Pebble toys are gorgeous but Dhaka is not always as nice

I don't think that anyone can ever prepare you for the first time you visit Bangladesh. When we were arranging our trip last year we confidently told Samantha that we would make our own way to the hotel, and she was polite enough not to laugh.

We have sourced wholesale soft toys for almost 20 years and we were confident that we could sort ourselves out

The culture shock starts when you get out of the airport and it swiftly became clear that if Samantha had not come to get us we may have just turned round and gone back home.

The city is quite simply overwhelming.

The driving is worse than atrocious, the sheer quantity of people and cars is mind numbing and the subsequent noise adds to the sense of confusion.

Liz and I loved the place! This was very much down to the hospitality of Samantha and her husband Morshed but also, having spent a life time visiting factories in the Far East, the vibrancy of the people in Dhaka was fantastic.

Life in Dhaka is as tough as it gets and one of the many problems is Cholera. We forget that this disease use to kill thousands in Europe and USA but now we take clean water forgranted it lurks just where life is toughest

This film shows the fantastic work being done by the Cholera hospital but also gives you glimpses of the life people lead in Dhaka.

Pebble toys have a centre in Dhaka where the sampling is done and where some of the toys are produced. From its roof you can see across the city and in to some of the "streets" which are more alley ways. You can totally understand how Cholera spreads in this environment but hopefully the work shown here may help to stop it

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Bxp1S2rbo