Beyond Dhaka

So, as promised earlier, John and I ventured out into the Bangladesh beyond Dhaka, although really not all that far, only 23 km, it just took an hour and a half. I am thoroughly tired of hearing horns honking for no apparent reason now too. Anyways, we went to the Sonargaon area which is where the original capital city was. I have to say, Bangladesh needs a little work when it comes to restoration and/or upkeep of historic buildings. We headed first to Sadarbari, which is an old rajbari (basically an estate). It was quite lovely on the outside, and some of the 'folk-art' inside the 'museum' was interesting, but really it was the exterior that was more interesting. Although, I did like the treasure chests, they were cool. We also seemed to be turning into the actual exhibit, as everyone wanted to know where we were from and how we liked Bangladesh. Quite funny. Anyways, we wandered around the grounds for a bit. John bought some weird, creepy looking doll thing. Oh, and then we came upon this little thing of kids rides, although if I were a parent, there is no way my kid would be getting on one of these things, it makes Whoop-up Days rides look like a walk in the park. Then it was time to explore a little, our poor driver (from the Foundation), thought we were crazy I'm sure. Our trusty lonely planet, was not so helpful with the maps, and any suggestion of being able to see Bangladesh as a backpacker is completely false. The town of Painam Nagar was very cool, but again left something to be desired on upkeep. Trying to find the Tall Shiva Shrine (John's check list) consisted of trapsing through a few plants and some mud and me being ever so cautious, sure that a cobra is going to appear at any moment. I'm with Indy...I hate snakes. Luckily, all we got was the Shrine and some neat pictures. Again, forcing our driver to ask a lot of people (they are everywhere, even in rural Bangladesh), we went over to the Goaldi Mosque which dates to 1519. It has made it a bit better than the old capital, and is still all in one piece, I guess to be taken care of, you must be religious. Adventuring some more, and listening to LP, we crossed the highway to Mograpara to see the Tomb of Sultan Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah, the oldest Muslim monument in Bangladesh. Sounds good no? No, it is boring. The wedding welcome arches on the other hand, were much more interesting and worth the trip across the highway. We decided to head back to Dhaka, but as a treat for surviving the heat and humidity, we had a late lunch at A&W. Yummo. Had a work out tonight, and a nice chat with a teacher from Winnipeg, who also agrees, Bangladesh gives you a very odd understanding of the world and after a year here, he still is baffled by some of the behaviour (the staring never ceases). Oh, speaking of staring, funny story today, there were 5 guys walking along, John and I were also walking. They all kinda stopped and looked at us for a minute. 4 continued walking. One stayed and stared as I walked by for quite some time as all his friends left him. Again, John thought this was really funny, so he went and said hello to the guy. Guy then stopped staring and walked away. We also had our pictures taken numerous times today on cell phones. So yeah, that's about it. Bed time, and off to work tomorrow morning.