Bang-average Bangladesh

Have you seen the Johnny English films? Specifically Johnny English Reborn? If so, you may recall he has nightmares and develops an eye twitch whenever he thinks about Mozambique (if not, here is the link for an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AuZdUGj1BU). You may be wandering what on earth I am on about? However, this is how we have started to feel about Bangladesh.

When planning our trip I was recommended visiting Bangladesh by an old participant in one of my studies. So rather naively I suggested we just booked some flights and that was that for a few months. Then I started looking into the logistics. A Sundarbans forest tour had been the original plan but these were all booked up and unable to accommodate our dates. The Chittagong area of the country is also meant to be beautiful but the government currently recommends not going there. Balls. We had a week in Bangladesh and not a lot to do. We decided to re-arrange our flights to only give us a weekend in Dhaka, thus allowing us an extra week in Thailand. Then, we had an email saying our flight to Thailand had been re-arranged from a very sociable 6 pm, to a rather horrible 1 am. Finally… to add insult to injury our flight into Dhaka was also delayed by around 2 hours.

So we arrived in Dhaka with (at best) mixed feelings about Bangladesh. Dhaka has been… an experience. I can’t say we’ve enjoyed it, but it’s certainly the type of place that is worth visiting at least once in your lifetime (type 2 fun according to Helen). After arriving at our hotel mid-afternoon on Saturday, we set out on a walk towards Lalbagh Fort, via the pretty Ramna Park. Dhaka is crazy. People everywhere, tuk-tuks/rickshaws beeping and vendors spilling onto the streets. We didn’t see any other tourists the whole time and we were very disconcerted by just how many people stared at us. We finally arrived at Lalbagh Fort… as it closed. See what I mean about Bangladesh? (although I guess we do take the blame for that one with poor planning). We did however have a nice dinner (rice and potato curry) in the Bongo Bazaar, topped off with chocolate, a weird milk drink and a top Bangladesh snack called Bhapa Pitha (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJICSLlNmAc).

• 

Sunday was more of the same really. To be fair to Dhaka it has some lovely buildings and we visited the beautifully pink Ahsan Manjil museum, the Star Mosque and the (Hindu) Dhakeswari Temple. The downside to these buildings is that they are located in HORRENDOUSLY busy areas. The amount of people is insane and it was a bit of a battle (exaggeration of the century) trying to get around. After a fairly draining morning, the afternoon picked up. We had a lovely lunch of vegetable tikka and spicy wedges and a few Bangladeshi coffees (much tastier than Sri Lanka). We then located ourselves in the Dhanmondi area of the city, which was SO much nicer. The paths were more spacious and there were less people staring at us (although we were still the only tourists around). We would definitely recommend this area over other parts of the city. We also saw a Nando’s (YAY) although for the first time in my life I wasn’t tempted (see highlights of Dhaka below for an example of why we are sticking to a veggie diet). We are now back at the hotel waiting for our 1 am flight to Thailand and feeling a little drained. It’s been a BAZAR weekend!!

• 

• 

Some highlights of Dhaka:

1. Having a hotel bathroom with a toilet, shower but no sink (yep super strange…)
2. Being offered a whole uncooked and feathered chicken in a local market as though this was a normal impulse purchase for two tourists
3. Being driven around in a tuk-tuk with metal bars (as though we were prisoners).

• 

•