Come before the tourists visit” is the old Bangladesh tourist board slogan that had caught my eye and partially inspired my trip. Two days after arriving in the country, I unexpectedly meet the woman who came up with it. I’m at Wilderness, a resort in the north-eastern region of Sylhet, where the majority of British-Bangladeshis hail. It’s owned by Nazim Choudhury, whose glamorous wife, Geeteara, now runs her own advertising company. I tell them I’m heading to Cox’s Bazar – the world’s longest beach, on the country’s east coast, and Geeteara says, “That’s where I had the idea for the slogan. Walking on that beach in the 1980s, when no one was around.”