The Commute

I live and work in different parts of Dhaka. It's not a huge city space-wise, but it does take time when you want to go anywhere. There are so many people and so many different types of transportation that they conflict with each other. Anywhere there are rickshaws, they are in the way of cars, busses, and cng's. Drivers of vehicles have to go slow enough to dodge pedestrians and beggars; and manholes are literally random holes that a man could disappear into.


On an average day it takes me 30 minutes to get to the office from the house assuming I don't have to get on a rickshaw and hunt for an available cng that early in the morning. This last week was a normally abnormal week though.

Monday I got a cng from my street and we drove towards work like normal. About 2 miles from the office traffic stopped. After maybe 10 minutes of not moving, I decided it would be better to walk than to sit in the hot cng. I made it a few hundred yards and discovered the reason for the stalled traffic-stalled cars and cngs trying to drive through knee deep water. This part of the city has bad drainage canals and clogged drains so the nights rain was hanging out on the main road. I rolled up my pant legs and trudged on. Thankfully I didn't fall into any of the above mentioned man holes or open sewers that were hiding under the brown water. I made it to the office to find I was only the second one there. After some shops opened I went and bought a new pair of pants and changed out of my wet, now brown pair I'd walked to work in. Total commute: 1hour 40 minutes.
Tuesday I didn't feel well so I worked from home on some balance sheets and P&L statements.

Wednesday I took a rickshaw towards a town center until I found a cng, then off towards the office. About where I'd stopped on Monday due to water, we stopped again, traffic wasn't moving. I could hear large crowds yelling. The cng driver said he wasn't going any further and I decided I'd have to walk it again. This time there were floods of people in the street. Some were sitting, some were standing, others were throwing bricks at buildings and smashing out the windows, but they weren't letting traffic through. I have been warned to stay away from large angry crowds, but I thought "I'm so close to the office, let's go for it...and keep camera in hand." A few factories had closed and workers had not been paid so they were rioting. There were riot police with AK's, shotguns, and teargas. Somehow I walked through the crowds nearly unnoticed and made it to the office. Total commute: 1hr 30 minutes.

Such is life in Dhaka...