Lalbag Fort

Today it seemed that most people were just relaxing at the hotel. I did not plan on doing that so I went down to the front desk and they directed me to Lalbag Fort. I don't know too much about it, except that it was a Moghul fortress built about 350 years ago.

The Central Tomb 

It is quite funny actually when you are walking around, you will see groups of kids who will dare one of them to come up and talk to you. Or there is one kid who wants to show off to his friends that he can speak English. A couple times I got approached by people who just wanted to ask what my name was, my country and what I thought of Bangladesh. You can see that the thing they hammer home first is the conversation "Hello," "Hello," "how are you", "Fine, thank you." After that usually all you get are keywords, a point at me and "name?" or "country?" and "married?"

Twice now today, I had people ask me to take a picture of them. I thought they wanted me to use their camera, but no, they wanted me to take a picture of them with my camera!

A young couple

The fortress grounds seemed to be the place to be for a romantic date with the girl you fancied. There were countless couples sitting on the grass hidden under their umbrella or a bush (For example in the first photo of the central tomb, on the left side you can see a guy in red sitting under a bush with his girlfriend - most of the girls did not have nose piercings which indicate that they are married). I think bringing a girl here was probably also a way to show off for the guys since it was 50 taka entrance fee (but 100 taka for white people!). Still it was well worth the not even $1.50 I spent!

On the Second Floor of the Fort

I was quite happy to wander around myself, but when I went into the actual fort this very nice man insisted on taking me around and explaining everything they had in the little museum. Bangali hospitality is amazing, infact sometimes I find it a little too much, but it is always appreciated. He also never missed a chance to take a picture of me! I could not under stand much of what he was saying, often the only words I could make out were Moghul and China, 300, Shia and Sunni. They had a ton of gold and silver coins, and some Persian ceramics, some Moghul Rugs, and Moghul weaponry. They also had a lot of Arabic and Farsi caligraphy as well as the Qur'an written on paper will gold borders and designs. It was all quite impressive.

The Tomb and Fort and the Surrounding Gardens

I thought about spending some more time in the surrounding markets, but I did not really fancy walking around the crowded streets on my own. Definitely better than spending a day in the hotel.

Cheers,
Mike