BANG-BANG! ladesh

Just to show you that I was still following the tour even though the scenery around me was so interesting. An example of the British colonial architecture (you see the column?)

Then we took a boat along Buriganga. Just no words.

Here is also a couple of videos

http://youtu.be/VTfmadTHMbc

http://youtu.be/I4awfLz9vmc

This man was one of the two smiling people I met during this tour.

A couple of other examples of European architecture in Dhaka. The buildings were built in the 18&19th centuries in French tradition and were owned by the Hindus that left to India when the situation here became unsafe for them.

Like I mentioned before, the most interesting things happened while we were walking from one sight to another.

One of the kids is holding a cricket bat. Cricket is a national sport here and right now Bangladesh is playing with Pakistan which is very important considering the recent history. So far Bangladesh has been winning and everybody is very excited about it. (Unfortunately, I am not a sports fan!)

The final part of our tour was the palace that was turned into the fruit market. But to get there we had to go through the spice market. There is a lot of chilies, ginger and garlic there. Being Russian I have seen a lot garlic in my live, but not so much chilies!

At the fruit market it was the first time when I saw paan. These are leafs that people in Bangladesh chew to get high. Haven’t tried myself and didn’t talk to anyone who did, but if I do, will let you know!

Thankfully, people in Bangladesh enjoy being photographed.

And here is my goat friend that I met at the market at the end of the tour!

Hope that was enough pictures 😉

Like I said before, Dhaka is enormous. The ride to the Old Dhaka from Gulshan takes about an hour on Friday, which is a common weekend, but on a regular day it can take 2-3 or even more hours.

Every Friday the organization Urban Study Group invites everybody interested to join for a tour in the Old Dhaka. The Group consists of some architects and volunteers who are working on protecting old buildings in Puran Dhaka (Old Dhaka).

Last Friday I joined the tour and it was pretty intense. One thing to understand about Old Dhaka — even the locals don’t know it very well unless they live there and a woman wouldn’t go there alone even during the daylight.

Tours change every Friday, but some buildings are still visited almost every time (from the words of those who it it a few times already).

This tour included a visit to two Mughal Caravanserais in the Chawkbazar area, a couple of 18th&19th century mansions of the former Hindu Zamindars and the palace of Ruplal Das (which was turned into a vegetable market).

All these buildings are in a very sad condition, 100 times Belgrade I would even say. And I personally was more fascinated by the people, how they live and what they do, so below you won’t find many pictures of crumbled buildings, but mostly people and surroundings of Puran Dhaka.

One of the funniest things you notice walking around Dhaka is many posters of some people with random objects on them.

They are candidates for the upcoming election. Each of them has a symbol and all these symbols are very simple. So far we were told that the fish and pumpkin guys will most likely win. (There was also a couch guy, I would think that he has good chances too!)

As you can see, each poster is in its own plastic bag. Plastic bags actually sort of prohibited in Dhaka, will tell a story about it some other time.

Here is a look from a rooftop we climbed at to check out the view to one of the Caravanserais. Fairly speaking, the view over the Caravanserai specifically wasn’t that spectacular, but the overall impression was very strong.

While climbing up the stair we even spotted somebody’s rings (hey Copenhagen!)

Others though don’t seem to need any gear to exercise.

Btw, do you see people just standing and looking? That is a very common view. Staring is much more common in Old Dhaka, but still not as bad as I expected it to be. Most of the people will stare at you with a pretty grumpy face and even if you smile back at them it doesn’t help — they won’t crack a smile. I wonder if it is because of their hard life or for some other reason.

In-between we also visited a soap factory. And this was intense. Have a look for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d0RHHn8oO4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kxApPzMHOc

Do you see little kids working there? Well, according to the law kids cannot work until they are 16, between 16 and 18 they can work, but only with a doctor’s approval. Here it was a different case. From what I heard these kids make about 100 taka a day or, according to a different source, 1200 taka a month.

Final look

The second part of the tour including a boat ride, crumbled buildings of British and French architecture and more local faces comes tomorrow. Stay tuned!