Local experience | BANG-BANG! ladesh

Jul 24 2015

Bangladesh, Friends, Goat, Local experience, Outside Dhaka, Sights

Trip to Paharpur. Day 1

Paharpur is one of the main sights in Bangladesh, the ruins of what was once a buddhist temple. You have seen one of those in Comilla already, but this is the biggest one.

Even though it was supposed to be a 4-5 hour drive, because we happened to go on the same day, what the Indian prime-minister was visiting Bangladesh, the National monument (the one I showed before as well) to be precise, which is in the same direction, it took us 12 hours. It was bad. Very bad.

We got to enjoy a lot of bush art though when we got there.

Kinds get to learn the “picture with the bush” skill when they are very small.

I am trying hard too

The ruins are cool

People are manually cutting off the grass with little knives.

The light at the ruins was absolutely gorgeous, but still iPhone made everybody look different!

We are performing

The layer on top in new, put there to protect the left overs from further destruction

Guess whom I met there?!

Views

More goats

More bush-pictures

The area where Paharpur is situated, Rajshahi district, is famous for its mangoes. Therefore here is the biggest part of our dinner — mangoes and lychees.

To be continued!

Jul 23 2015

Leave a comment

Bangladesh, Local experience, Local people

Henna

Ever since I came here I wanted to try henna. One day the bride (and now a wife) from the wedding I showed you before did a great job making both of my hands beautiful with mehndi (what the locals call it)

It took about 20 minutes per hand for her, but then it takes a while to dry.

Henna stays longer on the areas, where the skin in thicker, so it was gone very fast on the outside part of the hands, but on the palms you can still see a bit even after almost 3 weeks.

Will do it again for sure 😉

Jul 22 2015

Leave a comment

Bangladesh, Local experience

Pink pearls

It is being said that Bangladesh is famous for its pearls, especially pink pearls.

There are multiple stores that sell them, and some argue that they are Chinese, not Bangladeshi, but who would know? They are real for sure and soooo pretty (and cheap).

Jul 21 2015

Leave a comment

Bangladesh, Dhaka, Local experience

A talking bird

In my tailor’s backyard there are two cages with moyna. These birds are amazing. They can reproduce almost whatever you tell them and in general the range of the sounds they can make it very impressive. And they are very pretty as well!

Jul 13 2015

1 Comment

Bangladesh, Dhaka, Local experience, Local people

Wedding. Last day

Like I said, I don’t really understand the logic of the wedding celebration in Bangladesh yet (it seems also that it varies a lot), but I have visited the final celebration.

First, as usual, getting properly dressed with the help of the local

And that was the first time I saw the bride! Woo-hoo!

The most interesting part of the wedding (imho) — looking at the local women

Bride getting ready (read: family is putting tons of jewellery on the bride so that she could hardly move)

And… picture taking time! (that will last for hours!!)

Beautiful henna

Since the bride has henna and kilograms of jewellery, she cannot eat by herself, therefore her family is helping her out.

This celebration, unlike the first one, was in a special venue. The food for men and women was served on different floors — ground for men and first for women. The setting from the pictures above was on the first floor.

Beautiful women

And guess what? Picture taking continues! On the screen people can see the shots from the previous days (in total, the celebration has been on every day for a week)

This is us with the bride and the groom. A bit of the context. The absolute majority of the weddings in Bangladesh are arranged and so was this one. The groom has a brother who is married to a girl and the bride is this girl’s cousin. The groom is currently living in Australia and the bride has been living in Bangladesh. A few days before the wedding it the first time when they actually saw each other (if we don’t count skype). The guy is returning to Australia now and the bride will follow him in a few months.

Happy marriage!

Jul 12 2015

Leave a comment

Bangladesh, Goat, Local experience

Goat break

Jul 07 2015

2 Comments

Bangladesh, Goat, Local experience

Bangladeshi goats

I think it is time for a Bangladeshi goat break!

Jul 06 2015

Leave a comment

Dhaka, Local experience, Local people

Wedding. Day 1

Remember the wedding invitation I showed before? Well, it was real. We got invited to the wedding in a very traditional family that is living in the Old Dhaka.

Bangladeshi wedding consists of at least 3 celebrations, but there can be more. The logic is still not very clear to me, but I’ll just tell/show you what I saw.

Bride and groom have separate celebrations and then also common ceremony. We were from the groom’s side and got invited to 3 events (only 2 of which I could attend).

This first celebration was a kind of chilled one, where women could wear shalwar kazeer (not necessarely sarees) and there was a concert! Everything started very late though and by late I mean that the concert only started around 10 pm.

We didn’t get to see the bride that day, it was only the groom and his family.

First we were getting ready — asked my local colleague and housekeeper to help us with sarees (I also borrowed the whole outfit from the colleague)

It was pretty easy to spot the wedding location

Since we got there pretty ‘early’ (around 8 pm), we were just hanging out meeting the family and taking pictures with everybody

And wondering around the house where we saw some of the presents being prepared for the bride (sarees, bangles, shoes etc.)

And got a chance to see how these locals live

Many people were there after 9 pm, but the decoration guys weren’t in a hurry at all

People waiting…

Notice that some of the outfits are made of the same fabric. That’s what they do — some friends/family members decide on the fabric for every party and they get their dresses/shalwar kameezes/sarees made of it but in different designs, of course!

At some point the show finally started!!

Around 11.30 pm we had to leave, but the concert was still going on and people didn’t start eating yet! We checked out the food though. Notice: everything was sent my the bride’s family

To be continued…

Jul 05 2015

Leave a comment

Bangladesh, Local experience, Outside Dhaka

Trip to Sonargaon

Sonargaon is a town south-east from Dhaka about one hour bus ride that is famous for it architecture.

To get there we met our guide by the National Mosque

Bought the ticket from (as you would think) random guy sitting on the street

And got on the bus with a non-working speedometer (they all are like this)

In Sonargaon we took a big CNG

The first stop was a museum with old stuff and things, things and stuff, but here is a photo of us and some student group

After the museum we went for a walk in the surrounding park and found a toilet. Foreigners toilet. I still don’t know what it was supposed to mean, but it cost us 5 taka (nothing). Belive me or not but I was asked for a selfie while I was washing my hands there.

In the park there were some random monuments like this pioneer-looking guy

Next stop — ruins

And since there are some ruins of the buildings, there are some of the toilets as well.

The toilets are standing by the river, since that is where everything was going to

We posed a bit

And then a bit more. This time with a cow (and apparently three of my chins!). The cow was telling me all Bangladeshi secrets.

While wandering around we met some kids. The mark that the baby has on his head is supposed to protect him.

And this is not the first child that I noticed with a weirdly shaped head. Maybe anybody knows why it is so strange?

Another picture with a local at the cha stop

More ruins

We are practicing the well-known by Bangladeshis,but very new to us ‘pictures-with-the-bush’ skill. (This one was staged by the local, we still suck!)

Trip back in the comfortable bus (not a regular bus)

In the city you can tell that there is a lychee season now, because its leaves are everywhere

And the highlight of our trip — visit to a local bar!

All very few bars in Bangladesh are run by the government

It is the only place where locals can buy alcohol (foreigners can buy drinks in the clubs and special liquor stores). A can of local barr costs 150 taka (2 euros).