Look inside Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban, Bangladesh's National Assembly building

Posted on 05. Oct, 2008 by in Best of Bangladesh

~story by Mikey Leung~ Tours of Bangladesh’s famous National Assembly building are not too hard to come by, with a few private operators offering to arrange the trip. But for those of you who don’t get the chance.. here’s what some careful digging has discovered: Nathaniel Kahn is Louis Kahn’s son. The famous architect was [...]

If you do Old Dhaka only once, go during Durga Puja

Posted on 01. Oct, 2008 by in Best of Bangladesh, Events

The Urban Study Group is at it again: this time they’re hosting a one day walk on 7 Oct, what will hopefully be one of the least busy times during Durga Puja, as its normally thronging with thousands of people. What follows is a calendar of events of what will happen over the festival, which [...]

Banladesh Music Scene: A Night of Blues and Jazz @ Le Saigon, 26 Sep

Posted on 20. Sep, 2008 by in Events

Groove Therapy is Dhaka’s latest sensation in jazzy entertainment—the group has been playing clubs and restaurants for the last several months. We at Joybangla haven’t had a chance to catch a show yet, but this might be a good time to enjoy Le Saigon’s fab food, and catch some great music at the same time. [...]

Journeys in Bangladesh: a photo exhibition

Posted on 12. Sep, 2008 by in Editorials, Events, Photography

Click here for the full size flyer. We’re finally presenting our images to the Dhaka-viewing public! We hope you can make it out next weekend. Here are the details: Journeys in Bangladesh: A photo exhibition by Belinda Meggitt and Mikey Leung 18-20 September 2008 BAGHA Club, Road 44, Gulshan 2, Dhaka Exhibition Opening: 19.30 pm [...]

Amar Sonar Bangladesh: photo video presentation

Posted on 07. Aug, 2008 by in Best of Bangladesh, Free Travel Tips, Photography

~photos by Mikey Leung and Belinda Meggitt~ We’ve received some mixed reviews over the above photographic video presentation, which we’ve shown to some members of the Bangladesh tourism industry. Some people love the images and the music, while others have told us some of the images portray a side of Bangladesh that should remain hidden. [...]

Indigenous Women in Bangladesh — exhibition by Bangladeshi photographer Mahmud

Posted on 06. Aug, 2008 by in Chittagong Hill Tracts, Events, Photography, Responsible Travel

Click here for the full size flyer. Over 50 different indigenous societies live in Bangladesh, scattered around country. Among them, their female members are perhaps some of the people most excluded from the rest of society, in terms of education, health care and government resources. Mahmud, of MAP Photo Agency, has photographed these populations for [...]

Postcards & Giftcards of Bangladesh on sale

Posted on 20. Jul, 2008 by in Photography, Website News

Click on the image or here to see the full flyer. Have you been stuck searching for the brighter side of Bangladesh in pictures? Search no more. Our photography (Belinda Meggitt and Mikey Leung) is now on sale as gift cards or postcards. Special edition prints are up for grabs too—contact us. We’ll show you [...]

Full Moon Beach Parties at Cox's Bazaar

Posted on 25. Jun, 2008 by in Best of Bangladesh, Events

~story by Mikey Leung~ Full Moon Beach Parties in Bangladesh? Just last year, most travellers wouldn’t have dreamed of it. But the reality is that they are now a monthly occurrence, drawing anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred people to the beachside at Cox’s Bazaar every month. The parties are an initiative [...]

Responsible Business Bangladesh steps up its game

Posted on 13. Jun, 2008 by in Responsible Travel

RBBA, or “Responsible Business Bangladesh,” is a new initiative of Florence Calvet, a French national who has an excellent sense of duty to the people she employs and about the kind of business she wants to create. In her own words: What is behind the idea of RBBA and Chez Flo. It’s what I call [...]

Intrepid Travel comes to Bangladesh

Posted on 11. May, 2008 by in Events, Free Travel Tips, Responsible Travel

~story by Mikey Leung~ Award-winning Australian tour operator Intrepid Travel is coming to Bangladesh (click here to see the new itinerary). This is big news, considering that Intrepid is one of the world’s leading Responsible Travel (RT) operators, having won the ‘Best Overall Tour Operator’ award from the UK’s Responsible Tourism awards in 2006. Some [...]

"The Dhaka Project" seeks volunteers, funding, resources

Posted on 08. May, 2008 by in Responsible Travel

~story by Mikey Leung~ The Dhaka Project is one of those special projects that inspires hope, creates real change and works with some of the most disadvantaged children Bangladesh has to offer. When Emirates flight attendant Maria Conceicao visited a slum near Zia International Airport, she decided she would change the future of the children [...]

Tour operators of Sundarban: the Joybangla.info review

Posted on 04. May, 2008 by in Editorials, FAQ, Sundarbans

~story by Mikey Leung~ You’re considering a journey to Sundarban, one of the world’s most pristine wildernesses and certainly a highlight of the subcontinent. Who do you turn to for more information? In the course of our research we’ve managed to try out a few operators—but perhaps you know others. Feel free to let us [...]

Dhamrai Metal Works Exhibition, May 1-2

Posted on 24. Apr, 2008 by in Events

~story by Mikey Leung~ The German Club (House No. 24, Road. No. 104) is hosting an exhibition of brass sculptures on May 1st and 2nd, 09:30am – 19:30pm. The sculptures were produced by the Banik family of the Dhamrai Metal Works and the designs are splendidly intricate and detailed. Sukanta Banik has long been fighting [...]

Fake guidebooks and some insight into the publishing world

Posted on 15. Apr, 2008 by in Editorials

~story by Mikey Leung~ A number of people have e-mailed us noting the recent news that a Lonely Planet author admitted to not even travelling to some of the destinations he wrote about, to which Lonely Planet has already written a factually-based retort on its website. The offending author, Thomas Kohnstamm, claims that he didn’t [...]

Touring Old Dhaka? Talk to the Urban Study Group

Posted on 14. Apr, 2008 by in Best of Bangladesh

Homaira and Taimur of Dhaka’s Urban Study Group have started offering guided explorations of Old Dhaka, on both the weekends and weekdays, in an effort to see some of the older buildings preserved and restored. Here’s a quote from their recent mailings regarding the preservation work they’re attempting to do: While our documentation of the [...]

Conserving the Sundarbans Tigers: The Sundarbans Tiger Project speaks out

Posted on 30. Mar, 2008 by in Editorials, Sundarbans

Tigers are in the news again, but finally we’re hearing from the conservationist side of the story. As Adam Barlow writes: I hope, for the sake of the tigers, that there will be no further unbalanced attacks the media that are at best divisive and at worse damage tiger conservation. It is much easier to [...]

The Rocket: a misnomer of sloth-sized proportion

Posted on 28. Mar, 2008 by in Best of Bangladesh, Free Travel Tips, Sundarbans

When the Rocket steamer service first commenced its service in 1956, the vessels may have been some of the fastest water-borne vessels of their time. Eighty years and one refurbishment later, the four Rocket is still “hammering around the Delta,” as travel writer Jack Barker put it, and fortunately only one of the six original [...]

Brothel Justice: documentary screenings in Canada

Posted on 19. Mar, 2008 by in Events

VSO Canada is proud to present “Brothel Justice” – a short documentary film based on the lives of women living and working in a brothel in Bangladesh. See how these women are breaking through social and political barriers to empower themselves and make change. Brothel Justice is a public engagement component of SCORE : Strengthening [...]

Nazimgarh Resort: A taste of Bengali luxury

Posted on 02. Mar, 2008 by in Best of Bangladesh, Responsible Travel

~story by Mikey Leung~ There are some rare moments as a guidebook writer that I am given a chance to enjoy the peace and serenity offered to me by the natural beauty of Bangladesh, and I try to seek out these experiences whenever possible. One of these rare moments came as I sat on the [...]

Tiger collaring under controversy in Bangladesh

Posted on 01. Mar, 2008 by in Editorials, Responsible Travel, Sundarbans

Some recent controversy has arisen over the work of the Sundarbans Tiger Project, a conservation project based in the Bangladesh side of the Sundarbans. The issue mainly stems over whether the project is doing good by learning the habits of the majestic animal, or contributing to its demise. Its opponents argue that the drug used [...]

Walk For Those Who Cannot: Sponsored walk for CRP

Posted on 27. Feb, 2008 by in Events

~story by Belinda Meggitt~ Patients at CRP go through a rigorous rehabilitation process to assist their reintegration into mainstream society. See more photos here. Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP), based at Savar, has worked extensively throughout Bangladesh since the 70s to improve the care of People with Disabilities (PWD), especially the paralysed. [...]

Things you should know about Bandarban, before you go

Posted on 27. Feb, 2008 by in Best of Bangladesh, Chittagong Hill Tracts, FAQ

~story by Mikey Leung~ At the Guide Tours’ Hillside Resort, you awake to a stunning view of hills poking out from the clouds. See more photos of Bandarban here. It’s absolutely outrageous to say this, but be prepared to be followed by the police where ever you go while visiting one of Bangladesh’s most attractive [...]

Mushrooming Hotel Trade on St Martin's Island

Posted on 21. Feb, 2008 by in Best of Bangladesh, Editorials

~story and photo by Belinda Meggitt~ Originally published in the New Age, Feb. 13, 2008. More photos available here. For a country that blossoms with national pride, the majority of Bangladeshis fail to respect the country’s natural wonders. St Martin’s Island, where once thousands of migratory birds sought refuge, turtles laid eggs and coral grew, [...]

Refugees need education materials at Cox's Bazaar

Posted on 21. Feb, 2008 by in Best of Bangladesh, Responsible Travel

While the beach at Cox’s Bazaar becomes more and more crowded with people this tourist season, very few know visitors know that there is a refugee camp not far from Bangladesh’s much-heralded beach paradise. And the people at this camp need help. World Food Programme Volunteer Lindy Hogan writes: As most of you know, I [...]

Interview with Hasan Mansur, President of TOAB

Posted on 01. Feb, 2008 by in Editorials

Hasan Mansur, on right, at the September 2007 Bangladesh Travel and Tourism Fair. Click the photo to see more images from the fair. Hasan Mansur likes to think of his work as “seeding fertile ground.” The former agriculturalist was studying in the United States when he met a Swedish gentlemen who, at first, employed him [...]

Highlights of the Bangladeshi Photographers Cyclone Sidr exhibition

Posted on 01. Feb, 2008 by in Events, Photography

Click on the image to see more from Russell John. The Bangladeshi Photographers group recently completed a Cyclone Sidr fundraising exhibition, which presented a mix of amateur and professional photography at the Russian Cultural Centre last week. The exhibition has now moved to another venue (details below) but for those who may not able to [...]

Cyclone Sidr Photography Exhibition Fundraiser until Jan. 31

Posted on 29. Jan, 2008 by in Events

Click on the image to see it in full size. The Bangladeshi Photographers group is holding a Cyclone Sidr fundraising exhibition until January 31 at the Russian Cultural Centre in Dhanmondi. What is most impressive about this event is not only quality of the images but by the collaboration of the photographers involved. We’ll be [...]

Forest Department Develops New Eco-Tourism Excursions for Cox's Bazaar Tourists

Posted on 24. Jan, 2008 by in Best of Bangladesh

republished from www.Nishorgo.org Cox Bazaar, January 07, 2008: Forest Department’s Nishorgo Program has taken 15 leading Cox Bazaar tour operators and hotel owners to newly established eco-tourism areas at Mochoni Nature Park and Kudum Cave within the Teknaf Game Reserve, as part of an effort to expand the excursion outings from the increasingly crowded Cox [...]

Rangamati — the CHT's most accessible destination

Posted on 21. Jan, 2008 by in Chittagong Hill Tracts

This local villager is one of the benefactors of Green Hill’s gravity irrigation system. His village was fully outfitted with running drinking water and is one of Green Hill’s earliest success stories. Green Hill is a Rangamati-based non-government organisation supporting the development of hill tracts people. See more photos here.. Rangamati is perhaps the most-travelled [...]

Guide Tours online fundraising complete: $1,855 raised

Posted on 21. Jan, 2008 by in Sundarbans

A woman stands with her young daughter while collecting relief goods being delivered from CARITAS. Villagers suffered greatly during the cyclone. Many lost their homes, boats and livelihoods. Nevertheless, people are now busy picking up the pieces and rebuilding their lives. See more photos here.. Dear Donors, Well aware that this message is late in [...]

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