DHAKA POST SCRIPT

Wala pong mosque o simbahan.

Kaya pansit na lang muna ang maihahain ko para sa inyo...

FEELING VIP

What I like best in our recent trip to Bangladesh is the VIP treatment.

We were ushered in the VIP Lounge at Dhaka's Hazrat Shajalal International Airport after disembarking and have someone clear immigration and retrieve our luggage for us.

We have our own limo too and were billeted at the 5-star Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel. 

I got to attend my second formal state dinner (the first one was in Benin; those in the UNFCCC were receptions and not included).

And I shoot a lot of VIPs.

Dhaka is known as the City of Mosques. The downside is I did not get the chance to shoot any of them. 

PHOTOS (from top to bottom): Among the VIPs I shot were: (1) Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, (2) former president  Jose Maria Figueres Olsen of Costa Rica, and (3)  Commissioner Yeb Sano of the Philippine Climate Change Commission.

BANGLA NIGHTS

Left Manila at 10 pm and arrived in Dhaka the next morning at 2 am.

Attended the welcome reception and state dinner until 11 pm.

Went out for a dinner with the Ambassador and his staff the next night until 10 pm.

Left Dhaka at 1:30 the next morning.

That's all I have to tell about my Bangla Nights.

PHOTOS EXPLAINED (from top to bottom): (1) My seat at the state dinner, (2) a frame of the cultural show during the state dinner, and (3) our dinner with Ambassador Bahnarim A. Guinomla and his staff.