Friday, May 21, 2010

Last Friday Donna, Mozib, and I decided to explore old Dhaka for the day even though it was insanely hot and humid. You were drenched the second you stood outside. Mozib took us over a new road that was just built in Dhaka. This road looks new and legit and goes over the train tracks. It had a median divider and everything. Old Dhaka is nice on a Friday with little traffic and took us no more than 25 minutes to get down there.
We drove around Dhaka University, which is a big area with lots of grassy spots in front of the dorms. The dorms are big old buildings-some of them are very old in the red brick style. We found a funny monument garden commemorating some famous politicians. Some of the statues were hilarious though. We toured around a Hindu temple, the star mosque, Lalbagh fort, and went down to the embankment road by the Ganges river. There is a lot to see in old Dhaka and it was a nice change from Gulshan-Bannani-Baridhara area. Lalbagh fort was my favorite-a Mughal king had built the extravagant house and mosque for him and his family while much of the country was starving and didn't have enough to eat. Two of his daughter are thought to be buried in tombs there. There was a gate to enter the place and men and women had seperate ques. Us whities also had to pay 100 Taka versus the 10 Taka that the Bangladeshis had to pay. 100 Taka is just over a dollar so still not so bad but come on! Old Dhaka has tons of amazing textiles for wholesale prices. We ended the day looking at rolls and rolls of amazing, brightly colored cotton fabrics and Mozib got some material for his wife. We were all dripping with sweat-thank god for air conditioned cars!

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