Kristin Boekhoff is the owner of Panigram Resort. She originally came to Bangladesh in 2006 on a Fulbright Fellowship. During her stay she fell in love with the country and people and decided to stay to develop a sustainable boutique resort for savvy travelers who want to experience a taste of Bangladeshi village life while protecting the natural and cultural heritage of Bangladesh.
Before leaving to do her Fulbright Fellowship, Kristin was the Chief Information Officer at one of the U.S.'s largest real estate finance companies. Prior to her promotion, Kristin managed $7 billion of private equity invested in the firms 100+ real estate funds.
Kristin has a B.S. from Cornell University and an M.S. in real estate development from New York University.
Members of the press who are interested in speaking with Kristin can see her contact information and additional biographical information and photos on the Press Room page.
I am writing this blog from the Panigram Pavilion. All I have to say is that I have the greatest life! I think the photos speak for themselves!
View from the Panigram Pavilion
The phones were ringing off the hook on August 18th. My summer interns were due to go back to the United States that day and everyone from the village in Jessore called to say goodbye. It was a tearful departure; I think that most of the interns would have stayed in Bangladesh if they didn’t have to go back to school. Chi Chi’s boy group, Jonathon’s gang, and even our construction manager called multiple times - always asking when the interns were coming back to Bangladesh. As we said our watery farewells, the interns promised to come back for a reunion after the resort is open.
Fortunately, I didn’t have much time to mourn their departure as I had another Cornell intern scheduled to arrive early the next morning. Like my other interns, Molly had seen the summer internship advertisement. She decided that a summer was not enough for her, however, so she worked with the Engineering School to set up a co-operative semester at Panigram Resort. Read the rest of this entry »
My intern Janine spent the summer researching Bangladeshi cooking and creating fusion recipes for the investor meeting at the Panigram Pavilion. All of my guests agreed that the food was amazingly delicious and the perfect blend of east and west. Many of them were surprised, however, to learn that the food was also very healthy!
Mint Cucumber Salad
The Panigram Pavilion on the river at Panigram Resort.
Koli and I sped down the road on his motorcycle in a torrential downpour. He had left our motorcycle helmets at the project site, so I held my hand over his eyes like a visor to block out as much of the monsoon rains as I could so that he could see well enough to keep us on the road. The van, holding three of my interns, two large blocks of ice, all of the cooking utensils from my kitchen, two gas stoves, and several pounds of food followed us. We got to the edge of town and saw that the road was completely blocked for repairs. While the motorcycle might have been able to squeak around the barricade, the van would never make it; fortunately Koli knew an alternate route out of the city. We were already an hour late: the van was delayed, our landlord had padlocked us in the building (it took us 20 minutes to find him and have him come open the door), and we had to stop at the bazaar to get ice. Read the rest of this entry »
Lighting up the pavilion at night.
“Can we stay TONIGHT?” Chi Chi kept nagging me. For the past week she and the interns have been begging me to allow them to spend a night at the Pavilion. I was inclined to capitulate since they have worked really hard for the past several weeks to build it. It still amazes me how much they were able to accomplish in just three weeks!
Koli had some doubts. He insisted that we get permission from the local police before spending the night. We went down to the police station together. The Chief of Police was very friendly, but tried to convince me not to spend the night. My interns worked hard, however, and I wanted to reward them, so I stuck to my guns and told the police officer that we really want to stay and that the interns were going back to America in a few days and would not have another chance. He agreed on the condition that he be allowed to send us four police escorts.
I am very happy to report that Panigram Resort is now #1 on a Google search for “resorts in Bangladesh”, #1 for “eco resorts in Bangladesh”, #2 for “Bangladesh resorts”, and #2 for “spa resorts in Bangladesh”!
I think we moved up in rankings because we optimized some of our web pages and have been getting a lot more press lately (which in turn links back to our site). Thanks to my intern Brian for delivering the great news!
Bangladesh is an exciting country with many unusual, interesting, and beautiful things to see. So what are our top ten reasons to come to Bangladesh?
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.
Kristin Boekhoff
Owner, Panigram Resort
kboekhoff@panigram.com
Mikey Leung
Designer and Web Guru, Panigram.com
mikey@panigram.com
