Best Western Maple Leaf Hotel
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Standard King Room
Arrival formalities took a bit longer than I expected. Securing the visa on arrival wasn't too bad, though the process was a bit disorganized. Took roughly 10-15 minutes in total.
Then I went to wait in line at immigration, which took at least 20 minutes. When it was my turn, the officer looked at my visa and told me I hadn't needed to wait in line and simply waved me through. Ugh. Lesson learned, I guess.
After that, I changed some dollars to Taka and bought a SIM card for my phone for roughly $5 US. Then through Customs and I met the hotel shuttle in the airport arrivals area. A short wait for the driver to turn up and we were off to the hotel. It was a 5 minute drive to the hotel, so very convenient. I usually use cabs in these situations, but the hotel only charged $12 US for a round trip shuttle ride. Perhaps a cab would have been cheaper, but I wasn't going to quibble over a few dollars.
Check-in at the hotel was painless and I went to my room to drop off my bags before touring the city. The tour guide met me in the hotel lobby a few minutes later and we were off to see the city.
Before that, some photos of the hotel room. The room was clean and modern. The armed guards at the front entrance to the hotel were a bit off-putting, but probably good to have given the security situation.
Yes, that's my only piece of luggage for this trip. Worked out really well, too!
