each other as they make extremely tight manoeuvres to get into their berthing spaces.

I found the entire river boat experience to be an assault on all my senses, and some of the scenes I witnessed were completely bonkers, but I loved every minute of this controlled madness.

In the end, I only wished the trip had lasted much longer!

Conclusion

Visiting Bangladesh was an absolutely amazing travel experience, and I came away with positive impressions of the country, as many things surprised me in a good way.

First of all, the people of Bangladesh are extremely friendly, hospitable, and honest.

This meant that travelling through Bangladesh was a surprisingly pleasant affair, as I didn’t have to be on the lookout for scams or deal with all kinds of con artists accosting me.

Bangladesh is also a more diverse country than people realise, both in terms of its sights, landscapes, and people.

Although some of the travel clichés about the country – think overcrowded trains, chaotic cities, poverty, and pollution – might be partly true, they don’t tell the full story, and many times my experience was the complete opposite.

A more unwelcome surprise was how difficult it is to book tickets online for trains and river boats.

This means that you need a degree of flexibility when travelling around Bangladesh, as you can’t book all your transport in advance before you arrive, and some of your preferred train or river boat departures might already be fully booked by the time you arrive in the country to buy tickets in person.

Yet once you are on board a train or river boat in Bangladesh, you are in for an epic travel experience, with great views over the rivers and rice paddies, and full immersion into local life.

I especially loved my river boat trip in Bangladesh, which was such an extraordinary experience, with all the crazy scenes you see along the way, that it might very well be my number one travel tip for the country.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that I would actually recommend visiting Bangladesh to others after my trip, as I really loved the experience!