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China might not be the most charming nation at times, yet the countryside and bustling cities make up for the lack of hospitality. For many years China as been one of our favourite travel destinations.
China is home to one of the world’s oldest and most complex civilizations covering a history of over 5.000 years. The nation covers a large geographical region with customs and traditions varying greatly between towns, cities and provinces.
Hong Kong offers culture, flair, lifestyle, luxury & adventure. For us, it’s one of the coolest cities in the world. It’s renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of only 1.104 km2, it’s home to a population of more than seven million people, therefore Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
Hands are those very useful things at the ends of your arms.
I have always been fascinated with hands as a photo subject because they give you an insight on the persons life story: how old they are, where they come from, what they do, what their living situation looks like. Our human hands are truly unique. The appearance of your hands can reveal whether you perform extremely gentle and precise actions such as playing the violin, or heavy labor, such as digging. Only we can grasp, hold, move, and manipulate objects with them. We use our hands to feel whether something is rough or smooth, hot or cold, sharp or dull.
Now take a moment to hold them out in front of you. Look at them. They are the only two you will ever have.
The minute we arrived at Sadarghat Port, we were surrounded by ferrymen who were all eager to row us up and down the river in one of the the many Sampan ferries – the small wooden boats, powered and steered by one person. They wait in a cue to pick up passengers. Watching & documenting the daily life at this very busy port has already fascinated us during our visit in 2012 and we were eager to experience it all over again.
Once we settled the price (roughly 150 Taka per hour – excluding tips), the journey took its course. Rush hour in the Dhaka mean that thousands of people have to cross the busy waters of the Buriganga river. It’s said that this is one of the most dangerous waterways on Earth … and most dangerous for the ferrymen.
These men are really talented and fast with their boats; they navigate them like the cycle Rickshaw drivers maneuver their through the chaotic traffic in the city. It’s hard physical work too with temperatures of up to 40° Celsius (and very often the ferrymen are over 70 years old). Very impressive! It’s not a comfortable ride tough, because you have to sit cross-legged on the wooden boat deck, so cramps are a certain factor if you’re not used to sit in such a position (and of course this was the case for us).
Traffic along the Buriganga river is most common and happening at almost any given hour of the day: big boats and small boats filled with all sorts of different goods make their way up or down the river stream, launches (this is what ferries are called in Bangladesh) come and go, cargo-ships that need a repair job are parked along the waterway…all is normal here at Sadarghat port. As you can imagine with all these boats, several movements of these ferrymen are clearly not for the faint-hearted, but somehow it works out most of the times. Still, every day one or two boats capsize. And sometimes people die.
Sadarghat port is an experience itself and a must for every Bangladesh visitor – the daily chaos with all these boats on the river will stay with you for a long time.
From North to South, Italy offers some of the most stunning landscapes one could ever find. And luckily, it’s also Austria’s neighbouring country, which makes visiting often quite simple.
Bangladesh is a stunning country located in the Indian-subcontinent. Formerly known as East Pakistan, it became independent in 1971 after 9 months of bloody war and brutal killings of 3 million people, mostly students and intellectuals.
Bangladesh is renowned for its Cox’s Bazaar beach which is the longest in the world, the beautiful and world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sunderbans, as well as the second largest ship breaking yard in Chittagong or Sadarghat Port, one of the toughest waterway crossings.
Despite being a poor country and devastated by natural disasters and periodic floods every year, Bangladesh is growing strong, gradually developing and is a country with the most welcoming people you’ll ever come across.
Australia is the sixth-largest country and dazzlingly diverse: a sing-along medley of mountains, deserts, reefs, forests, beaches and multicultural melting-pot cities. And with Sydney, one of the coolest places to visit. Day or night, Sydney sure is good-looking!
When travelling through Indonesia, welcoming people, tropical beaches, active volcanoes, deep jungles, and rough seas (at times) will be part of your journey. Indonesia is a country that we’ve fallen in love with a long time ago during our first trip in 1994, and every visit holds new impressions and experiences for us. It’s almost like coming home.