BANGLADESH - WATER WATER EVERYWHERE...SOMETİMES TOO MUCH OF İT

As I love India, I decided to go visit the parts of the Indian subcontinent I had not yet seen, starting from Bangladesh in January 2015, and then continuing with Pakistan in March 2015 ( to be the subject of a later post). 

Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest and most densely populated countries (160 million people on 147.570 km2 of which 10.000 is covered by water). To give an idea, given the same population density, India would have over 3 billion inhabitants and the United States over 11 billion. This is due in part to the great fertility of the land, well-watered by three great rivers : the Brahmaputra (which becomes the Jamuna here), the Meghna and the Ganges. Most of the area of Bangladesh consists of a wide plain and river delta at sea level or at most at 10 m. above sea level where the three rivers combine and drain into the Bay of Bengal. So there is water everywhere and very often too much of it since about a third of the country floods annually during the monsoon season . And there are no mountains at all except a few cliffs on the north-east side of the country (first time I hear of a country without hills, mountains or hump of any kind). Conclusion: it is a country of bricks. In a delta of silt, a country without bedrock, bricks are often the only solid thing around. So you have brick factories, brick dust, and people breaking brick into gravel with hammers. And that is the first thing I saw when we started our visit of Dhaka , the capital.

We were headed to a short trip by boat on the Buriganga (Ganges) river. The river is full of commuter boats, steamers, ferries, negotiating their way on the almost black water. And the most crowded areas are those near Dhaka Old Town. 

CURİOUS PEOPLE WATCHİNG US GET ON OUR BOAT

SOME LİVE İN THOSE HUT? HOUSES? WHAT SHOULD I CALL THEM I WONDER.

GETTİNG ON THE BOAT İS NOT THAT EASY SİNCE THERE ARE NO JETTİES. 

WE THEN START GLİDİNG ON THE RİVER. 

THESE ARE THE APARTMENT BUİLDİNGS ON THE SHORE, EACH ONE MORE UGLY THAN THE OTHER.
İT WAS WASHİNG DAY TODAY İT SEEMS. 

THE RİVER İS MUCH LARGER THAN I THOUGHT İT WOULD BE. 

CHİNESE FİSHİNG NETS JUST LİKE İN SOUTH  İNDİA.

 All kinds of boats go up and down the river and goods as well as people are transported on them. 

And there are small ones for transporting people from one shore to the other. They work exactly like taxis do. You hire one, negotiate the price and cross the river.

 We disembark at the Old Town ( the poorest part of the city) as do some others.

TAXİ LİNE TO CROSS THE RİVER. 

 The first thing I see is a beautifully painted rickshaw ( I will later realize that those exist only in Dhaka and no other Bangladeshi city). It seems there are 600.000 rickshaws in Dhaka and this convenient and smog-free mode of travel is one of the city's main source of income for nearly 5 million people.Furthermore, Dhaka's rickshaws are famous for their art. They are often personalized and decorated with colorful paintings of everything from famous Bollywood actors, cricket players and politicians to animals, birds and flowers. They are beautiful to look at. 

RİCKSHAW WALLAS AND THEİR RİCKSHAWS

THİS İS THE TRANSPORTATİON OF THE RİCH AS WELL AS THE POOR.
NO CLASS DİFFERENCE ON A RİCKSHAW. 

We then entered the Old Dhaka, dating back to the 1600's and there I realized why rickshaws are so popular ; they are the only means of transportation in those parts of town where the streets are narrow and winding and there are crowds of people. I have rarely seen such an overpopulated place - it was literally difficult to walk due to the sheer number of people . And the rickshaws were everywhere , thousands of them, pouring out every alley,  ringing their bells to tell you they are coming and you need to get out of their way. The streets of the Old Town make İndian cities look calm and serene. The place is electric, charged, and if you are not careful you can easily be hit by a rickshaw.

THİS İS THE WİDTH OF THE SİDE ALLEYS. 

AND THE MAİN STREETS OF THE OLD TOWN ARE LİKE THİS.
NO PLACE FOR A CAR TO PASS, NOT EVEN FOR YOU TO WALK.

HE DEFİNİTELY MUST BE  HİNDU. 

SOME SELL İN SHOPS...

...OTHERS SELL ON THE STREET.

In the middle of this ''mess'' appears a Hindu temple (do not forget we are in a country that is 90% Muslim) where people seem to listen to a sermon and are praying and chanting with nobody looking at them or even interested by them. I wonder if people would be so tolerant in Turkey .

Going back to the hotel I see a sign and we stop. Look at the name of the avenue. He is a great man everywhere. 

 

Our hotel is in a fancy area of Dhaka, an area called Gulshan hosting expats and rich Bangladeshis, embassies, thus the upper crust of the city. And next morning, when I go out of the hotel, this is what I saw (I had not paid attention yesterday).

IT İS A MİRACLE TELEPHONES ARE WORKİNG.

THE AVENUES İN GULSHAN ARE LİKE THİS. 

LARGER YES, BUT STİLL CROWDED, 

The second day of our visit of Dhaka starts with Lalbagh (Red) Fort, a nice example of Mughal architecture. The construction of the fort started in 1677 under the auspices of the Mughal prince Mohammed Azam Shah when he was serving as the governor of Bengal. Before the fort was completed, Azam was asked by his father, Aurangzeb, to assist him in a war. Azam left and  handed the construction to Shaist Khan, the new governor of Dhaka, for completion. Sometimes after the prince left, the Khan's daughter who was engaged to be married to Azam Shah, and whose name was Pari Bibi(Fair Lady), died here and this was considered such a bad omen that the fort was never completed. Pari Bibi's tomb is one of the main features of the fort. 
The main purpose of Lalbagh Fort was to provide a defense enclosure for the protection of the palace buildings and is therefore not a siege fort. The fort is rectangular in shape and houses a mosque, the tomb of Pari Bibi , the audience room and bathing place of Nawab Shaisa Khan, the latter today serving as a museum. 
It seems the fort's gardens are a haven of tranquility away from the crowded streets of Old Dhaka, attracting young lovers.

THE MOSQUE

THE TOMB OF  PARİ BİBİ

YOUNG LOVERS

THE DRAWBACK İS THAT THE FORT İS İN THE MİDDLE OF THE OLD TOWN AND THE BUİLDİNGS
SURROUNDİNG İT COULDN'T BE UGLİER. 

OTHER VİSİTORS OF THE FORT

İSN'T SHE VERY CHİC ?

We then visit a small Hindu temple very near the fort : Sree Sree Dhakeshwari Temple. The Dhakeshwari temple was built in the 12th century,  and many say the city was named after this temple. The name "Dhakeshwari"  means "Goddess of Dhaka". Today the temple is the most important Hindu place of worship in Bangladesh.The current architectural style of the temple cannot be dated to the 12th century because of the numerous repairs, renovations and rebuilding which have taken place over time. 

OBVİOUSLY HİNDU BECAUSE OF THE SWASTİKAS. 

PRİESTS

THE HOLİEST SHRİNE

Next stop, the University of Dhaka  which is the oldest university in modern Bangladesh. Established during the British Raj in 1921, it has been a significant contributor to the modern history of Bangladesh. After the Partition of India, it became the 

focal point of progressive and democratic movements in Pakistan. Its students and teachers played a central role in the rise of Bengali nationalism and the independence of  the country. Today, it is the largest public university in Bangladesh, with a student body of 33,000 and a faculty of 1,800. The University Library, housed in three separate buildings, is the biggest in Bangladesh. The library holds a collection of more than 617,000 volumes, including bound volumes of periodicals. In addition, it has a collection of over 30,000 manuscripts in other languages and a large number of microfilms, microfiche and CDs. It subscribes to over 300 foreign journals.

The architecture is totally British Raj; i.e a mixture of British and Mughal styles.  

CURZON HALL, THE FİRST EVER BUİLDİNG OF THE UNİVERSİTY BUİLT BY LORD CURZON.

STUDENTS AT THE UNİVERSİTY

And now a stop at the National Museum of Bangladesh or Ahsan Manzil Museum. The palace was the official residential palace of the Dhaka Nawab family. Construction started in 1859 and was completed in 1872. Since 1992, it has become a national museum.

AGAİN THE VERY UGLY BUİLDİNGS OF THE OLD TOWN ARE JUST BEHİND THE PALACE. 

AN İTALİAN COUPLE GETTİNG MARRİED İN DHAKA.
DON'T ASK ME WHY. 

THE İNEVİTABLE CELL PHONE. 

AS USUAL, PEOPLE İN BİG CİTİES ARE DEFİNİTELY MORE
COVERED THAN THOSE İN THE COUNTRYSİDE. 

We then moved on to the National Assembly Building (foggy day and you are not allowed to go in so the pictures are real bad ) was created by the American architect Louis Khan. Construction started in 1961 and completed in 1982. It had been planned as the federal legislature of East and West Pakistan, but ended up being used as the Bangladesh National Assembly since in the meantime Bengali East Pakistan had seceded from its union with West Pakistan and become independent (1971). 
The exterior of the building is striking in its simplicity and geometric shapes. I have not seen the interior. There is an artificial lake surrounding the main building and extending to the Members of Parliament  hotel complex. The use of water by Khan was to portray the rivers of Bangladesh. 

MEMBERS OF PARLİAMENT HOTEL COMPLEX

Along one of the avenues of Dhaka is a park where the statues of all great bauls, philosophers, scholars and writers of Bangladesh have been raised. I liked it. 

WRİTERS

TAGORE

LALON SHAH

We are now leaving Dhaka  but that is easier said than done since officially the traffic here is the worst in the world and it stands for up to seven hours a day.  It is difficult to describe the traffic in Dhaka in any way that does it justice other than to say that there are no rules, and there are bicycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws, men pulling carts,cars of every size and huge buses and trucks that all share the same clogged space. It is millions who are moving at once trying to push ahead. If you add to this the incessant honking, lurching to avoid rickshaws and carts, slamming on brakes, the traffic of Istanbul of which we are always complaining is nothing compared to Dhaka. Of course, most vehicles have a cracked windscreen and all the buses look like they have been hammered back after a few rolls off a mountain. 

AS WE ARE  NOT MOVİNG WHAT BETTER WAY TO PASS TİME THAN TO WATCH EACH OTHER. 

 After leaving Dhaka and reaching the countryside, everything dramatically changes. It is calm and it is green ( greener than any country I have ever seen) and it is flat and it is ''watery'' since there literally is water everywhere. The place is covered with trees, rice paddies, swampy pools where children play, cow dung patties (used for cooking fuel by villagers) drying under the sun. It is extremely picturesque. 

MEN WORKİNG İN THE RİCE PADDİES

WOMEN COMİNG FROM THE FİELDS

  
We are headed to Khulna but we first have to cross the Brahmaputra by ferry. How strange; I had once crossed the Brahmaputra in Tibet and that is the second time I am crossing this mighty river. But the conditions are much better now. 

OUR FERRYBOAT

FİSHİNG VİLLAGES ON THE SHORES

DRYİNG FİSHİNG NETS

We stop for lunch at a village and while the others are eating, I am visiting the fish market which is quite impressive. Fish are exported from this place and to keep them fresh they are put into steel containers with one layer of fish and one layer of ice until the container is full. İnteresting to watch. 

THOSE SHRİMPS ARE HUGE .

PREPARİNG FİSH FOR EXPORT. 

A LAYER OF İCE İS PUT ON THE TOP THE FİSH. 

A SECOND LAYER OF FİSH İS PUT. 

AND THEN İCE AGAİN

We finally reach Khulna that we will be using only as a base to visit nearby Bagerhat.  A saint-warrior, Kahn-e-Jahan, founded the town in the 15th century. Bagerhat  was studded with a lot of mosques, tombs, reservoirs and other edifices of which the majority are gone today leaving a heap of rubbles. Among the surviving buildings, the most important is the Sixty Domed Mosque (even though there are actually 77 domes) or Shait Gumbat Mosque. If you are interested by the most obscure UNESCO World Heritage sites, you have reached one. 

FROM THE ROAD

FROM THE GARDEN

THİS REALLY İS A MAGNİFİCENT TREE. 

 The mosque's interior is quite impressive with its dozens of columns, pre-Mughal architecture and faded wall decorations wiped out by heavy-handed plastering. And the mosque is not just a museum but is actively used by the local community as a place of worship. 

THESE ARE THE VİSİTORS YOU FİND İN A MOSQUE

We then visit another small mosque nearby, Singair Mosque. 

THE GUARDİAN OF THE MOSQUE

ANOTHER MOSQUE OF WHİCH I FORGOT THE NAME 

AND ANOTHER

Before going to our hotel, we made a small stop near a lake. The group went to visit another mosque but having seen enough of them for one day and the place being so peaceful, I decided to stay by the lake and enjoy it. You should never stay alone in Bangladesh if you not want to feel like a pop star because only seconds later, this was the scene :

In any other country I might have been afraid but not in Bangladesh. And this is why : Bangladeshis do not gather around you to simply stand and stare. They aren't being rude or intrusive; they are simply ''fascinated'' by the foreigner whom they very seldom see. They are interested to know about you, your country, your motivations for visiting their country; they even thank you for having bothered to come to their country. After a few words, it is photo time. Each and everyone wants a photo alone with you and the cell phones come out. People will put their phone on your face taking your photo as if you are a movie star they have spotted. You have the impression of being famous. So, in Bangladesh, you have usually zero anonymity and zero space but I have to admit that was an experience I had never lived before and it was fascinating to get to know those people who are delightfully unique . Here are two other pictures of the same kind of situation :

WHİLE I WAS HAVİNG A CİGARETTE İN THE GARDEN OF A RESTAURANT. 

DURİNG A STOP AT A VİLLAGE 

There was a small mosque near the lake and people strolling around. Nice place. 

After having spent the night in Khulna we continued on to Mongla. Our aim was to see the Sunderbans ( Beautiful Forest). The Sunderbans is a cluster of islands on the delta within an area of 6.000 km2 and is the largest mangrove forest in the world as well as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is also home to 400 Royal Bengal tigers, the largest single population of tigers in the world. You do boat trips here that can last half a day (like ours and that was more than enough - how many mangrove trees do you really need to see ?) or a few days. Everybody is looking for the tigers but it seems nobody ever sees one or very rarely as our guide said he has been doing this job for nine years, has done over 200 tours of Sunderbans and has seen a tiger only four times, and that not on a half-day tour. 

WE ARE LEAVİNG ON ONE OF THOSE BOATS

BUT PEOPLE ARE CROSSİNG THE RİVER OR GOİNG TO AN İSLAND ON ONE OF THOSE

THEN WE DİSEMBARK TO WALK İN THE FOREST

THAT İS NOT A TİGER, İS İT ?

WE  COME TO A POND. 

SOMEBODY İS LOOKİNG AT ME........

WOW.. A HUGE CROCODİLE WHO DECİDED TO EAT ME I THİNK. 

İT İS COMİNG NEARER AND NEARER

OK I AM SAFE. IT DECİDED TO RETURN TO THE POND. I PRESUME İT DİD NOT LİKE ME. 

On the way back we stopped at a village covering a whole small island and I learned to my astonishment that only Hindu women and their children live in this village which is visited by men mostly at night since all the women living here are doing the oldest profession in the world.The whole village is a whore house.  

THEY LİVE AND EXERCİSE THEİR BUSİNESS İN THOSE HUTS. 

WHAT KİND OF LİFE WİLL THOSE CHİLDREN HAVE ?

THE SAD LOOK ON HER FACE AFFECTED ME. 

And we continue on to Jessore, stopping to visit a village house where an extended family lives. 

THE BRİDE AND HER SON.

HER MOTHER

HER FATHER AND MOTHER-İN-LAW 

THAT İS NOT SHİSH KEBAB. THAT İS COW DUNG PUT ON STİCKS TO DRY İN THE SUN.
IT SEEMS İT İS EASİER TO USE COW DUNG THİS WAY  AS FUEL FOR COOKİNG.

Our second stop is at a banana market. Bananas everywhere. 

We finally reach Jessore and the quiet and calm of the countryside immediately gives way to traffic, noise and crowds. I definitely prefer the countryside in this country. 

The next day, on our way to Rajshahi, we drive to a small village called Shilaidaha near Kushtia, to visit the Tagore Lodge. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was born into a prominent, affluent,Hindu  Bengali family in Kolkata.  Poet, novelist, essayist, philosopher, social reformer, musician and painter (phew!). Tagore's paternal grandparents as well as his wife came from this village and Tagore himself spent a productive period of his life while living in the Lodge.  Tagore was accorded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, the first Indian and the first Asian to win it. His work provided the inspiration for both the national anthems of India and Bangladesh, and partly for Sri Lanka's. 
Today, Tagore Lodge is a two-storied small building each floor containing 3-4 rooms where Tagore's pictures, writings and words are displayed. 

We then continued on to the shrine of Lalon Shah which is the place where he is buried but also the epicenter of Baul culture throughout Bengal. Lalon Shah (born 1774) was a Bengali Baul saint (fakir), mystic, philosopher, songwriter, folk singer and humanist. People call him ''mystic'' and ''saint'' but he was nothing but a simple, realistic man who had a passionate love of mankind. In Bengali culture he is considered an icon of religious tolerance whose songs inspired and influenced many poets and thinkers, including Tagore. Lalon Shah composed numerous songs and poems which describe his philosophy, i.e. going beyond the bounds of gender, cast, and religious identities. ''Your path is obscured by temples and mosques...'' he says and he says this through music, Baul music (a kind of folk song that reflects the fusion of Hindu bhakti movements and Muslim Sufi songs, unique to Bangladesh and West Bengal of India). Lalon Shah left no written copies of his songs which were transmitted orally and only later transcribed by his followers, nevertheless, very few songs found themselves in written form since most of his followers could not read or write. This tradition still continues today.The Bauls, or followers of Lalon Shah, are a group composed primarily of Sufi Muslims and Vaishnava Hindus, a spiritual sect heavily defined and influenced by a very strong musical tradition. 

LALON SHAH İS BURİED İN HERE. 

HE SEEMS TO BE A VERY LİTERATE BAUL

AND THİS MUST BE THE İLLİTERATE BAUL

Music is also made at the shrine and watching men seated in a circle and playing their instruments and singing songs was my first introduction to Baul music. 

Before reaching Rajshahi, we have another place to visit, Puthia, the city of temples, where the largest number of historically significant Hindu structures in Bangladeh are found. 
In the late 16th century, during the Mughal period, Man Singh, a trusted general of the Mughal emperor Akhbar, was sent to the region to suppress a revolt. Then he left and his son Pitambar took charge of the area, made his capital Phutia, and became the founder of the Puthia royal family. The Puthia royal family estate was the second largest and the wealthiest in British Bengal. And the family not only built palaces for themselves but a mass of temples for the local faithful. 

The Puthia royal family's mansion, the Puthia Rajbari, is today used as a college.

In my opinion, the most impressive Hindu temple in Puthia is the Govinda Temple which was built between 1823 and 1895. The large square building, intricately decorated and crowned with small ornamental towers, is dedicated to the Hindu god Krishna. The terraccota color is splendid under the evening sun.

I HAVE NEVER SEEN A TEMPLE LİKE THİS İN INDİA. THİS İS TYPİCAL BANGLA  ARCHİTECTURE. 

THE İNNER SANCTUM

The temple is covered with delicately crafted terraccotta panels depicting scenes from history, religious rituals, war, the daily life of people and Hindu deities . As the temple is dedicated to Krishna, the main epic depicted here is the  ''Radha-Krishna'', considered by many Hindus to be the love legend of all times. 

Another beautiful temple is the Boro Ahikrok Mondir, also in Bangla style and again covered top to bottom with terraccotta tiles showing characters and stories from Hindu mythology. 

We then decide to walk around the pond to reach the Shiva temple. What a great idea since the view and the reflections on the water were magnificent.  

THE SHİVA TEMPLE AT THE BACK

The Shiva Temple is built with three tiers topped by four spires according to the Hindu style of temple architecture found in North India. It was erected in 1823. The temple is in front of a water tank and is the largest Shiva temple in Bangladesh. The inner sanctum contains a huge Shiva Lingham .

ANOTHER SMALL TEMPLE SEEN FROM THE SHİVA TEMPLE

THE WATER TANK

THE SHİVA TEMPLE FROM ACROSS THE WATER TANK
 LOOKS REALLY BEAUTİFUL 

Wandering in the streets of Puthia 

After spending the night in Rajshahi, we take off early in the morning to go north to  Sona Masjid to visit several old mosques and return south to Bogra , a 7-hour drive but a necessary one since there are no hotels around Sona Mescid. But everything does not always go according to plan and after around 2 hours drive north we are stopped  in a small town and cannot move anymore. Why? And here I become familiar with a ''hartal''. A hartal is a strike, a protest, and much more than that. A hartal stops the country. No public transport. No shops open. No one on the streets (because it is not safe or there is a curfew depending on the size of the hartal). What are usually bustling streets become a ghost town. This time a political figure was killed in Dhaka and it was in the North of the country that his supporters  attacked a local bus killing several people. More trouble was expected and a hartal covering the whole country had been announced for the next day.  Conclusion : the police does not allow us to leave our little town without protection; an escort has to be organized and that takes time so we spend more than three hours in the town. Furthermore, we are not allowed to go further north and can only go to Bogra. So no Sona Masjid. What can you do ? 

WE CANNOT EVEN WALK THE STREETS BECAUSE WE ARE ''PROTECTED'' BY A FEW POLİCEMEN WHO
DO NOT ALLOW US TO GO VERY FAR. 

OUR FAN CLUB İS READY 

SO CUTE WİTH THOSE EYES AND  CHEEKS. 

LOOK AT THE COLORS EVEN A MAN WEARS. 

Finally our escort arrives and we are literally handed to them by the policemen. . 

WE HAVE THE HONOR OF BEİNG ESCORTED BY THE ARMY AS YOU CAN SEE. 

If you think the worst has passed, you are mistaken. Because this escort only takes you to the next town where you spend another 1-2 hours waiting for another escort. So again the watching and being watched by people ceremony and the picture-taking time. The Bangladeshis are so nice that due to them I really did not see the hours fly by. Were it not for the people, this could have been quite a boring experience. 

AYŞE AND HER FAN CLUB 

YOU ARE BEİNG WATCHED

IT WAS LUNCH TİME AND THE CHAPATİS COOKED HERE LOOKED DELİCİOUS.
WE TASTED THEM AND THEY WERE REALLY DELİCİOUS.  

OUR CHAPATİ COOK MUST HAVE HAD HİS BEST DAY EVER. HE SOLD ALL OF THEM TO OUR SMALL GROUP. 

ONE OF THE RARE GİRLS ON THE STREET. 

OUR PROTECTİON TEAM WHİLE WAİTİNG FOR THE ESCORT.
 AS İF WE NEEDED PROTECTİON FROM THESE NİCE PEOPLE. 

AND OUR NEW ESCORT HAVİNG ARRİVED, HERE WE ARE ON THE ROADS AGAİN.

 Not having been able to go to Sona Mascid, our ''protectors'' kindly agree to wait for us while we visit Natore Rajbari on the way to Bogra.


Walking towards the Rajbari, I see school girls in uniform and seeing them so well-clad and neat, I cannot help but wonder why the literacy rate is low in Bangladesh ( 56%).

Natore Rajbari was the zamindari (governor) headquarters of the Natore Raj. Like most feudal palaces in Bangladesh, it is approached through a long avenue of which the view is beautiful on each side. Of the surviving seven palaces, four are in tolerable state of preservation because occupied by various offices of the district administration, while the others have been reduced to rubble. The remaining structures are a mixture of Edwardian, Neoclassical and Baroque styles. 

MAİN PALACE

OTHER VİSİTORS

There are also several temples or ''mandirs'' inside the Rajbari premises. As the Raja family was Hindu, here we are at a very Hindu temple with lots of statues of Hindu divinities around it. 

HANUMAN

SHİVA

I DEFİNİTELY LİKED THİS ONE..

PİCTURES ON THE WALLS LEADİNG TO THE WATER TANK. 

GANESHA - MY FAVORİTE.

AND  MEET THE GUARDİAN OF THE TEMPLE. 

HE SAYS BYE TO US. 

Bad luck comes in group. While going out of the Natore Rajbari park and walking on the road surrounded by water, looking around to the beauty of it ,I missed a bump and fell face down to the ground. In the space of a second here were my thoughts : my nose is broken; my front teeth are broken; there is blood ; what am I going to do about those in Bangladesh? Well, surprisingly enough, my nose was not broken and neither were my teeth but both hurt like hell. My lip was bleeding but it passed quickly. And I had totally scratched my sunglasses. So no need to go to hospital in Bangladesh. Uffff, what a relief !

The second bad news hit us at dinner when it was announced that due to a country-wide hartal the next day a curfew was declared, so we could not go out of the hotel until six in the evening. We were supposed to go to Kantanagar village near Dinajpur and visit what is  said to be the most beautiful Hindu temple in Bangladesh, the 18th century Kantajee temple. But we missed it too. The trip was going to last 9 hours and take our whole day. 

PİCTURE FROM THE WEB. LUCKİLY ENOUGH
WE HAVE SEEN PUTHİA SİNCE KANTAJEE TEMPLE HAS
THE SAME ARCHİTECTURE.  NEVERTHELESS, IT WOULD
 HAVE BEEN NİCE TO SEE İT WİTH OUR OWN EYES.

We were lucky to be in a nice hotel with garden and pond. So next morning was sleeping time and when I woke up and looked into the mirror I was a bit shocked . I had a nose twice the size of my original one and a black eye, plus a small wound on my upper lip. Not very nice to look at. 

Waiting anxiously to what would happen the next day ( being stuck in this hotel for another day would be unbearable), we were relieved to learn that we were allowed to go on to Paharpur to visit a UNESCO world heritage site, the Sompura Mahavira, a Buddhist monastery or what remains of it. But we can do so only with police protection until Dhaka. OK, no problem as far as I am concerned. So we leave the hotel well protected. But in the next town we stop again to wait for the escort that is going to take over and as usual we become the talk of the town. I have to admit, the police has now been organized and our wait lasts less than half an hour. We continue with our next escort until Paharpur.  

OUR AUDİENCE HAS COME

THE BAD PART İS THAT WHEN THEY COME TOO NEAR, THOSE POLİCEMEN START SHOWİNG THEİR STİCKS TO PUSH THEM BACK AND AS THE PEOPLE ARE REAL NİCE , WE HAVE TO ASK THEM TO STOP. 

We fİnally reach Paharpur. Evidence of the rise of Mahayana Buddhism in Bengal from the 7th century onwards, Somapura Mahavira, or the Great Monastery, was built in the 8th century and was a renowned intellectual center until the 12th century , being finally abandoned in the 13th century when the area came under Muslim rule. Somapura Mahavira, a monastery-city,  is one of the largest monasteries south of the Himalayas, and with its simple lines and its profusion of carved decorations, it has influenced Buddhist architecture as far away as Cambodia. The complex has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985. 

QUİTE İMPRESSİVE

The terracotta plaques of musicians, snake charmers, dancers and animals, etc., decorating the outer walls of the temple depict the life of common people who lived at those times, as well as various divinities. There are more than 2.000 of them, contemporaneous with the building. 

While coming down from the top of the stupa, hidden in the shadow behind a wall, I see people that I definitely was not expecting here : transvestites. They are very comfortable, at ease, nobody looks at them and nobody bothers them. Do not forget we are in a Muslim country. That is why I keep saying Bangladeshis are tolerant people. 

ON THE SİDES, SURROUNDİNG THE  STUPA,  ARE  177 MONASTİC CELLS THAT WERE USED BY BUDDHİST MONKS FOR ACCOMMODATION AND MEDİTATİON. 

GARDENERS CUTTİNG GRASS

Then another stop to console us : Mahasthangarh, which is one of the earliest urban archeological sites so far discovered in Bangladesh. This urban settlement, of which few remains can be seen, is dated to at least the 3rd century BC. 

THESE ARE THE RAMPARTS OF MAHASTHANGARH
CİTADEL. NOTHİNG TOO EXCİTİNG. 

THESE TWO ARE THE UNHAPPİEST PEOPLE I HAVE SEEN İN BANGLADESH

And then we continued on to Dhaka, being passed from escort to escort all the way, but this time so very well organised that we almost did not wait at all except for one stop in a small town. The funny thing is that policemen look like robocops but their cars are of a multitude of variety going from little trucks to jeeps with more of the former than the latter. The police were in fact very useful to us since they opened the roads and let us pass first when the traffic almost stopped on the ''highway'' ( two lanes only, one for each side).  

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VİLLAGE STOP

I THİNK HE WENT A LİTTLE TO MUCH ON THE HENNA. 

BUSES ARE USUALLY LİKE THAT . ALWAYS SOMEONE ON TOP. 

THE SCENERY WAS BEAUTİFUL UNTİL WE REACHED THE OUTSKİRTS OF DHAKA.
THEN İT WAS A NİGHTMARE TO REACH OUR HOTEL. 

At the end of my trip, I realized that what makes visiting Bangladesh so different from visiting India is that almost no one else does. This means that everyone is interested in you, so you get looked at a lot. But it also means that there aren't people clued on the best way to rip you off. You do not have phony ''local'' experiences with a gift shop at the end. You are a curiosity rather than a commodity. You soon feel like you have 160 million new friends who are so happy to hear you have come to their country to simply see it. You should not underestimate the impact of your visit on the locals. By going to Bangladesh you tell them they are worth it. Even though there is crushing poverty in some areas (155th poorest country out of 183 according to the World bank), there is also a surprising lack of materialism and people in general have a great deal of tolerance and joy despite having to fight continuously for space.  So Bangladeshi people were for me  the highlight of a visit to this country. 
Another highlight  was the nature. I have never seen so much ''green'' in any other place in the world, except the Amazon of course. And imagine that in this country we call ''underdeveloped'', plastic bags are banned to protect the environment. Bravo. What else can I say ?  
I am very happy to have visited this amazing, unspoiled country which literally is the  least known destination in the world.