If you ever wanted to experience the living reality of the idiom ‘when it rains, it pours’, Bangladesh is the place to be. During the yearly south Asian monsoon, almost all the water collected by the Himalayas in Nepal, north/northeast India and Bhutan transits through Bangladesh on its journey to the Bay of Bengal, depositing life-giving minerals to the soil all along the Ganges Delta, the largest river delta in the world. It is here that the mountains literally crumble to the sea. This has resulted in Bangladesh’s flatland alluvial topography, which is the defining characteristic of the country except in the hilly regions of the southeast and northeast. The mighty Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers are called the Padma and the Jamuna in Bangladesh, and both of these massive rivers join several other smaller tributaries to eventually become the Lower Meghna, forming the great Gangetic Delta. At its widest point near Bhola Island, the river stretches to a yawning 12km-wide breadth on its final leg towards the sea. Seen from a boat, the distinctions between land, river, ocean and sky become decidedly uncertain.

If you come from a temperate climate you might be surprised to discover that despite the fact peak temperature varies between 20°C and 40°C, Bangladeshis recognise no fewer than six seasons over their landscape. Mostly these can be grouped into three smaller seasons. In the winter months of late October to February, conditions are comfortable and dry, with temperatures staying somewhere between 15°C and 25°C, except in December and January, when cold spells grip the land and impenetrable fogs linger well into the morning. From March to May, the heat and humidity build to a point where nearly everything is sweating and hot, and temperatures climb sometimes upwards to a stifling 40°C. Finally, everyone breathes a sigh of relief when the rain bladder breaks and the monsoonal rains reduce temperatures to a more tolerable level through the months of June to September. Each season has a brief transitional period, giving rise to the reason Bangladeshis name six seasons.