one of the worst places in Bangladesh
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 9/24/07
Bangladesh was receiving a lot of bad press at the time I went there, and in wanting to have some security I looked online for a hostel that I could settle into while I got my whits. As Traveller Inn clearly does a good job of advertising it stuck out as a place to try.
The location is 3kms north of the airport, roughly a 30taka ride away - but in my unjustified paranoia of something going wrong I preorganised pick up for $15 (1000taka!).
The rooms are deceptive in the photos. They are small, only a few have a descent cooling system. By means of comparison, a $10 room here without any amenities can be matched by a hotel in central Dhaka in price, but with A/C, private bathroom, descent hotel facilities etc. (Try Hotel Pacific for example).
Getting into Dhaka is sadly a problem due to the conjestion it faces. Thus locating yourself outside the city centre means an hour (on a good trip) to a two hour long trip to the main sights. ... one way!
They do offer tours around the city, but they sell it as though it would be suicide to try it by yourself. They falsely claim that noone will speak English out there, and that your chances of coming back in one piece are slim to none. None of this is true. The vast majority of people do speak English, and certainly enough to get you to where you want to go, or what you want to eat. More likely than the warped picture they create, you will be approached by a genuinely nice person who by helping you out would have a new highlight of his day.
Finally, I cannot commend the hotel personel. The two monkeys here are wheelers and deelers to the max. While they can be all charm when you are digging out those extra dollars, they quickly turn their overpriced excursions into a hard sell, and once you finished your business with them they quickly become hostile and unhelpful.
Yes they are easy to get in contact with, but they are a load of tosh. I do not recommend them at all.