The great majority of travellers to Bangladesh, including expatriates, will find almost everything they need on the ground. Naturally, this doesn’t include luxury food items such as alcohol, chocolate or fine coffees, but for just about everything else there is a local equivalent that will allow you to experience some of the local culture at the same time. On second thoughts, there is local alcohol, but as you’d expect from a non-alcoholic nation it’s often of poor quality.

This text originally written by Voluntary Service Overseas volunteer Heidi Eisenhauer for other volunteers. But of course it has some handy hints for those planning a long-term visits to the country.

* self powered flashlight (magnetic or pump)
* head lamp
* travelers wet/dry pants are a good idea
* men wear short sleeve shirts, pants and dress shoes to work
* foreign women may wear what they wish but a mixture of western / kameez and orna is standard
* Flip flops / open toe shoes are essential!! They are sold here but vary in quality
* hand sanitizer
* water bottle / Nalgene bottle
* Gatorade
* Good knives for cooking (if you like to cook the quality of knives in Bangladesh is questionable)
* A laptop if you have one, for watching movies – which cost about 80-100 taka ($1.10 USD)
* Good rechargeable batteries and a charger! The crappy batteries sold here don’t seem to last (most multiplugs are international)
* bring a nice squishy pillow unless you like slabs of rock..
* a backpack

FYI:
1. Almost everything is available here..
2. Some foreign things like coffee are very rare (you may want to bring a bodem).
3. Bring an unlocked phone that takes sim cards if you have one.. if not they average 3,000-20,000 taka $40-$200 here, and a regular sim costs 300 taka.
4. My beds have been 1′ mattresses on wood.. so I was happy to have my yoga mat.. would have been happier with my thermarest.. I bought a foam mattress for 3000 taka when I got settled, and thick stuffed mattresses are about 1,000 taka.
6. you may bring 23kg per bag.. and this will not be a problem for staff picking you up..

Do you have anything else you would suggest visitors bring to Bangladesh? Please give us your input..