Zia International Airport

As I stepped into the immigration hall, I was wondering if I had arrived in the wrong country it resembled Singapore's Changi or at least Bangkok's Duang Mong airports I had passed through days earlier on my way from San Francisco. Whereas there were only two or three counters back in the winter of 2002, I was greeted with no less than a dozen passport control counters open for Bangladesh citizens. The staff were very helpful, welcoming and jovial politely ushering passengers to the next available counter. My suitcase was already on the carousel as I stepped into the luggage hall something that I have come to expect only at super efficient Singapore. Customs was simply a matter of putting my luggage through their scanner. Then I stepped out on the street and saw one person receiving me as he stood by the gate where cars have to wait for arriving passengers. My car came inside the enclosure and we drove out no hassles, no gymnastics, no complaints and certainly no harassment!

As for being seen of, I have long come to accept with grace the need for curt goodbyes by the curbside at ZIA given the limitations of this country and in the interest of maintaining smooth flow of traffic as well as for the ultimate benefit of my fellow air travellers. Quite frankly, I have experienced just as chaotic scenes at London's Heathrow and New York's Kennedy these are all simply facts of modern day travel.

On a separate but related note, I was already speaking with the person receiving me even before getting out of the aircraft thanks to the local GSM networks that my US mobile phone was able to latch on to. I wondered if my experience was at all different from arriving in London, Washington or San Francisco.

Bangladesh appears to have changed a lot it's all very exciting and I can already feel the buzz it's good to be here!