Hotelnet: Thu 00:10

I was asked if I wanted to use the Internet in the hotel, I checked that it was free and the guy said he would get the hotel boy to show me the connection. I wasn't quite sure why he couldn't just give me the wi-fi details but it turns out there's a 10m length of UTP hiding behind a curtain. Top!

Crossing the border this morning was reasonably straightforward even if I did have to persuade the Bangladeshi side to fill in the carnet. The problem was, once I started to ask if they wanted to fill it in they did even though they didn't know what they (they being a couple of teenagers from what I could tell) were doing. I made sure they only filled in the two entry forms and that I got a signature, a date and a stamp. Quite what they do with the bit they tore off is anyone's guess.

Rather curiously, the Indian side of the border (head 3km ENE from Agartala centre) is built up as you might expect, however, the Bangladeshi side appears to be 2m lower as the road, seemingly flat throughout, becomes a single-track causeway.

I had no hassle from money-changers which was a pleasant change though as I realised shortly after that meant I had no Bangladeshi money which might be an issue later.

Anyway, that causeway continues to the next town a few km away with rather fetching trees lining the route. In fact, as almost all of the causeway following up to the main highway was densely tree-lined I wonder if in fact the trees are structural to prevent the causeway washing away. Heavily cultivated either side and with significant amounts of stored water you almost get the impression the place is permanently suffering from floods.

As a side note, the road construction appears to be a brick base topped with tarmac, the same technique used in Tripura. Out here in the boonies the road suffers from severe subsidence giving some sections a harsh roller-coaster effect as well as the tarmac having disappeared and the bricks bubbled up to provide a lumpy obstacle.

In fact I suffered this for rather longer than I should as there were no English signs or numerals whatsoever so I missed the critical due-south-east road and bumbled into the hinterland and back out again through some busy towns.

Eventually, I found the main Dhaka-Chittagong highway (I don't think it has a number) and it turns out to be rather a good single-carriageway. Where it's quiet you can get a bit of a move on. Sadly, it's not that quiet, populated by a lot of trucks and some buses that have had their bodywork redone so many times that it resembles paper-mache (which might well be the major structural component).

The buses are devilish, here, and are seemingly driven by imported Iranians who drive them as fast as you like and will make every attempt to overtake. They still, like India, have little in the way of rear-view mirrors or rear light clusters (in India there'd be an empty hole with some wires in the bodywork where the light cluster should be, in Bangladesh that has been filled in) so making your presence felt and avoiding the bus stopping for fares is a tricky business.

As with India, the "might is right" rule (perhaps better expressed as "I was here first") prevails and I was sent into the verge a few times. The worst cases involve tailgaters so that you might believe that you can remain on the road with your estimate of when the bus will have done its overtaking and taking into account all the relative braking going on) only to find it's not just a bus coming through but an SUV or another bus/truck is chancing its arm as well. Then you get a last minute dive into the rough.

Anyway, some progress was made and I hit Chittagong at 3pm. Except that BD is GMT+6 so it was really 3:30. Some guys directed me to a bank that would do foreign exchange. I went in and said "Foreign Exchange?" to the guard who pointed me upstairs. That turned out to be a hotel... Back in the bank I was told that forex is only done in Agarbad (which it took a little while to elicit was an area of Chittagong). I was given strict instructions that it was 3km straight down the road.

2km down the road, it forked and I just knew that "straight on" would really have meant take the left fork. Anyway, straight on, I found another bank and after several attempts (partly confused by the presence of a forex board) managed to get directions: go left at this junction then straight for not more than 2km. After talking to someone else there was an added: turn right in there as well, somewhere.

A guy who had commented that I shouldn't leave my stuff unguarded -- I wouldn't leave the tank bag and GPS normally but I wasn't expecting "where's Agarbad?" to be so involving -- suggested that if I wait five minutes he could show me. As he said that the shutters came down on the bank. They close at 4pm. Bugger. There were some money exchangers in Agarbad too, he said, which would still be open.

So he and his matey took me up the road through some slow moving jams and, indeed, found the banks closed but a money changer did the honours for EUR50 to cover the first night. I asked if they knew any hotels and they kindly took me round the corner to a hotel that wanted USD50 (they had a nicely printed card just in USD) which wouldn't leave me much change. We managed to get the name of another hotel and they guys took me to the Landmark Hotel, Agarbad, Chittangong at n22 19.797 e91 48.735 where they wanted a mere USD35-ish.

The German guy I met yesterday suggested you could live comfortably for USD30 per day in Bangladesh which might well be true but I don't have a guidebook so am at the mercy of whatever I can see or be directed to by strangers. I might have to seek out a bookshop tomorrow.

A very comfortable little place it is too. The menu in the restaurant had about 6 pages of Thai food and a couple of Chinese, Bangladeshi and Indian. I tried what I thought would be That from the Chef's Specials but it turned out to be rather bland Chinese (or rather bland Thai, obviously). Never mind.

Keeping in mind the chasing about done by Moin and Doha for me in finding the banks and hotels I thought I'd try looking up hotels in Bangladesh online. It's not that easy. Yes, you can get a list but not always how much they cost -- or not how much they actually cost when discounts are factored in (as I noticed Moin doing every time he asked on my behalf). I still need my guidebook, then.

I also found that O2 are in cahoots with GrameenPhone here in Bangladesh and despite the iPhone listing GP it wasn't connecting. So I selected it explicitly, no luck, rebooted the phone and, ding-ding, I'm back alive.

Unfortunately, I can't send and SMS updates at the moment as there's been a disk failure in the computing facilities back at the ranch and a box has been switched off and awaits some intervention. So it's Internet updates for a while, still.

At least BD has the Internet.

I hadn't realised it was quite so late, either. It's a five hour ride tomorrow, apparently, down to Cox's Bazar. And that's after shopping/banking.