Category Archives: Bangladesh

Trip to Sonargaon

Sonargaon is a town south-east from Dhaka about one hour bus ride that is famous for it architecture.

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To get there we met our guide by the National Mosque

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Bought the ticket from (as you would think) random guy sitting on the street

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And got on the bus with a non-working speedometer (they all are like this)

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In Sonargaon we took a big CNG

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The first stop was a museum with old stuff and things, things and stuff, but here is a photo of us and some student group

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After the museum we went for a walk in the surrounding park and found a toilet. Foreigners toilet. I still don’t know what it was supposed to mean, but it cost us 5 taka (nothing). Belive me or not but I was asked for a selfie while I was washing my hands there.

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In the park there were some random monuments like this pioneer-looking guy

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Next stop — ruins

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And since there are some ruins of the buildings, there are some of the toilets as well.

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The toilets are standing by the river, since that is where everything was going to

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We posed a bit

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And then a bit more. This time with a cow (and apparently three of my chins!). The cow was telling me all Bangladeshi secrets.

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While wandering around we met some kids. The mark that the baby has on his head is supposed to protect him.

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And this is not the first child that I noticed with a weirdly shaped head. Maybe anybody knows why it is so strange?

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Another picture with a local at the cha stop

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More ruins

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We are practicing the well-known by Bangladeshis,but very new to us ‘pictures-with-the-bush’ skill. (This one was staged by the local, we still suck!)

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Trip back in the comfortable bus (not a regular bus)

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In the city you can tell that there is a lychee season now, because its leaves are everywhere

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And the highlight of our trip — visit to a local bar!

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All very few bars in Bangladesh are run by the government IMG_6431 IMG_6435

It is the only place where locals can buy alcohol (foreigners can buy drinks in the clubs and special liquor stores). A can of local barr costs 150 taka (2 euros).

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Guys chilling

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Never thought this would ever happen

My local friend is getting her degree in fashion design and asked me to be a model for her final project’s photo shoot. Me! A model! Oh my!
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Cricket game

Cricket is Bangladesh’s national sport. The team has been doing really well and has won 3-0 against Pakistan (which means a lot here because of the historical connections) and recently also won 2-0 against India.

I went to the first game against India and it was lots of fun. Of course I didn’t understand a thing, but everybody was so happy every time Bangladeshi team scored, so it was impossible to sit still!

We were also asked for an interview and went live!

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For Fred and Oleg

Preview for the soon-to-come post!

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Pharmacy

There are of course pharmacies with fridges and stuff, but most of them look like this. And it was about 30+ degrees.IMG_6236

Coffee shop

Haha, here is the local coffee shop, but of course it doesn’t serve coffee, it serves cha — black tea with milk and A LOT of sugar

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Usually some local snack is being made/sold in the same place. In this particular case it was singara — thin pastry-like dough with potatoes, lentis and spices (of course) deep fried!

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Trip to Savar

One day we decided to go and watch metal casting. And after researching the area a few other things got added to the list, so the furthest point this time was Shailan Mosque and this time google maps was about right, but again we had to leave at 6 am.

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Thanks to wikipedia we learned about the mosque and it was our first destination

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The person who is looking after this mosque offered us some mangos right off the tree!

We walked around the mosque a bit and found the local gym (nobody was working out though)

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Our next stop — Dhamrai Roth, a hindu wooden kind of  temple that gets moved around the town once a year

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While waiting for the metal casting we were walking around the city visiting various temples (majority of the population in this particular area are hindu). We randomly found a very nice man who was looking after one of the temples and showed us the others in the neighbourhood. In one of those temples the reaction to me saying that I am Russian was “Russia is good, Russia is India’s friend”

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The metal casting happened right in front of the Roth. The family that runs this workshop has been doing it for over 500 years. The technique is called “lost wax” and the idea is that at first a wax figure is made, then it is covered with a few layers of clay and afterwards is being put in the something like an over when wax runs away and the metal is poured in the forms instead. The process of metal casting is the most interesting one and it was very very hot and very very dangerous. The metal looks beautiful though — acid orange and green.IMG_6249

These were the pieces that have been sitting there for a whle already waiting for us

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But this is not over — because it comes out with many defects, a lot of work is needed to fix it and make it perfect. At that moment they have been working on a big statue for one of the temples (the base was casted), and the head was getting last touches. In italic because it takes months to make it look shiny.

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There is a shop by this workshop and once can see some examples of their work

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The statue like the one above takes about 3-4 months.

And a must-have picture with the family that runs this workshop

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They have a very nice house

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The next stop — Natinal Memorial. I mentioned the war of 1971 many times already. Here it is like the 2nd World War in Europe, but for one country. It took them 16 years though to build this place, it looks a lot like many other concrete memorials I have seen in my life, but one should never tell this to the locals, for them it is the best memorial ever. Because the locals like to pose (A LOT), we decided to blend in (but we definitely suck)IMG_6266 IMG_6263 IMG_6270

Speaking of posing — many people pose with the bushes. I showed some examples before, but it is super funny — even when there is a monument, a Bush is thing to take a picture with. So we have been working hard on blending in even more

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And in the end — a selfie with Mr. Bush!

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Toilet paper

Here is a question. Do you know how many sections does your toilet paper roll have? I know how many mine does!

In Bangladesh using toilet paper is not a very common thing, as you might have notice from the picture of the toilet I showed before. So it is mostly for tourists/expats and a little fraction of the locals.

It is being sold like this

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And each roll is wrapped in its own plastic bag with detailed information about a numer of sheets! (and notice that it is hygienic!)

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