Rangpur - Aug 23, 2008 - Rangpur, Bangladesh

Today I hopped over the border into the world's most densly populated country and one of it's poorest. Its clear from the border formalities that this is a little used border crossing, the whole process takes an hour and the border officials take a lot of interest in my passport before putting 6 more stamps in it. They seemed glad for something to do.

Once across the border the differences are immediately apparent. On the Indian side the concrete boxes that Indians now aspire to as homes gives way to huts made of reedmat, and there is a distinct lack of public transport so my only option to get to the nearest town is a 14k ride with a cycle rickshaw to connect for the bus journey to Rangpur, my first overnight stop in Bangladesh. The bus throws off its passengers in Rangpur and I'm trying to find out exactly what part of the map I'm on when Sajjad introduces himself and offers to help me find a hotel room, thus proving one of travelling's most important rules: you can always rely on someone to help you out when you most need it. Sajjad just about speaks English which is an enormous improvement on his fellow compatriots, I'm surprised by how little English is spoken here compared to India. He sorts out my hotel and helps me on where to eat, and we even meet up for a fantastic chinese meal in the evening which he insists on paying for; a heart of gold indeed.

My first impression of Rangpur is the huge number of pharmacies, they are everywhere and are lined up one after another and always busy - Rangpur appears to be a town of hypocondriacs. Also cars appear to be a rarity and there are endless cyclo-ricksaw drivers, so many in fact that I'm wondering how they make any money as supply appears to massively exceed demand.

To be honest there's very little of interest here bar Tajhat Palace thats been turned into a small museum, so I'm off to have a look at the temple at Kantanagar.