Dhaka with a backbend

Have you ever had a feeling that your inner organs are in your throat? 

Recently, my milt has visited my breast, my kidneys are just under my armpits. Or this is how it feels when you twist and twist,  stretch and strecth at a yoga class.  

Due to security reasons, there is not much to do for foreigners in Dhaka.

Sad, since Dhaka is a 24/7 or rather 46/7 society. This city never rests.
I can be hard to believe but sometimes I feel that New York is a sleepy village compared with the hysteric, jammed, overpopulated, absurd life in Dhaka.
Actually, Dhaka really should take a collective deep breath in and out to relax and calm out.  

Thus, living in a never-ending home arrest, any activity is welcomed and applauded. 

Yoga is one of them. For some reason Dhaka is blessed with numerous wonderful, encouraging and professional teachers. 

It is important to add that Dhaka has no fancy yoga studios, rather some hot windowless bunkers with hoards of mosquitoes in strictly guarded foreigners' clubs.
 

I have done some yoga previously, mainly to strengthen a bad back but in Dhaka yoga has totally taken over. 

Yoga in the morning, in the evening, during the weekend. 

Luckily very few of the yoga rooms have mirrors, so the "perfect" moves and postures are only in my mind, not reality. 

The practice is good for the body and the soul but it is even more important to have something to do, be a part of a society when you are far away from your loved ones. A chat with your mat neighbor or a nice cup of tea after the exercise makes your day.
 

There are many people I would hardly recognize in office outfit though I know that they tend to clip their toe nails on Sundays, sweat garlic on Tuesdays and yawn a lot on Mondays. 

The phone shots have nothing to do with yoga. Still, after two years, the street scenes here are exotic.

Namaste!

Easter, Dhaka, year 1424

 Bengali New Year coincided with Good Friday this year.

Bangladesh celebrates the first day of the new year with colorful processions, fairs, songs and dances. 

People dress up, even my local food store's staff wore new and beautiful punjabis and sarees. 

I attended the festivities last year but due to the security situation, it was recommended to avoid large gatherings.

At home we celebrated Easter by displaying the one and only decoration we have.

Bangladeshis are really creative with decorations. With a few bambus and a couple of thousands lights they make wonders. This is from our street a couple of weeks ago.

For many people, even New Year´s day meant hard work. 

The construction site next to our house was in full action. Actually, whole Dhaka is a huge construction site, old buildings are demolished, new are being built day and night with methods that equal Gregorian calendar year 1424, i.e. mainly muscle power, without proper clothing, shoes or equipment.

Sad news from the domestic front.

"Madame, I cannot see anything", our housekeeper S. called one morning about a month ago. 

He lost his sight as a consequence of diabetes but he has now been in eye operations and will hopefully recover gradually.

I had noticed that his cleaning was not quite prefect, to put it mildly.  His cooking was, however, excellent even if he must have seen very little in the end.

Since we only have a couple of months left in Bangladesh, we decided not to hire a new housekeeper. (Jus in case you wonder: S. was generously compensated by us).

This sounds awful but I had not cooked a single meal since we moved to Dhaka. 

The kitchen was S's empire, we took care of the eating. So, if you think that my husband looks a lot thinner, blame my poor cooking. 

More from the domestic front.

As a flower lover, I bought a couple of dahlias to our balcony looking forward to the wonderful flowers I had seen everywhere. So far, I have only been fighting against insects eating the flowers during the night and the sun torturing the plants during the day. 

Anyway, the mango season is getting closer. These are not from my balcony.

Crowded and organized - Hong Kong Edition

 A long weekend in Bangladesh: the normal weekend Friday-Saturday plussed with Independence Day on Sunday. 

A typical time to leave Dhaka for a couple of days  - either for the Bangladeshi countryside or other South East Asian countries.

One of the great benefits of Bangladesh is that it's only a couple of hours flight from totally different cultures, religions, peoples. For us Bangladesh has offered a unique, once-in-a-lifetime-chance to see a lot of exciting places.

The most surprising feature of the countries in this region is that about the only thing in common they have is rice. 

Nobody in Asia can survive without rice irrespective of social status, political system or economic structure.

We are staying in Dhaka this weekend but had a little break in Hong Kong a week ago.

Rice, over population and political oppression seem to be things Bangladesh and Hong Kong share.

Otherwise, this city three hours flight from Dhaka was another planet.

We traveled from very high temperatures to a cold, almost freezing place. The first and only thing I bought was a winter jacket. 

Warmly dressed we were ready to explore the city. The infrastructure is impressive: a clean, affordable and highly functional metro system, very inexpensive water transport and good opportunities to walk off one's feet. Which we did.

Dhaka and Hong Kong are - to put it mildly - crowded. Dhaka is starting to built high rises, Hong Kong's highest buildings are just a small step from the Moon. 

Still, in Hong Kong there were a lot of green, unbuilt areas in the vicinity of the city center. I dragged my husband to a longer than planned hike in the green areas of the highest hills of the city. It was absolutely worth the effort in spite of my husband's  heavy breathing and soundless but still very audible protests. Our walk took place on a working day, the scenery paths may be busier during the weekend.

Hong Kong food markets are not for insect dislikers and smell sensitive people like me. But sure, we did it. Most of the items were not only exotic but also rather repulsive. It was hard to understand which kind of body parts or animals were for sale. On the other hand, I might have eaten all these with great appetite. 

Maybe it's the age but I have really missed museums and well curated exhibitions. Hong Kong has a bunch. "The Hong Kong Story" at the Hong Kong Museum of History was an impressive lesson in history.

Ok, the Toy Exhibition was visually more attractive. 

Dressed for the beach, unarmed in the Parliament

Homestretch ahead  but still much to do and see in Bangladesh.

This week I visited two iconic, very different places: Cox's Bazar and the Parliament. 

Cox's Bazar is one of the longest sandy beaches in the world. 

The coastal tourist city of Cox's Bazar is about an hour's flight from Dhaka's crazy busy, loud, dusty life. The 120 kilometers long beach area offers fresh sea air, amazing views of the Bay of Bengal and solitude, a seldom luxury in seriously overpopulated Bangladesh.

While my husband was at meetings, I walked hours and hours along the beach, occasionally accompanied by local children and millions of red crabs which very quickly disappeared in their holes when I tried to approach them.

People here seem to enjoy togetherness and large flocks but I deliberately avoided the crowded beaches.

The temperature was about 30+C (85+F) but thanks to a kind sea breeze, it was not hot at all. Not in even in a local beach outfit which has nothing to do with swimwear. People swim in their normal clothes both in the sea and in the pool. 

The magnificence of Cox's Bazar has, unfortunately, a tragic side since tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar land there with traumatic experiences and limited hope for the future.

The transition from the beach to the Parliament has to be fish. The waters round Cox's Bazar are full of fish and fishing boats. The Parliament building in Dhaka is surrounded by a man made lake, home for fish that is served at the Parliament members' club.

The Bangladesh Parliament complex is one of the largest legislative complexes in the world, also one of the most special. Not necessary beautiful but impressive.

The construction of the present Parliament complex began in 1961 by the then President of Pakistan as a permanent building for the federal legislature of both West Pakistan and East Pakistan. Bangladesh became independent in 1971 and the inauguration of the Parliament took place in 1982.

The then government appointed first a Bangladeshi architect to design the building. He wanted to give the task to Alvar Aalto or Le Corbusier. They were not available and finally the task went to Louis Kahn, an American architect.

The result is an enormous concrete palace with regular geometric shapes. 

It was not allowed to bring fire-arms nor to take pictures inside the building.  

In true banglastyle there were a lot of cobwebs and dust, too. Our guide told that the building is rather cold in the winter, with a large mosquito population.

The Parliament chamber had some funny features like a sound proof upper gallery for children and microphones that automatically stop functioning when the allocated speech time is over.

Wild bowels, wilder ideas

Probably known for others but an unpleasant surprise for me: I am full of s**t!

Four days and counting with a brutal diarrhea has been an unwanted lesson on body (dys)functions.

Enough of the downstream.

I have had a lot of time to think in the bathroom.

Like travel industry.

Dhaka can boast with a number recently opened luxurious hotels, and new projects are under construction both in the capital and other cities.

Why?

Bangladesh can already now offer everything that the rich, experienced, fit, adventurous traveler is looking for.

Surprisingly many people are willing to pay huge sums for hunger, sweat, pain and struggle - all renewable natural resources in Bangladesh.

Who has not done the mountains, the seas, the skies, the Moon, the five big?

An irresistible idea for the real adventurer: work as a laborer in Dhaka.

The concept is simple: the traveler collects an outfit (lungi, t-shirt, head scarf, flipflops, optional underwear for men, all-body-covering and far too warm clothing for women) and works like a slave at least ten hours a day all week.

He earns one hundred taka (1,2 US dollars) a day, sleeps in a metal/straw hut with tens of other men, does his business in a open sewage. She can get employment in the garment industry, housing in the slums, earning a little less.

Daredevils can clean high-rise windows, real machos may collect garbage or pull a rickshaw.

And since the concept is sustainable, fair, ecological and all-good, the man or woman replaced by the traveler, gets paid at least 500 taka a day - with an obligation to attend school classes or occupational education.

After a week: a nice tan (men), remarkable weight loss, bigger muscles, new understanding, much to tell back home. Ok, maybe  sunstroke, diarrhea, fatigue - part of the game.

Can be combined with a couple of days at a luxury hotel, relaxing, feeling good and drinking a beer that costs more than the whole week's earnings.

No purchase but many smiles

New Market is a  famous Dhaka institution. And as the name implies, in banglalogic , it is one one of the oldest markets in Dhaka. 

New Market was founded when people got tired of the busy (read seriously overcrowded) streets of Old  Dhaka. New Market would be the showpiece of Dhaka's modernization in the 1950s. 

New Market is said to be triangular in shape with a triangular lawn with a mosque in the center. 

Well, we found the mosque (under reconstruction) but I am not sure about the lawn. Whatever, it was an exciting experience. 

We went there early on a Friday morning when most of the stores were just opening. For Dhaka people, it was empty - for people from scarcely populated countries it was jammed.

Our driver said that we should return in the evening when it was really busy and we could experience the real nature of the market place. Honestly, the unreal nature was enough.

The pictures hopefully give a little idea of the atmosphere though the most impressive experience was all the smells. 

Fish, meat, sweat, urine, dirt, spices, city, sleep, dust. Not exactly something you would spray behind your ear. 

And I am afraid that the smells are much stronger in the summer when the temperature in about the double. Now it's winter time with 25 to 30 Celcius (77 to 86 Fahrenheit).

New Market is a place where you can buy anything essential for the local life - from fish to meat, household objects, sandals and clothes.

You can negotiate the price but the smile is always free.