Greetings from Chittagong, Bangladesh! We’ve reached our venue safely and are gearing up for the upcoming shoot tonight. Here is the first update of our adventures here so far.

All photos are taken with my iPhone.

Pre-Bangladesh Departure

Preparing for a trip like this was no easy feat. Firstly, we were flying on a budget airline and weight is always an issue. I am only giving 7kg allowance for my hand carry and 15kg for my check-in luggage. First lesson that I’ve learnt is never to pack your bags on the last minute. I had to pack and repack my bags again to make sure that I do not have overweight baggages.

First attempt
- Hand carry 15kg
- Check-in luggage 17kg

I called Grace from Wedding Story to find out how to travel light with all those equipments. And I also called Kee Sitt and he said, “Oh, you better reduce the weight, they won’t let you on the plane!” Ok, time to repack.

Second attempt
- Hand carry 13kg
- Check-in luggage 16kg

Oh dear, still can’t fit everything into two bags! It’s practically impossible to get both my camera gear and notebook under 7kg! So, repack again! This time got my wife to help me. She’s really good at these kinda stuff. For the next 5 mins, you’ll see shoes flying, clothes flying as she rummages through my luggage. “You don’t need this!”, “Don’t bring that!”, “Why do you need this?”, “Forget this one!”

Final attempt
- Hand carry 10kg
- Check-in luggage 15kg

OK, I guess that will have to do. If they stop me, I’ll just have to swim to Bangladesh!

Next morning, I had to wake up at 5.30am to catch the morning flight to KL to meet up with the Wedding Story team. To my amazement, I brought the least stuff! Look at our total baggage for the 4 of us.

The flight to Dhaka left at 2pm. You can check out our little video on the Wedding Story blog.

Arriving in Dhaka

The airplane ride took us about 4 hours to reach Dhaka. We met Ali (the groom) and Rubab, his good friend at the airport. Ali brought us to Movenpick to have ice cream. How cool is that? I took a picture of my double scoop Swiss Chocolate ice cream with Ali using my iPhone. Ali is an avid photographer himself, with TWO 5D Mark IIs! Yes, TWO 5D Mark IIs!

During our session at Movenpick, Ali gave us the low down of the whole Bangladeshi culture and wedding scene. I was shocked that the wedding would be attended by some where around 6,000 people! Yes, we will go down in history for covering such a ginormous wedding! Woot!

Proof that the ground staff don’t handle bags with care.

Ali and Rubab brought us back to the hotel to spend the night in Dhaka before flying to Chittagong on next day. The next morning, we did a little bit of exploring on the streets of Dhaka.

Dhaka is filled with these 3-wheeled taxis.

A photo to remind myself that I have stepped on Bangladeshi soil.

The streets were filled with people buying flowers. I think it has to do with the up and coming Bengali New Year (which happens to be the day after we leave, arghhh!). I heard that it is a truly colourful event. How I wished that we could stay for another day or two to experience the culture here.

While we were walking down the streets, people were just following us around and we really stuck out like a sore thumb. I caught a picture of this kid who was chewing a bubble gum.

An old school postal box.

We were recording our little journey for the Wedding Story blog. Be sure to check the blog often as we might update it from time to time. I really regretted not bringing my SLR along. I missed out on so many good shots.

There’s a Citibank in Bangladesh!

From Dhaka to Chittagong

At 3pm, we boarded our plane to Chittagong. I must admit that when I heard that we were flying to Chittagong, my mind was thinking that it would be a jetplane like a Boeing 737. Turns out it was a bi-propeller plane. Haha!

But what really beats all those airlines with first class service is that on this little plane, we can get to choose all those nice and lovely tidbits! Look at what each of us got! Talk about being kiasu!

The ride took us 45 minutes. What a lovely experience it was.

Ali’s cousin picked us up from the airport and we took a scenic route to the place where the wedding would be held. It is also the same place that we would be staying through out the course of the wedding. On our way, I saw this man carrying loooooooooooong bamboo shoots while crossing the road. When I mean looooooooong, I really meant, looooooooong!

That’s all for now and I hope to update more when I get the chance. The Internet here is rather flaky but do check out my Twitter for periodic updates.