BANG-BANG! ladesh

Next stop was ship a breaking/painting yard

On our way to a slam I took a picture of a local barber

There was a wedding on the way as well and people were cooking on the street

It is very common here to buy cigarets by one and our guide has been constantly stopping by the little shops to buy them. At one of them I saw a lighter on a thread, very smart 🙂

Need some garlic, ginger or chilis? Here they are

Hanging out with the slum kids while drinking cha (black tea mixed with sweet condensed milk) There was also another wedding and these kids got so colourful because of it.

Getting back on the boat, that is what the shore is like

Spice market again! Have been there before, but it is still very interesting

At that point we got off the boat and needed to take some land transport. This is what we got!

And I also decided to give it a try!  look at the girls’ scared faced 🙂

In the next place decorations for rickshaws were created

Because Friday is a day off, everybody was just chilling out and these guys were playing the game. Apparently, for participation you should give 500 taka (which is a lot!) and then the winner gets all the money!

Right outside this workshop there was a big Bangladeshi flag and we decided to take a picture inviting everybody around us to join

The Hindu temple was our next stop

But it is a muslim country, remember? So we “visited” a very pretty mosque as well

Of course we couldn’t get in, so here is a picture of the guys that was sitting outside selling some fish (I guess it was very small eel)

The day was long and the tour covered a lot of amazing places, so more to come tomorrow!

Old Dhaka is amazing. I don’t know enough proper English words to describe it, but I love going there again and again.

This time we got on another tour with a guide, because, like I said before, it is impossible to navigate there on your own.

Our first step was the place where plastic is being sorted. Did you ever wonder how the little bits of everywhere’s plastic are being sorted and recycled? Well, here they do everything manually. Get the plastic-sort it by colour-wash it in the river-put in the sacks-sacks are sold back to China (where most of this plastic come from in first place). One sack is worth 5000 taka, which is about 55 euros.

Below the guy is showing us a plastic bag handle and a marker cap. I made a friend

And the colours are great

Right by this sorting “facility” women are sorting different kind of plastic

What do kind do there? Well, they swim

From the river the plastic sorting place looks like this

From the boat we could also see the laundry, where local hotels’ and hospital’s (that is in the near) sheets and being washed. In the river.

I wonder how they are still that white. Chemistry is a great science.

A couple of views on the way

We got off the boat on the other side of the river, the part of Dhaka, that is called South Dhaka. Living in South Dhaka is much cheaper that in the Old Dhaka, so people rent houses apartments there and then commute to the Old Dhaka every day. It is very common that in the 3 room (2 bedroom) apartment live three families, each in every room.

On the street we saw a group of young guys listening to somebody with a great interest. We asked our guide what it was all about. Apparently, the man was selling some “medicine” for sexual potential.

Remember that everybody is commuting with boats? Well, this is a boat taxi queue

Here is a beautiful view

And this is what I was standing on when taking this picture. Feels like walking on a soft carpet

The next stop was a garment factory. These are two 7 storey factories

This is a local garment “factory”. Even though it is an official day off, they still come to work for a few hours to make some extra money. The boy working on a sewing machine earns the most.

This is the manager’s “office” (our guide is sitting in his chair). His portrait is on the wall, by the way.When we were leaving we saw people sleeping right there in terrible conditions. These factories work for the local market and there are no strict requirements for them to comply with any regulations. So they don’t.

Outside the factory we saw this guy. He was attracting more people and later there was supposed to be a fight between the snake and this little guy (don’t know his name). Although that is not the whole attraction. After that the man will start selling his “medicine”. Nice marketing.

A few pictures on the way to our next stop

More great pictures and garbage views tomorrow! 😉