Melee and Mayhem

Jon [Epstein] and I arrived at Dhaka airport at 12:30am from Malaysia.  A bit exhausted from the journey, but excited to be visiting Bangladesh for the first time and beginning this research project on small fruit bats and Nipah virus.  Earlier warnings from my colleagues about the mayhem and chaos of Dhaka airport were largely unheeded as we arrived in the middle of night...under the cover of darkness. Apt, indeed, for two bat biologists.

Our transfer to the hotel in a mini-van took us on a rather adventurous ride to our accommodation. Horn honking is nearly incessant in Dhaka, and the traffic, oh the traffic!  Cacophony and near collisions abound.  A mixture of cars, large trucks, CNGs (3-wheeled motorize rickshaws), and bicycle rickshaws all vie for space on the roads, and 2-3 centimeters seems to be your average clearance as cars and bicycles pass one another!

Off to tune out the horns outside and get some rest for a day of meetings at ICDDR,B tomorrow morning to meet with our collaborators.

Reporting from Bangladesh, EcoHealth Alliance scientist Kevin Olival is working on the ecology of Nipah virus and the discovery of pathogens in bats.