Sandwiched between the Siliguri Corridor, Burma, Bhutan and the Nepalese highlands, the verdant nation of Bangladesh takes much from its Indian neighbour to the east and west, while remaining undeniably unique and unquestionably off-the-beaten-track.
Intrepid types and adventure lovers won’t be able to resist its wet and wild backcountry; a patchwork of alluvial flood plains, rolling rice paddies, dense mangrove forests and roaring river channels gushing their way down from the Himalayas to the north. Culture vultures will love the fabled hospitality of the local Bangladeshi people, and the curious intermingling of Islamic orthodoxy and Buddhist mysticism that abounds between the mosques of Bagerhat and the ancient rises of Paharpur.
If you’ve come in search of the fabled cuisine, then be sure to ask you Bangladesh tour guide for the best places to sample hilsa river fish, served up with the nation’s trademark sides of spicy lentil dal and rice. And then there are the beaches; long, pearly-white and stretching their way from Cox's Bazar on Myanmar’s edge, to the nation’s various isles in the Indian Ocean.