Sightseeing in Dhaka

Today we met up with a couple of the other interns from Canada and rented a van for the day to tour around the city. There were 6 of us and it ended up costing us 800 taka each ($12 Canadian) to rent the van for 6 hours. It was a big van and we could have fit 3 or 4 more people in there which would have made it not so expensive, but none of the other interns wanted to come.

First stop: Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban

Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban is the National Assembly Building. It houses all parliamentary activities in Bangladesh in a number of blocks in a ring which surround a taller middle block.We weren’t able to see much, and were only able to take a bunch of pictures from across the open fields surrounding it. There were police everywhere with guns keeping people out. Even from afar though the building was still very impressive. 

Guards outside the Parliament Buildings

We had trouble communicating with our van driver, he did not speak any English. We eventually managed to get him to take us the Gulshan-2. Gulshan is the more upper class neighbourhood of the City, and it is also where all the foreign embassies are located. We got our driver to drop us off in a market in Gulshan and we walked around. They had a couple sport shops where you could buy soccer jerseys for 500 taka, that is less than $8 Canadian! I may go back sometime and get the Bangladesh national team jersey. Oddly though their soccer shoes were not cheap, I saw a pair of Nikes there for 8,000 Taka ($120).

We did manage to find a embassy building, however it was not the Canadian one. Instead we had to walk a good 15 minutes, only to find that it was close for the weekend.

The High Commission of Canada, Dhaka

On the drive to Gulshan the other guys had spotted a KFC, so they were determined to try and find it again. It took us a good 20 minute walk, but eventually we found it. I didn't really want to travel half way around the world just to eat American food, however everyone else seemed very keen on it. I think that was the very first time I have ever had KFC. Inside you could tell it was a hotspot for foreigners. They had English menus and people around us were all talking in English and wearing foreigners’ clothes.

Once we made it back to the van, it was quite a struggle but eventually we managed to tell our driver to take us to the Baitul Mukarram Mosque, the National Mosque of Bangladesh.

Baitul Mukarram Mosque

 We were walking around outside the mosque, and a couple of us took off our shoes and walked up the frost steps to take some closer pictures. As we started to leave a man from the mosque ran out and offered to show us around the mosque! They were very nice to show us all around and up to the 5th floor. 

Our Tour Guides

We got a tour up to the 5^th floor and from there you could see floors 6 and 7, the place was massive! We went there on a Saturday at around 4pm, and afternoon prayer is at 5:15pm. Because it was not a prayer time it was not very busy and they only had the first floor open. On Friday it is so busy that they open up all 7 floors and I’m sure a couple thousand people can fit in the mosque then. Our guides were very nice to us, some of them had family in Canada and they spoke fairly good English.

View from the 5th Floor up to the 6th and 7th

The 4th Floor

An Outside Prayer Hall

After that we walked around the market outside the mosque and looked at some of the stalls in the market. After walking around for a certain amount of time you quickly begin to see the same stuff for saleover and over. There is almost no product differentiation between two venders of the same product0Everyone here though is extremely friendly, all you have to do is say hello (asalaam alaykum) and how are you (kaamon aachen) and everyone is very happy to talk withyou. They all want to know “what country?” we are, and “student? student?” So far even in the city is extremely friendly, there are the odd persistent beggars which can get irritating but on the whole very nice people.

I should sleep now, because we have to wake up in a couple hours to go on our first village visit! We are going to a village with a Grameen Branch in it to sit in on a meeting and visit some of the women who are borrowers from the bank!

Cheers,

Mike