Currency:
The local currency of Bangladesh is the taka (Tk; rhymes with Dhaka), which is further divided into 100 paisas. There are 10, 20 and 50 paisa, and Tk 1, Tk 2 and Tk 5 coins. There are notes in denominations of Tk 1, Tk 2, Tk 5, Tk 10, Tk 20, Tk 50, Tk 100 and Tk 500.
Getting around
On buses, unaccompanied women are expected to sit at the front. If you are traveling with ‘your husband’ you are expected to sit on the window side, away from the aisle. Avoid traveling alone at night; Bangladeshi women avoid going out alone at night as much as possible.
There are three words that can be used to sum up Bangladeshi public transport. Cheap, uncomfortable and scary. If you so wished, you could travel straight across the country for little more than a few hundred taka using rickety old buses or squashed into a 2nd-class train carriage. However, the journey won’t be pleasant, particularly in the cheaper seats on any form of Bangladeshi public transport. Traveling here can also be a scary experience. Buses are the worst offenders – the drivers show no regard whatsoever for the safety of their passengers or other road users, though the one saving grace is that most roads are fairly quiet, and if the bus does topple over it’s only likely to drop into a paddy field rather than off the edge of a cliff. The Dhaka–Chittagong road and Dhaka–Bogra road are real death traps: take the train instead. Do all you can to avoid traveling anywhere by road at night.
The distinguishing feature of internal travel in Bangladesh is the presence of a well-developed and well-used system of water transport. Rivers and streams outstretch roads in total distance, making water transport an essential of daily life. For the traveler, a long Bangladeshi ferry ride, especially on the smaller rivers where you can watch life along the banks, is one of the undisputed highlights of a trip to Bangladesh.
Nevertheless, traveling by boat is slow compared to traveling by bus and it’s usually avoidable, so many travelers never go out of their way to take a long trip, settling instead for a short ferry ride across a river or two, but this really is a mistake.
History:
Bangladesh became one of the last major nation states following its secession in 1971 from the nation of Pakistan, which achieved its independence from the British Empire along with India in (1947). The region’s history combines Indo-Aryan, Austro-Asiatic, Dravidian, Mughal, Arab, Persian, Turkic and British influences. Bangladesh today including its surrounding territories (present day Indian states of West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Meghalya, Assam and Tripura)territory historically was known as Bengal, was part of the Mughal Empire for more than five centuries and then the Bengal Presidency and finally the British Empire. A.K. Fazlul Haque, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani and finally Sheikh Mujibur Rahman struggled to lead the Bengali nation to independence in 1971. Since independence, successive following governments have led to define Bangladesh’s democracy to this day.