Bangladesh cyclone

When cyclone Sidr crashed into Bangladesh the country found itself propelled into the limelight of the western media with yet another bad news story. Within hours of the story breaking my phone started beeping with messages asking if I was ok and if I was going to remain in this ‘devastated’ country. Fortunately, the worst I suffered was a slight leak through one of my windows. But as I turned on the TV of my Dhaka hotel room I began to see why people were so concerned. It appeared that the entire nation had been destroyed.

The first pictures that emerged of the storm were largely filmed the following morning in Dhaka and revealed a battered city. When I drove around the capital that morning I found a very different scene. Sure, there were some trees, power cables and billboards down, but you really had to hunt for these signs of destruction.

Instead I saw a city setting about its daily life - rickshaws and cars filled the roads and people filled the pavements, cafes and parks. I couldn’t help but feel that I was in another country altogether from the Bangladesh splashed across the newspapers. TV news stations

reported that the entire country was without power - yet I was watching it on TV. They told us that all the phone lines were down - yet I was using the internet right up until an hour before the storm peaked over Dhaka (and then it was only tiredness that made me log off). And they reported that there was no running water - again, not my experience.

Now as the relief effort moves into full speed I am setting off for the far southwest of Bangladesh, where the cyclone is reported to have caused the most destruction, to see the damage for myself.

- Stuart Butler will report again next week from Bangladesh where he is researching for Lonely Planet. In the meantime you can see what travellers are saying about the cyclone’s impact on the Thorn Tree forum.

Tags: travel rates, flights, hilton, travel insurance, California, air, paris, ocean, hotels, europe, mountains, beaches, las vegas, england, new york city, italy, vacations, travel, cruises, hawaii