Thanksgiving Trip to Sreemongal

Although I have seen it spelled several different ways, Sreemongal is what comes up on Facebook whenever we checked in over the weekend.  No matter how you spell it, Sreemongal was absolutely beautiful!  We took a van from Dhaka to Sylet/Sreemongal and stayed in an Eco-villa with some great friends and had an outstanding time.  Very busy, but fun time.  We got picked up Thursday, Thanksgiving morning, and got dropped back off Saturday evening.  30 minutes after we got out of the van and settled into our room, we were getting on a bike and going for a bike tour of the local tea plantations and surrounding area.  On our way back, we stopped and had a Bangladeshi style Thanksgiving dinner.  Stuffed, we got back onto our bikes and rode the rest of the way back to our villa where we had a few cups of hot local tea before going to bed.  The next morning we woke up early and went for a four hour hike through the hills to a very cool waterfall that gets visited by many locals and tourists alike.  It was definitely a challenging hike, but well worth it.  The hike began in a local village where we were greeted by some children selling bamboo walking sticks...for $0.25 each so of course we bought them.  And we did give them some extra...even if it was because they didn't have change.  HA!  During the hike we had to cross a few "ditches" by some pretty sketchy bamboo bridges.  One was collapsed on our way back through!  After our mega hike, we went back to the villa to freshen up and then off to dinner and 7-Layer tea!  7-Layer tea is exactly what it sounds like, it is 7 layers, each of a different flavor tea.  Reminded us of a warm cider of sorts.  Very good and highly recommended if you ever get the chance to try it.  Saturday morning, we woke up and after another amazing Bangladeshi breakfast of eggs, fruit, roti bread, and tea we were off for another hike.  This time we were in a national park and in the jungle.  We had the unique opportunity to see a family of Gibbons and even got to meet some local jungle 'tribal people' according to our guide...who was AMAZING!  In all, Sreemongal was an excellent trip.  Can't wait for our next Bangladeshi excursion.

Been too long...

Ok, so it has been WAY too long since my last post.  Sorry for that, life just got away from me.  Let's see...what has gone on since the last time I was on here??  Well, we got to travel across about 25% of the country of Saudi Arabia for Spring Break with some great friends, the boys flew on their own from Riyadh to D.C. for the summer while we stayed in Riyadh to settle up there, Billie Jo and I got to travel to Paris for a few days on our way home from Saudi, Gabe & Sam each got to play on two traveling lax teams this summer and brought home some new hardware, we have left Saudi and are now in Bangladesh (Dhaka).  PHEW!  That is a lot!  We have TONS of pictures that I will try to post on here, but may have to take some old ones down first.

Dhaka, Bangladesh??!!  YES!  We heard amazing things about the school and the people here before we got hired and it is living up to the reputation.  Dhaka is a city of about 16 million people and we are in the thick of it here in our apartment.  Oh yeah, our apartment is awesome!  Top floor, 3 BR, modest 2800 sqft flat.  HA!  No, seriously it is nice, not over the top extravagant but nice and more than enough space for the four of us.  The school is as close to TSS as we could ask for.  The boys are settling in quite nicely, making new friends and learning their way around the city.

AISD is great!  It is a hub of the community.  There are parents, students and teachers on campus seven days a week...and not because we have to be, but because we want to be.  It is amazing how much it reminds us of TSS, although TSS still has that special 'it' factor that is just irreplaceable, but AISD is going through some refurbishing so who knows, maybe by the time it is all done it too will have the 'it' factor.  What had made the transition to Dhaka even smoother is that we already had some friends here and another couple we taught with in Riyadh also came here this year with us.  AND we have already had some other friends from Riyadh come stay with us for Eid break.  Still waiting to hear from some friends and family back home to surprise us with the news that they will be coming to stay!  ;)

Well, I will leave with some simple posts of some places we have been so far...and a promise to post more frequently.

Jim

Some of the massive ferry boats in Old Dhaka that run up and down the river daily filled with people

Just one of many beautiful water pics we have while out on the boats

Billie Jo and Gabe on our tour of Old Dhaka...Gabe looks really thrilled!

The oldest Hindu temple in Dhaka....I think that is what the guide said

Rickshaw repair/assembly shop

Just some waterfront houses.  Amazingly enough, the city is less than 1/4 mile to my back in this picture

Stella's not too sure about this...this was one of the bulls that was slaughtered for Eid

Sam at his first Cricket match with his teammates

Our view from our bedroom balcony