Packing

The Visa saga is over.  It took many emails, several phone calls to Bangladesh, a drive to Canberra, three cancelled plane flights - but it finally arrived.  The trip to Canberra made it worthwhile.  They were going on holiday (it is the end of Ramadan) so our personal requests made a difference.  After three weeks of waiting for documents it ended up taking just one day.

The thought of packing makes me not want to travel.  It is even harder when you don't know much about where you are going or have any idea about the apartment you are staying in for the next two years.  We have been informed that they are usually large, have tiled floors, basic furniture and usually poor quality kitchen equipment.

For foodies like ourselves that is a challenge.

• How many crystal wine glasses (assuming we can get wine)?
• What variety of plates do we need?
• Do we take the cast iron frying pan, the wok, the blender, the ice-cream maker?
• Do we take the candle sticks ( the power fails quite often!)
• How many kitchen knives do we need?

And how much of our art collection to take and what about that very special rug?  I hear we need a fan for when the air-conditioning fails and a lamp because the lighting is quite dim.

Our house looks bare.  Our old couch goes today.  Sold for $5!  Then there is two camping chairs, a milk crate table and a mattress on the floor.  All the paintings are packed and there is piles of paper to be sorted through and discarded.

Much of our stuff gets put at the front door with our free sign on it.  We have given away huge amounts of stuff.

Only four days left then it is on the plane.

Can't wait - if only the house would pack itself!

Bangladesh Bureaucracy

The process of leaving from Australia and getting to Bangladesh seems hard.

We were hoping to leave next week and spend some time in Malaysia or Cambodia.  But 10 days from then we have no visa.

We are waiting for "The 'E' Visa Recommendation Letter which will be issued by the Board of Investment (BOI), Prime Minister's Office, Govt. of Bangladesh, is taking a little more time."

The delay is frustrating.  But I suppose that is the way the country runs.

I did however enjoy the letter from the school to the embassy.  The language is interesting!
"Thank you once again in advance for the kind assistance and help rendered to the expatriates teachers in getting their visa's sorted and their smooth entry into Bangladesh. This will enhance our image and the investment sector of Bangladesh and for the educational development of the country."

We have been busy selling things though it often seems like we are giving things away.  We have found a weekly garage sale where we have taken things.  When you set up you immediately get accosted by buyers.  As you are unloading the car they take things out of the car and go through the goods yelling at you to buy something.  The picture alongside shows the throng around our stand.  Stella is in the middle somewhere.

We ended up having a max price of $2 then $1 then 50 cents and finally 20 cents.  One person got a crystal wine decanter, a sandwich maker and a pot for less than $1.

This seems the best way to set up a house.  Wonderful bargains and amazingly good stuff.