Our first full day started with a lovely buffet breakfast at the hotel. As I mentioned earlier, the hotel is part of a larger chain is certainly the equivalent to a Marriott at home. It reminds me of the breakfast we had in Sri Lanka with juice and fruit and pastry, some western items like pancakes and an inlet station and then an assortment of more lunch style foods like vegetable stir fry and lentil Dahl. Coffee is excellent although this is tea country.
After breakfast we left the relative serenity of the upscale residential area call Banani which just 20 years ago was a little village outside Dhaka. We are headed by private bus to Old Dhaka. The chaos of vehicle and motor traffic is almost indescribable. If your bus isn’t completely dented and scraped down both sides, you are obviously doing something wrong.
And even now, we are still the celebrity tourists!
Our first adventure of the day is a boat ride on the Buriganga River which is a tributary to the Ganges. The port is filled with medium sized cruise and ferry boats that don’t appear to be headed anywhere. And dozens of small wooden vessels acting as taxis back and forth. On the opposite shore are all manner of ships that are at the end of the road and being stripped for salvage.
Our journey takes us down the river wihich is a muddy brown color and filled with debris from the plants that seem to clog the shorelines. There are also a steady stream of barges hauling sand up river. We make a quick stop in the salvage yards Just past the ships is a little village where all manner of ship parts - chain, rope, props are for sale it is also where most of the workers live - if not temporarily on the ships they are dismantling
The traffic consumes so much travel time it is already time for lunch. It is nice stop high above the hustle and Bustle of the city and the river. Everything is being served family style and it is delicious - especially the chicken kabobs cooked in yoghurt. (It is also hot, so this is a rice respite from the heat. We also see another group of tourists who are here as missionaries)
Our next stop was the Pink Palace - and my guess for ’you might want to lick the walls’ clue which was apparently was wrong! Officially it is the Ahsan Manzil Museum and was the private residence of Nawab of Dhaka a previous ruling power. Unfortunately it is a sad state of disrepair but apparently a popular site for young student to have pictures taken in their best garb
Next we took a walk down one of the oldest parts of Dhaka called Hindu Street and even though they are in the minority, it is inhabited by Hindu people and symbology it was fascinating and one of the only areas thus far where there was some remarkable crumbling architecture
Derek is filled with surprises on this surprise trip as after a short bus ride, we jumped off and onto bicycle rickshaws for a harrowing ride through the old city to our stop for dinner - Emran’s Heritage House - a true vestige of Bangladesh’s colonial past. Tucked away from the noise of the street a lovely garden welcomed us to his family home and we were adored with flower necklaces and sprinkled with marigold petals. Emran was a remarkable man with a heartfelt offer of genuine hospitality to his guests after greetings and pictures and a little history we were welcomed to the dining room for a banquet of chicken and beef, eggplant and salads - and magnificent chewy flat bread pitas - aid a sweet type of rice pudding for dessert
(I must note that somehow during the flower ceremony and without shoes I cut my toe Emran and his family just couldn’t have been more helpful in what was a excessively bloody and thoroughly embarrassing situation)
Rickshaws and taxis home again and tomorrow is another day!
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