Our double-life in Dhaka
It 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…
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.
Tags: Asia, Bangladesh, Dhaka, expatriates, South Asia, Travel
Nick