Bricklane to Bangladesh

Luke and Tom are welcomed to Bangladesh by an army of BD Cyclists.

Luke Barton and Tom Smith, two young men in their late twenties, from the United Kingdom, have recently made the news. They decided to embark on an epic adventure cycling half way across the world largely unsupported, from London's famous Bricklane Bangladeshi neighbourhood in East London to Bangladesh.
Although this seems like a random choice, influences from Bangladesh were always present in the men's lives, especially Luke who grew up near Brick Lane, and was surrounded by London's vibrant Bangladeshi community during his childhood.
Mishal Karim and Samuel Bretzfield, both co-founders of BGLOBAL, a leading technology company came across the BLTB website and reached out to Luke and Tom before eventually deciding to sponsor the initiative. Mishal and Sam knew they had found the perfect platform to raise awareness and funds for the Noor E. Farid Nasrine Academy, a project that supports twenty underprivileged boys located in Comilla. It is supported by BGLOBAL and personally managed by Mishal.

Luke and Tom began their journey on 14th June 2013 from Brick Lane. Naturally they were a bit anxious. “In retrospect, aside from a few 35km practice bike rides we really had no idea how ill-equipped we were for what lay ahead of us,” Luke describes. “There were times when only our sense of British pride kept us going forward.”
It took two days to reach Dover and cross the English Channel, which was meant to be the only time Luke and Tom left land. At the beginning of the journey, both Tom and Luke lacked the fitness level to keep up the pace they had set for themselves and were forced to sleep on open ground through rain and storms on certain nights because they hadn't been able to reach the next city or town. They cycled through France, and even accidentally crossed in to Chinmay in Belgium at one point, but eventually reached Strasbourg.
From Starsbourg, they decided that they were not equipped to tackle the Alps, so the two friends rerouted through Germany following the Danube, which flows through much of Europe. They crossed through Austria, Bratislava and finally Hungary. Luke and Tom stopped in Budapest for a few days until their next stop in Serbia, the first time they needed their passports. They managed to cycle from Belgrade to Istanbul in ten days, crossing Bulgaria.

Reaching Bangladesh-the final leg of the journey.

"Istanbul was a beautiful city seeped with history,” says Luke, acknowledging that the roads were the most dangerous they encountered until that point of the trip. "The terrain of Turkey was very undulating, and we were examining maps since there was no easy way through,” Luke continues.
Although the plan was to cycle through Iran, due to the elections that were taking place in the country, visas were not being approved so they found another route to bring them to Georgia, which was the last destination that seemed remotely European.
Now Luke and Tom had to mentally prepare for the toughest part of their journey- crossing Central Asia. “There were vastly varying landscapes along the Pamir Highway including high altitude deserts, plateau plains, mountains and valleys,” Luke explains.
"At one point in Khalikhum, I was dehydrated and needed to be hospitalized for three days,” adds Tom. "The weather conditions were difficult, we faced sand storms, temperatures were very hot during the day in the plateau areas, and dropped below zero in higher altitude location at night.”
At several stages they did not plan efficiently and did not have enough food or fuel to cook with. “We once did not have anything to eat for three days, and became like zombies barely able to stand,” says Luke.
After three whole weeks, Luke and Tom finally conquered the notorious Pamir Highway eventually reaching the Terminus, Osh in Kyrgyzstan. They spent two weeks in Osh recuperating, realising they were not going to be able to secure their road entry visas for China and were forced to fly to Pakistan.
"We both had a certain trepidation regarding Pakistan because of all the negative press in the UK, and we were concerned about our safety,” says Tom. “We cycled from Islamabad to Lahore and met some of the nicest people along the way. We grew our beards thinking we would fit in better, but everyone we met in all the villages and cities we crossed were pleasantly surprised to see foreigners passing through.”
After the men crossed into India through the Wagha border, it took them almost a month to get through the country, highlights including their time spent in Agra and Calcutta. “Some of the sights and monuments we saw in both Pakistan and India were simply stunning,” says Luke.
They finally crossed Bangladesh at the Benapole border, and noticed how much greener and more lush the landscape was in comparison to India. After successfully completing their mission and reaching Bangladesh the men took it easy. After almost 4 days of cycling to reach Dhaka, they crossed Jessore, Faridpur and arrived in Manikgonj, where they were met by a group of forty BD cyclist troupe members. “It was awesome to ride in to Dhaka with almost forty cyclists, what a welcome to Bangladesh !” says Luke.
They cycled directly to their press conference at the La Vinci hotel where they spoke with representatives from leading Bangladeshi radio stations, TV channels and newspapers.
After a few days in Dhaka, Luke and Tom wanted to invest the rest of their time in Comilla with the boys at the Noor E. Farid Nasrine Academy, a unique initiative that has taken 20 under privileged boys, aged between two and three in 2011, providing them with a happy home, food, clothes and good education.
The Academy is committed to take care of these boys for twenty years, up until they graduate from university. The project was first started by late Nasrine Karim and continued by her son, Mishal Karim and her husband, Iftekhar Karim.
With the money raised from the ‘Brick Lane to Bangladesh’ initiative, a new sports facility was constructed within the premises of the academy. The boys can now play football, cricket, badminton and basketball in their own back yard. Luke and Tom purchased the sports equipment from Dhaka before heading to the academy. They both spent a lot of time with the boys, and helped teach them the fundamentals of sports and fitness.
“It was an incredible and rewarding experience and we were happy to be part of launching a sports programme for the boys,” says Luke. “Spending time with the boys made the entire journey worthwhile and very rewarding. “Living in the UK “we sometimes do not appreciate how lucky we are adds Tom,” There are so many people who have very little but still remain positive and happy.”
“We are focusing on English, sport and fitness, and computer skills so these boys have essential skills to succeed in life,” says Mishal Karim. “We are doing well, but we have a long way to go. We survive on product donors. We require clothes, shoes, food, toiletries, cleaning materials, basically anything else that one needs to manage a facility housing 20 boys.”
More information about the Noor E Farid Nasrine academy can be found online www.The40.com and on Facebook, the40. The sponsors of the Brick Lane to Bangladesh initiative are BGLOBAL, RENATA, SUMMIT, BEXIMCO and BRAND FUSION. The marketing partners were The Daily Star, G&R, The Daily Ittefaq, Click Ittefaq, Signage, Radio Shadhin and Arkay Group.
The writer is a Bangladeshi blogger and journalist based in Washington DC and can be reached at www.anushayspoint.com