BANG-BANG! ladesh
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Category Archives: Bangladesh
Trip to Paharpur. Day 1
Paharpur is one of the main sights in Bangladesh, the ruins of what was once a buddhist temple. You have seen one of those in Comilla already, but this is the biggest one.
Even though it was supposed to be a 4-5 hour drive, because we happened to go on the same day, what the Indian prime-minister was visiting Bangladesh, the National monument (the one I showed before as well) to be precise, which is in the same direction, it took us 12 hours. It was bad. Very bad.
We got to enjoy a lot of bush art though when we got there.
Kinds get to learn the “picture with the bush” skill when they are very small.
I am trying hard too
The ruins are cool
People are manually cutting off the grass with little knives.
The light at the ruins was absolutely gorgeous, but still iPhone made everybody look different!
We are performing
The layer on top in new, put there to protect the left overs from further destruction 
Guess whom I met there?!
Views
More goats
More bush-pictures
The area where Paharpur is situated, Rajshahi district, is famous for its mangoes. Therefore here is the biggest part of our dinner — mangoes and lychees.
To be continued!
Henna
Ever since I came here I wanted to try henna. One day the bride (and now a wife) from the wedding I showed you before did a great job making both of my hands beautiful with mehndi (what the locals call it)
It took about 20 minutes per hand for her, but then it takes a while to dry.
Henna stays longer on the areas, where the skin in thicker, so it was gone very fast on the outside part of the hands, but on the palms you can still see a bit even after almost 3 weeks.
Will do it again for sure 😉
Pink pearls
It is being said that Bangladesh is famous for its pearls, especially pink pearls.
There are multiple stores that sell them, and some argue that they are Chinese, not Bangladeshi, but who would know? They are real for sure and soooo pretty (and cheap).
A talking bird
In my tailor’s backyard there are two cages with moyna. These birds are amazing. They can reproduce almost whatever you tell them and in general the range of the sounds they can make it very impressive. And they are very pretty as well!
M
Happens sometimes
Beautiful Dhaka
Radio star
OMG! OMG! I am becoming a super start while living in Bangladesh!
The other day, when it was a regular working Sunday in Bangladesh, a friend of mine, Seva, a very talented journalist working on one of the top radio stations in Russia, sent me a message asking if I was available to give a comment about biking cultures in Bangladesh and Denmark.
And I was, so I did! My almost 5 minutes of fame on the Russian radio start at 39:00 and until 43:40 (you need to choose a window with Seva on the right)
http://echo.msk.ru/programs/apriscatole/1578810-echo/#mmvideo
Thank you, Seva, it was lots of fun 🙂
Like I said, Seva is a very talented journalist, so make sure you listen to his programs from time to time on Echo of Moscow!
Wedding. Last day
Like I said, I don’t really understand the logic of the wedding celebration in Bangladesh yet (it seems also that it varies a lot), but I have visited the final celebration.
First, as usual, getting properly dressed with the help of the local
And that was the first time I saw the bride! Woo-hoo!
The most interesting part of the wedding (imho) — looking at the local women
Bride getting ready (read: family is putting tons of jewellery on the bride so that she could hardly move)
And… picture taking time! (that will last for hours!!)
Beautiful henna
Since the bride has henna and kilograms of jewellery, she cannot eat by herself, therefore her family is helping her out.
This celebration, unlike the first one, was in a special venue. The food for men and women was served on different floors — ground for men and first for women. The setting from the pictures above was on the first floor.
Beautiful women
And guess what? Picture taking continues! On the screen people can see the shots from the previous days (in total, the celebration has been on every day for a week)
This is us with the bride and the groom. A bit of the context. The absolute majority of the weddings in Bangladesh are arranged and so was this one. The groom has a brother who is married to a girl and the bride is this girl’s cousin. The groom is currently living in Australia and the bride has been living in Bangladesh. A few days before the wedding it the first time when they actually saw each other (if we don’t count skype). The guy is returning to Australia now and the bride will follow him in a few months.
Happy marriage!
Bangladeshi goats
I think it is time for a Bangladeshi goat break!
