Bangladesh wrap-up: route, transport, visa & budget

Visa

We obtained our visa in Kolkata but it took us quite some efforts to get them. We paid multiple visits to the consulate where the people couldn’t believe we wanted to go to the country just for tourism.

• Visit 1: “Please come back with a letter why you want to go to Bangladesh.”
• Visit 2: “Please come back with a letter from someone you know in Bangladesh.”
• Visit 3: “OK, we’ll process your application, please come back in a few days.”
• Visit 4: “Why do you want to go again? Please have a talk with our High Commissioner.” (After the visit we were promised the visa would be granted.)
• Visit 5: We picked up our visa!

The visa costs RS4000 and was valid for 3 weeks.

The route

We spent 20 days in Bangladesh and these are the places we covered:

• Dhaka
• Dhaka – Srimangal (train) – Dhaka
• Dhaka – Rajshahi (train) – Puthia (bus) – Natore (bus) – Khulna (train)
• Khulna – Barisal (bus)
• Barisal – Kuakata (bus) – Barisal
• Barisal – Dhaka (boat)

We arrived by train from Kolkata and went back to Kolkata afterwards.

Travel by train Traveling by train through the country was pretty straightforward.

• Tickets: 
  • We bought some of our tickets online and some of them directly in the station.
  • I always looked up the train number and wrote it down on a note which I handed to the man at the counter so he could easily book the tickets.
  • There’s one line for tickets TO a location and another line for tickets FROM a location. If you want return tickets you’ll have to buy two separate ones.
• Comfort: All trains were very comfortable and arrived on time. There are people on the train selling food (not always recommended) and snacks (always fine).
• Crossing borders: You have to get off to “check out” of India and once more to “check into” Bangladesh. Everything was well organized and the stops didn’t take long.

A lot of information can be found on the website of the Man in Seat 61.

The budget*

The estimate: $32.40/day/person (€ 23.65)
The outcome: $25.28/day/person (€18.45)

Our primary expenses were:

• Stay (hotel, guesthouse,..): 32.5% ($8.20 / €5.99 a day)
• Food (half to dinner, other half to breakfast, lunch & snacks): 26.6% ($6.73 / 4.91 a day)
• Public transport: 17.1% ($4.31 / €3.15 a day)
• Communication  (Wifi dongle, sim & costs): 8.4% ($2.13 / €1.55 a day)
• Taxi: 5.6% ($1.42 / €1.04 a day)
• Souvenirs: 2.5% ($0.63 / €0.46 a day)
• Museum (all entry tickets): 2.4% ($0.59 / €0.43 a day)
• Rentals (bike): 2.4% ($0.59 / €0.43 a day)

* € is accurate, $ depends on the exchange rate.