Somewhat around the first week of March 2019, more than 130 local guides of Bangladesh were invited to the 100th Meetup of BDLG. The event was to take place on the 8th of March, on Women’s Day, no less, in Chittagong, which is the second most important city of Bangladesh, and one of the most beautiful ones.
Banner of 100th Meetup of Bangladesh Local Guides
65 of us were attending from Dhaka. The evening before, on the 7th, we met up at Dhaka Railway Station in Kamlapur. Our train was scheduled to leave at 9:00PM so most of us were already there an hour earlier. Some of us were attending this meetup for the fifth or sixth time, and some of us were completely new, and very, very excited. We talked amongst ourselves while waiting for the train to start. I knew a few people beforehand, but there were also a lot of new faces.
We were a large group so we had decided to book an entire compartment for ourselves. The train started promptly at 9:00PM and we started our journey towards Chittagong amid a lot of excitement. Most of the night was spent in conversation and laughter. We heard each other’s stories and shared our own.
On the Way to Chittagong by Train
We reached Chittagong around 5:00AM in the morning, and have a simple breakfast in a restaurant by a local guide of Chittagong. The train journey was rather tiring for us, so we were in need of some fresh air. Since we had a few hours to ourselves, we decided to visit a popular beach near, the Chouchala sea beach. We rested there for an hour and so, and visited another historical mosque in the same locality. By then, it was time for the event to start.
Chauchala Sea Beach : Time of Refreshment
Asgar Ali Chowdhury Jame Moshjid: A Place of Interest
We reached Silver Spoon Hotel a few minutes before 10 o’clock. There were a lot of people standing outside the main door for the registration process, which took almost an hour. Only people who have a minimum Level 5+ rating on Google Maps were invited to this event, but most of us had a Level 7 to Level 8 rating. There were only a few attendees who had a Level 9/10 rating, but they were not more than 3-4 people. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel before the event started at 10:00 AM.
Breakfast Time
Inside, we were welcomed with a generous gift bag from the Local Guide team. Some of the attendees with a higher rating were awarded gifts from the different sponsors, especially the local guides who had more likes on their reviews or had good reviews. After we took our seats, the program started with a conference call from Sonia Khurshid (@SoniaK), who is one of our favorite moderators. Ms. Sonia is an Google moderator. She was a local guide from Bangladesh but now she lives and works in USA as a moderator on Google Connect. She wanted to join us physically for this event but couldn’t manage the time, but she wished us all good luck and thanked us for joining.
The local moderators, introduced themselves one after another. They hosted several ice-breaking games and entertained us for an hour. We made a human logo to celebrate the meetup, which was a fun experience. Afterwards, we learned about a few important techniques that were going to be very important in our work. I particularly enjoyed the session about learning how to take a 360-degree photo and the one teaching us to do a photo walk. Another session about properly posting our photos to the Local Guides Connect was very helpful.
Moment of Introducing & Sharing
Sharing Some Experience of Capturing Images from Seniors
After the sessions, we had our lunch break, during which we had significant conversations with the other attendees sitting with us. Lunch was a wholesome meal of Kacchi Biryani and Egg Curry – both my favorites. Some of the attendees went for midday prayer as it was a Friday, an auspicious day for us Muslims. After lunch, we scattered around, taking selfies with the others. It was the birthday of another moderator, Meg Smith, and we wished her via a conference call.
Message Receiving Moments from Google Moderator
We wished our female local guides separately since it was Women’s Day, as they are an intricate part of our BDLG family.
Respect to Women Attendants for International Women’s Day
There was a massive cake for us to cut to end the day, to celebrate 5 years of Bangladesh Local Guides.
Celebrating 5 years of Bangladesh Local Guides
After another coffee break, it was time to head home. Some of us stayed back to explore Chittagong, but most people decided to return home. A few went to Cox’s Bazar to spend the night beside the sea, and some of us visited our extended families living in Chittagong. The next day, 17 of us left for Rangamati to see Kaptai Lake, a truly mesmerizing place I will write about shortly.
Next Generation of Bangladesh Local Guide
Moments of Finishing Hangout
We came back to Dhaka at night, finishing our two-day adventure.
It was a wonderful meetup that I’ve enjoyed a lot. Although it was short and the journey was tiring, I am eagerly waiting for the next one! I’ve met a lot of new faces and enjoyed interacting with them, and I would love to do so again.
#Bangladesh #Localguides #bdlg #100thmeetup #BangladeshLocalGuides
আপনি অনেক সাজিয়ে গুছিয়ে লিখেছেন, এ জন্য আরও বেশি ভালো লাগলো। দেখা হবে আগামী কোন এক মিটাপেয়ে, ভালো থাকবেন সব সময় 
