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Bangladesh
Tourist Guide |
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Travel Advisory and Visas
Updated travel
advisory information on Bangladesh is available from the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs in
several formats. For a line of recorded information, call (202) 647-5225. To access the
Consular Affairs Bulletin Board, call (202) 647-9225. For information by fax, call (202)
547-3000.
In addition, the Internet/World
Wide Web homepage maintained by the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs has
Bangladesh travel advisory information at http://travel.state.gov.
All foreign
citizens are required to have visas for entry into Bangladesh. Business travelers should request visas with five-year duration and
multiple entries. Should a business traveler be unable to arrange for a visa in advance,
immigration officials at Zia International Airport in Dhaka are
authorized to issue limited visas for up to 90 days for a $45 fee.
Visa extensions are possible; a $45 fee must be paid to the
Department of Immigration and Passports, 17
Segun Bagicha, Dhaka 1000, telephone (880 2) 9553332, fax 9562787. Generally extensions
are granted for 3-6 months (short-term) with a single entry. For 1 year or more
(long-term) extensions for an expatriate working on a government project, a letter from
the relevant ministry of the BDG is required, along with the prescribed visa extension
application form. One passport size photograph is also required.
For further
information concerning entry requirements for Bangladesh, travelers can contact the
Embassy of the
People's Republic of Bangladesh, 2201 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.,
Suite 300-325, Washington, DC 20007, telephone: (202) 342-8372, 342-8373, 342-8374,
342-8375, and 342-8376
OR
The Consulate
General of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, 211 East 43rd St., Suite 502, NY, NY
10017, telephone: (212) 599-6767 and 599-6850, fax (212) 682-9211.
The International
Certificate of Vaccination is no longer required for travel to Bangladesh, but typhoid immunization and
malaria suppressants are recommended, particularly for those traveling outside Dhaka.
Travel Fees Business travelers departing on domestic and international flights must pay an
Embarkation Fee/Departure Tax, currently TK 50 for domestic flights and TK 300 for
international flights. Foreigners are not required to pay other local travel taxes.
Currency and Exchange Regulations There is no limit on the amount of foreign or
U.S. dollar instruments (travelers checks, money orders, etc.) that may be brought into
Bangladesh, but all foreign exchange exceeding $5,000 must be declared upon entry, and
visitors should be prepared to account for it upon departure. Visitors should only make
financial transactions through authorized channels. Commercial
exchange facilities are available through both domestic and foreign commercial banks or
through local hotel cashiers. The banking sector can carry out most international
transactions, but efficient service varies greatly among banks and individual
branches.
Holidays/Work Week
Bangladesh observes
Friday-Saturday weekend. Business hours are 9:00-5:00. Banks observe the same hours as the
BDG, while industry has a 48-hour week. Muslim religious holidays vary with appearance of
the moon (they move ahead approximately 11 days every year). Click
here for more informatin.
Business
Infrastructure Transportation
Zia International Airport is located at Kurmitola, about 12 kilometers north of Dhaka city. The
national air carrier, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, currently is the major domestic air
travel provider. GMG, a private STOL (short takeoff and landing) flight operator, has
flights from Dhaka to Chittagong, Barisal, Jessore and Sylhet.
Language
Although Bangla
(Bengali) is the official language of Bangladesh, English is widely spoken and used in
official and business circles. U.S. business people may greet their Bangladeshi
counterparts with normal English salutations. The usual greeting among Bangladeshis is the
Arabic phrase "as-salaam-alaikum" (meaning "peace be with you"). The
cordial response is "walaikum salaam" ("peace to you as well"). A
polite parting phrase is "Khoda haafez" ("God preserve").
Click here for some useful phrases in bengali.
Communications
Telex, telephone,
fax, Internet e-mail and airmail postal services are available for business
correspondence. Most international telephone calls must be booked through an operator,
usually after some delay. Collect telephone calls or toll-free calls cannot be made from
Bangladesh. International direct dialing telephones and fax machines are increasingly
available in major cities and hotels in Bangladesh. Cellular phone service is available in
Dhaka and Chittagong. Bangladesh is six hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) (11 hours
ahead of Eastern standard time or 10 hours during daylight savings time). Airmail
correspondence takes two weeks to arrive from the United States. Registration of all
letters sent by international mail is recommended. Express Mail Service (EMS) is available
to the major cities. International courier services, including Airborne, DHL, Federal
Express, TNT Skypack, and United Parcel Service, operate to and from Bangladesh.
Lodging
Two international
class hotels are located in Dhaka, the Dhaka Sheraton and the Sonargaon Pan Pacific Hotel.
A more moderately priced but older hotel, the Hotel Purbani, is also used by business
visitors to Dhaka. In Chittagong, business visitors usually stay at the Hotel
Agrabad. For
longer stays, guest-house accommodations are available in upper-class neighborhoods in
Dhaka and Chittagong. Click here for more informaton.
Health
Medical facilities
are inadequate in Bangladesh. Most diseases are water-borne. Water must be boiled for
safety; bottled water is increasingly widely available. Certain vaccinations are
essential. There are foreign-trained doctors in Dhaka and other cities. However,
hospital/clinic support services are usually sub-standard. Travelers are advised to get
medevac insurance and to establish contact with a doctor upon arrival. The following
western-trained physicians/facilities are present in Dhaka: Dr. M.A. Wahab: 881454 British
High Commission Medical Unit, Elizabeth House: 884345 DR. TIMOR NAWAZ: 872871
Food
Restaurants in
Dhaka and Chittagong serve mainly local (Bengali) and other Asian cuisines. Continental
food is available at Dhaka's internationally operated hotels. Local food is spicy to
American tastes. The main components of local food are boiled rice and fish, or curry of
mutton, beef, or chicken. Vegetables and lentils are also popular. There is no effective
system of health inspection of restaurants. A number of restaurants have opened in the
last several years that are popular with expatriates. Click here for more
information.
If you should have any travel questions or travel needs, send us an e-mail
at travel@webbangladesh.com. We will
do our best to give you best possible answer.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT,
U.S. & FOREIGN COMMERCIAL SERVICE AND U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 1998. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES |
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