A little more Dhaka...

So yesterday at work we convinced Bulbul, who works in accounting, to take us on another tour of Dhaka today. We told him where we had been, and he planned a route for us and would be our tour guide. So after picking Bulbul up at his house, we headed off to the National Assembly. Unfortunately we couldn't get very close. Apparently the building is pretty much shut down because there are no elected officials (thanks to the lack of elections). So we could only get in front of the grounds and into the park dedicated to Zia, the second president of Bangladesh. 

We then headed over to Dhaka University to take a look at a bunch of monuments (to the language movement, the student movement and the national martyrs). 

We also stopped at the science faculty which has a beautiful building that was named for the British Viscount who had been in charge of all of the sub-continent (can't remember his name though). 

Lunch at a really strange Thai restaurant names Voot, which means ghost, but it was good. 

We then headed back to Old Dhaka to see a few things that we had missed the first time through. Went to the main Hindu temple (weird shrine) and then to Lalbagh Fort (another important pink building). The fort was pretty cool as it is pretty much a park for locals, beautiful grounds to escape the rickshaws, and kids are playing, people are picnicing, and generally a nice place. 

So yeah, that was about it. Had dinner at our favourite pizza place around the corner and watching some of the Euro Cup now. 

Things I learned today 1) having a yellow license plate in Bangladesh signals foreigner and means you get to do whatever you want and people won't question it. 2) Being a foreigner means you are subject to price discrimination, both when it comes to bargaining as well as more blatantly (foreigners pay 100 taka to get into Fort Lalbagh, locals pay 10 taka). 3) Bangladesh politics is really messed up (this has been coming all along but was even more obvious today). The first president was assassinated by the army, along with most of his family. One daughter survived, went on to become PM and is now in jail on corruption charges (actually, she was just granted leave to Canada to seek medical treatment - we don't want her). The second president was also assassinated by the army, his wife went on to become PM and is now in jail on corruption charges (she has been offered leave to the US to seek medical treatment). See a pattern here? Apparently the first two guys were wonderful and not corrupt and believed in Bangladesh, their families not so much. 

Anyways, those are my lessons for today.