102 hours in Dhaka

Progress on the PhD front has been slow to say the least. My normal level of productivity has been drastically hampered by a combination of bad traffic, 24hrs of national strikes (which involves throwing petrol bombs around so best to stay in doors on those days), and a general 'why do it now when it could be done later' feeling by the locals. My first 102 hours in the country have been spent as follows:

12 hours: attempting to leave the airport and meeting my research assistants
48 hours: vomiting due to what I thought was a bad prawn, but in Bangladesh could be anything
6 hours: trying to explain to a small man that I wanted an internet dongle
6 hours: then getting the small man to fix the broken internet dongle he sold me
3 hours: trying to find the map shop only to discover it was closed
36 hours: sleeping :)

I might leave it another week or so before I send an update report to my PhD supervisors. On a plus note we now have a flat in Chittagong (the city where I am living or the next 5 months). This rather nice 3 bed apartment will cost me a mere £220 a month, but I guess that's the price you pay for living in a landslide zone.

So my plans for the next few days, 1) try and get my visa renewed, 2) try and get some visas for Sarah and Simon (my lovely two new research assistants), 3) stop vomiting, 4) and try to work out how to get to the 'Swatch of no ground' a deep sea canyon 50 km off the coast where you can spot Blue Whales, 5) oh and do some work related emails.

Right I'm off to see if my tummy can handle some mashed potato. Back soon.