City tour of Dhaka

The day that Leon arrived (December 24^th), he went to bed due to his jet lag.  The rest of us were treated to a tour of Dhaka, a gift from a friend of Salehuddin’s.  His name was Iqbal Rahman, and he was "the best guide" (or was it "best guy") ever.  We didn’t get to too many places, as the traffic in Dhaka moved at a crawl – but we thoroughly enjoyed what we did see.  

The first stop was Sangshad Bhaban, the Parliament building.  We only viewed the building from its outside – which was striking, sitting as it does inside a designed lake.   Jewish-American Louis Kahn designed it, incorporating Bangladeshi and Muslim architectural styles.  We were told a great documentary film about him exists, called “My Architect.”  (We hope to find and watch it sometime.)

While at the Parliament, we first encountered what would become a commonplace thing throughout Bangladesh and Myanmar --- “We were rock stars.”   Random people – from young to old, male and female – would come up and ask if they could take a picture with us.  Of course, we would always say yes.  Here is one man who picked out Jim for a picture “because they looked so much alike.” 

Jim and his "look-alike"

At the tomb of Bibi Pari

Our second stop was the Lalbagh Fort, a precursor to the Taj Mahal story.  A palace fortress from the Mughal time, it was begun in the late 1670s when Prince Azam, son of the reigning Mughal Emperor was betrothed to Bibi Pari, the daughter of Bengal’s governor.  But Bibi Pari died, and the palace's construction ended.  Now, it is her tomb. 

The highlight of the city tour for most of us, especially Mark, was the visit to old town – and a 30-minute rickshaw ride.  You can’t really appreciate the Dhaka traffic until you are in it - either walking or riding in a bicycle rickshaw or CNG (three-wheeled motorcycle with caged back seat).  We all took off in different rickshaws: John and Sophie, Beth and I, and Jim and Mark.

John and Sophie

Jim will never forgive me for accidentally deleting the video he made of his ride.  So, let me try to describe the traffic in words.  Any traffic lights or painted lanes that may exist are for decoration only.  Cars, trucks, buses, rickshaws, CNGs, buses, bicycles, and any pedestrians crossing the road are all crammed together.  Roads that were meant for two lanes have at least five lanes of traffic.  The city buses are all old; none have working tail lights or turn signals.  Their sides are so scraped, taped, and scraped again that you have no idea of the original color.

Photo of only the rickshaw traffic

This is how Jim described the traffic in an email to our kids:  “Dhaka was wild!  Think of crowds milling in a stadium or concert and how it is everyone for themselves - pushing and slipping into any little cracks to make progress to where they want to go.  Now put each of those people in a car, truck, motorcycle, tuktuk (3 wheel taxi), or bicycle and you get the idea.  If you are able to stick the nose of your vehicle into a little gap between 2 cars, you have now claimed the right to that space and the one car will have to let you in - unless they can slide over slightly and get around you and get an advantage for themselves.  It looks completely chaotic and you are sure you are going to be in a dozen accidents a day, but we were in none.”  As our guide Iqbal says, “Out of chaos comes order,” and somehow it all works. 

My biggest point of pride, though, was that while in Dhaka I learned to cross the street!  At first, my tactic was to find a local and, when they decided to cross the street, I would walk exactly beside that person with the same stride.  They sometimes gave me a funny look, but most of the time they started to lead the way with a smile.  That worked great for some time.  Then, I started crossing as if I was the local.   I had arrived!

Here are a few local scenes/faces:

Street Vendors

Saving the prettiest to last...