Bangladesh will be a new touring venue for many of the England team, but at least three players will be able to pass on their knowledge.
Kirtley says he developed as a player and a person in Bangladesh
Four years ago - two years before the country gained Test status - England's A-side spent a fortnight in Bangladesh, playing three-one day games and two first-class matches.
Of those tourists, opener Marcus Trescothick is part of the Test squad this time around, and he will be joined by batsman Vikram Solanki and pace bowler James Kirtley for the one-day series.
After trips to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India in the last three years, England are far from being novices on the subcontinent.
But for Kirtley at least, Bangladesh posed a particularly tough challenge off the pitch.
"I'd been to Sri Lanka but nothing really compared to Bangladesh," Kirtley told the BBC Sport website.
"It's more poverty-stricken, it's properly third-world and if you're not prepared for some of the images that you come across it can be a little upsetting.
"If you made any sort of trip outside the hotel you'd see beggars, children who had lost limbs."
However Kirtley, who made his Test debut this summer, felt the trip played a major role in his development both as a person and as a cricketer.
"You don't always get opportunities to see those parts of the world and it can only be good for anyone's development of character," he says.
And whatever the conditions away from the cricket field, there was no doubting Bangladesh's passion for the game.
"In '99 I'd only played a few years of county cricket but they knew all about me.
"We played in front of a packed house of 35,000 in Chittagong - it was a stunning experience."
Called into the squad at the last minute after Steve Harmison suffered a knee injury, the 24-year-old Kirtley felt the trip helped him bulk out his bowling repertoire to deal with difficult conditions.
At the end of the rainy season, he expects conditions to be oppressively humid, pitches slow from the beginning and spin on offer late in every match.
"You had to bowl wicket-to-wicket, be very wary of not bowling driving balls, but it will just sit up if you bowl too short on slowish pitches," he recalls from his last trip.
"You had to get used to bowling reverse swing from early on, changing pace so you wouldn't be predictable but still put it in the right areas.
After learning much on their recent tour of Australia and pushing Pakistan in their last Test series, Bangladesh may not provide the easy ride expected of them.
And Kirtley expects the Tigers to be particularly difficult to tame on home soil, where they will exploit the conditions, possibly using three spin bowlers.
After their tour of Australia they pushed Pakistan in the last Test match so they're not a side to be under-estimated.
"This is a major tour for them - they haven't had many of the major touring sides - so I'm sure they'll be very keen to impress," Kirtley adds.
"You know that the pitches break up because of the heat and there will be the odd one that will provide some [spin] anomaly so we've got to be on our guard."
"It will be a case of being patient, putting them under pressure and scoring quickly to allow enough time to bowl them out twice."
ENGLAND A TOURISTS 1999
Mark Alleyne (Capt; Gloucs)
Rob Turner (Wkt; Somst)
Michael Davies (Northants)
Paul Franks (Notts)
Michael Gough (Durham)
Aftab Habib (Leics)
Ronnie Irani (Essex)
James Kirtley (Sussex)
David Sales (Northants)
Chris Schofield (Lancs)
Alamgir Sheriyar (Worcs)
Chris Silverwood (Yorks)
Vikram Solanki (Worcs)
Marcus Trescothick (Somst)
Ian Ward (Surrey)
TOUR RESULTS
22 Oct: bt Bdesh Youth by 70 runs
23 Oct: bt BCB XI by 6 wkts
25-27 Oct: drew with Bangladesh
29 Oct: bt Bangladesh by 5 wkts
1-4 Nov: drew with Bangladesh
Source