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The Bathroom-Tiled Taj Mahal

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

You may have read in the news recently that a wealthy Bangladeshi film-maker has just finished constructing a ‘replica’ of the Taj Mahal. (Actually, it’s not even finished yet, but it has just opened to the public.) 

We went to check it out today near Sonargaon, about 30 kilometres from Dhaka, and even met the builder himself, Ahsanullah Moni, while we were there. And the verdict? Let me just say that Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor who ordered the building of the original Taj and who was said to have cut off the hands of the architects and masons upon its completion so they could never again build a monument so beautiful, can rest easy in his grave; the Bangladesh Taj is a kitchy and cheap knock-off of the fabulous original, about five times smaller and with towers that are too fat.

But I’ll let you judge for yourself.

The actual Taj Mahal – Agra, India

  Taj Mahal

The Bangladesh Taj Mahal – near Sonargaon, Bangladesh

    Bangladesh Taj Mahal 

Our double-life in Dhaka

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

Market in Old DhakaIt has been a bit of a strange existence for us in the Bangladeshi capital these past few days. We spend our days exploring the old city and acting much as we do in India or anywhere else while we’re travelling. In this life, we can see that Bangladesh is less developed than India, with far less English spoken, virtually nothing in the way of tourist facilities (an expatriate told us that in the 14 months she has lived here, we are the seventh and eighth tourists she has seen), almost no sights of any significant historical or cultural significance, poorer people (and poorer local food, while I’m at it), and a potentially disastrous future that could, according to some reports, result in the entire country being under water by the end of this century.

But by night we find ourselves in the trendy expatriate and upper class Bangladesh area of Gulshan staying in a plush three-bedroom apartment with our friend Julie who is the Agence France-Presse bureau chief here. In a country where more than 80 per cent of the population earns less than US$2 per day, we eat double chocolate Tim Tams whenever we want, dine on gnocchi in hotel restaurants where the cheapest room is US$170 per night, sleep under a cosy doona (that’s Australian for a duvet for the Anglofiles and Francofiles among you) in a clean room that is actually rodent-free, and generally feel a million miles away from the chaos of Old Dhaka. It’s hardly the ‘real’ Bangladesh, of course, but after a day in the actual real Bangladesh, and over three months on the subcontinent, it’s a nice feeling to come home to. Being token expats for a few days has also allowed us to put our fingers on the pulse of what’s currently happening in Bangladesh (where the two-year state of emergency was lifted last week!), from the upcoming landmark elections where both major candidates are women to the ongoing forced marriage trial. Oh, and living with the only Dhaka-based foreign journalist from one of the world’s major news agencies helps a lot too…

Worshippers at a Mughal Mosque, Dhaka

We were lucky to connect, through Julie, with two Bangladeshi architects, Taimur and Homeira, who are part of an Urban Study Group that attempts to save historic buildings in Dhaka from demolition, and give free tours of the old city as part their attempts to raise awareness among the population. On our first two days here we joined some expatriates (of whom there are quite a few, almost all diplomats or NGO workers) for two of Taimur and Homeira’s walks that really helped bring the old city alive for us. They took us into several old houses from the late Mughal and British eras and we got to meet the residents and see how they live. Without the walking tours, we would have walked straight past almost all of these houses and barely noticed them.

Today we went out of Dhaka for the first time to Sonargaon, home to some of Bangladesh’s earliest surviving Muslim monuments (which were only so-so), and a ghost town of crumbling century-old Hindu mansions (which were surprisingly interesting), before returning to our Gulshan cocoon late this afternoon. We’re going to stay in Dhaka for another few days before heading off to see some other parts of the country.

Catching Up

Friday, December 19th, 2008

We've spent the last week or so in Calcutta and in the state of Orissa further south, and to catch up I'll post some quick impressions.

Calcutta is more pleasant than I remember from our 2003 ... [Continue reading this entry]

Moments like this…

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

Sealdah train station, Calcutta, 6:20am this morning: Forty-eight hours after waking up in a 23-house village with no roads in Sikkim, we are dumped in the middle of the second largest city in India, notorious for its slums and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Sikkim: Barely India

Monday, December 8th, 2008

We’ve spent the past few days in the Himalayan state of Sikkim, which was cold and mostly overcast, but worthwhile all the same. A respite from the very Indian-ness of India was much appreciated, as Sikkim feels like ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hurry Burry Spoils the Curry

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

So said a roadside sign on the way up to Darjeeling in West Bengal. I think it means 'Slow Down', but it struck me as a particularly unusual and indirect way of advising drivers.

But I'm getting ahead of ... [Continue reading this entry]

Far from Mumbai

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

As word about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai filters in, I'm glad to say that we're not in the city or anywhere close to it, but I'm pretty shocked nevertheless. We're in Agra now, heading for Varanasi tonight, and ... [Continue reading this entry]

Rajasthan revisited

Sunday, November 16th, 2008

Despite my feelings of semi-fondness towards Delhi that I mentioned in the previous post, the place is still a dump. It’s about as noisy, chaotic and polluted as India gets, and if you’re walking around the city and you ... [Continue reading this entry]

India: unlike anything else

Monday, November 10th, 2008

It’s funny how the mind and the memory play tricks on you. When we arrived in Kathmandu in mid-September, we thought it was just like India. The colour, the activity, the chaos, the religious fervour - it all brought ... [Continue reading this entry]

Mopping Up

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Perhaps the foreigner in Nepal just isn’t meant to understand the local mindset. Consider this example: a few days ago, an elephant at the breeding centre near Chitwan National Park unexpectedly calved twins, an extremely rare occurrence among elephants ... [Continue reading this entry]