Thursday 12 March 2015

Bangladesh Trip, 21st Feb 2015 - Day 8



Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Dhaka
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig




Saturday 21st February 2015 was our last full day in Dhaka. It was really great thinking about the amazing trip that I had had in Bangladesh, seeing the Spoon-billed Sandpiper and doing my talk in from of so many people, with the Spoon-billed Sandpiper.




Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Sonadia Island, Bangladesh
Taken by and copyright Baz Scampion



We had a car and driver waiting from the morning, but I didn't get up until 1 pm, catching up on lots of sleep. There had been someone calling Mum all morning, wanting to interview me for Prothom Alo, Bangladeshi's biggest selling daily newspaper. They finally had a brief chat with me and asked me to come over for an interview in the evening. 


Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Dhaka
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig


Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Dhaka
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

The framed photographs and other bits and pieces then arrived and by the time we left the hotel it was 3 pm. The driver was not happy even though he had clearly been asleep or morning. We were heading to Mohammedpur to see a Nani when I got a call to tell us where to go. We actually had to be at Jamuna TV for 7 pm, and not Prothom Alo Newspaper and I wasn't dressed for a TV interview, but there was no time to go back and change now.

We then went to make our second family visit of the week, across town. It always feels good to visit elderly relatives and they are always really kind.  We were also talking to a Mama about the issue of power stations in Bangladesh against need to protect the Sundarbans.  My Musadek Mama was telling us about the massive energy deficit in Bangladesh, as he was high up in the Department of Energy.  I made a mental note to speak to him some more about what the issues are here and what is being done to use renewable energy. 

From about 5.30 pm I was suggesting to Mum that we leave for the TV Station. Mum kept saying we were fine for time, until she suddenly realised it was gone 6.30 pm and we were going to be very late. We rushed on our way and phoned Jamuna TV to at least check that it wasn't a live interview, which it was wasn't. It didn't help that Mum had a debate was the driver about which route he was going.


Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig at Jamuna TV, Dhaka
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig


Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig at Jamuna TV, Dhaka
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig


By the time we got to Jamuna TV, it was 7.30 pm and we were half an hour late. The team was running around, so they were obviously stressed with us being late. First they took footage of me walking in and out of rooms and looking serious. Then they interviewed me and I tried to talk as much as possible about the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, why it’s such an amazing bird and why we need to save it. 


Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig at Jamuna TV, Dhaka
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig


Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig at Jamuna TV, Dhaka
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig


Then they made Mum do an interview in Sylheti, which she hated and said was really embarrassing as her Sylheti is pretty basic. I'm determined to learn some before I come back here.


Helena Craig at Jamuna TV
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig


Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Zahid Hossain Khan at Jamuna TV, Dhaka
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig


By 9 pm we were on our way to meet our friends and family Arshad Khalu and Fiona Khala, at their restaurant Charcoal, in Gulshan. The food was amazing and we had a lovely evening. 


Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Dhaka
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Also my Nana came to join us as well as their friend Aman. It was a lovely co-incidence as he had seen my Facebook Page post about my talk shared in a group called Deshperate and had been really interested by me. It was another co-incidence to meet someone I didn't know who knew about me already. He was interested in travel and astrology as well as wildlife. He showed me some of his favourite videos including the peregrine and cyclist Gee Atherton video made by Simon Baxter for BBC Earth Unplugged http://bit.ly/1AvG9aB, who talked about the making of the video at a Bristol Nature Network talk earlier in the year. I was able to tell them about that talk and the making of the video, which was the second big co-incidence of the evening.

It was a lovely relaxing day with some media excitement thrown in.

It was gone 1 am when we got back to our hotel and mum booked the minibus to the airport for 9.00 am on the basis that Mum couldn't remember the flight time but thought it was at about 12 pm.  I crashed into bed, whilst Mum did the packing before another late night.


Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Dhaka
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig


About the writer



Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig



Mya-Rose Craig is a 12 year old young birder, conservationist, writer and speaker.    She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world.  She was the youngest person to see 3,000 birds in 2013 and she hopes to see her 4,000th bird in Antarctica, her 7th continent, in 2015.  Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter














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