Lonely Planet Bangladesh

"Lonely Planet's" guide to Bangladesh is pretty thin --less than 200 pages -- for a country with a population of 150 million. Well, there's a reason for that. Bangladesh is hardly a tourist paradise. Dhaka is probably the most crowded city in the world and, in fact, the biggest attraction of the city is the traffic -- which is horrendous. The numbers of rickshas is astonishing; they line up eight-across on some streets all jockeying for position with three-wheelers, cars, trucks, buses, hand-pulled carts, and the occasional herd of goats. Dhaka is worth visiting just for a ricksha ride and traffic jams that are simply unbelievable. The country is pretty outside Dhaka: emerald green rice paddies, palm trees, and innumerable little villages. The city of Cox's Bazaar is the honeymooner's capital of Bangladesh. The beach here is advertised as the longest and widest in the world. What interested me was the fact that of thousands of people on the beach only a few boys were actually in bathing attire and in the water. Women may dip their toes in the surf but they don't dress for the occasion. The all-covering Shawar Camise with head-scarf is de riguer as female beachware -- as it is for everyplace else. Despite a lack of major attractions, Bangladesh is not a bad place to visit and you won't encounter crowds of foreign tourists. Maybe you won't encounter any. "Lonely Planet" covers the country in good detail including history, culture, current politics, sidebars about interesting trivia, places to stay and eat, and books you might want to read. It's a good guide to a place that needs a guide. Smallchief