Lalbagh Fort

 Lalbagh Fort was a bit of a mission in the car as it was in the middle of Old Dhaka.  The streets are incredibly narrow and full, to over-flowing with people, rickshaws, markets and more people.

We paid our 100tk ($1.20) to enter and we were pleasantly surprised by just how much land and the gardens were beautiful, in perspective of course being in Bangladesh where we are lucky to see any greenery!!!!

 The grounds were full of couples finding a quiet corner to canoodle with each other, paying their money to have some privacy.

While we were there we had numerous people come up to us and ask us where we were from, what we were doing in Dhaka and generally being noisy...however you get used to that as they hardly see people from around the world.

A LITTLE INFO ABOUT THE FORT!!!

Lalbagh Fort (also known as "Fort Aurangabad") is an incomplete Mughal palace fortress at the Buriganga River in the southwestern part of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Construction was commenced in 1678 by Prince Muhammad Azam during his 15-month long vice-royalty of Bengal, but before the work could complete, he was recalled by Aurangzeb. His successor, Shaista Khan, did not complete the work, though he stayed in Dhaka up to 1688. His daughter Iran Dukht nicknamed Pari Bibi (Fairy Lady) died here in 1684 and this led him to consider the fort to be ominous.

Lalbagh Fort is also the witness of the revolt of the native soldiers against the British during the Great Rebellion of 1857. As in the Red Fort in India, they were defeated by the force led by the East India Company. They and the soldiers who fled from Meerat were hanged to death at the Victoria Park. In 1858 the declaration of Queen Victoria of taking over the administrative control of India from the Company was read out at the Victoria park, latter renamed Bahadur Shah Park after the name of the last Mughal Emperor who led that greatest rebellion against then British empire.

It was an interesting sight.  To be honest we are not ones for buildings and architecture but doing something like this in Dhaka is a highlight.  At times it can feel like a small place, considering how many people and how big this city is.

More photos to come in the coming days...we have to pack our bags now to head off to Bangkok for the weekend.  Oh life is hard sometimes!!!!!!!!!

Jem

Aircon, Power and Beggars!

We finally had the airconditioning installed in our apartment. It was impossible to sleep at night, even with the ceiling fans on full so things are far more comfortable now. Although the airconditioning doesnt help much when the power goes out. This has been a regular occurence in the last few weeks and normally it goes out 6 or 7 times a day, usually for between 1/2 an hour and an hour. There is a generator in the basment of the building which should kick in when the power goes out, wouldn't that be nice. We've spoken to the building owner a few times and the people who organised the apartment at the school to no avail, it did take six weeks to get the washing machine and about eight weeks to get the aircon, so we live in hope. At least we have power sometimes, food on the table and a roof over our head, which is more than alot of the locals have. The hardest thing is seeing kids on the street begging, we have become slightly immune to the adults, not because we don't care, but because if you werent a little hard to it all, it would seriously mess with your head.

I think the hardest thing for me has been seeing kids going through piles of rubbish on the side of the road looking for food. It has certainly put life in perspective for me, at how utterly privileged we are being bought up in New Zealand. Some locals here say we shouldn't give money to beggars because it only encourages them, others have the opinion that it is our duty to help those less fortunate than ourselves. I am no humanitarian by any means, but I can't pass some of these people by, especially the kids and not do anything, if nothing else they at least get a little money to buy some food, and to see their little faces light up is an incredible feeling.

Grant

Jem Made the Paper in Bangladesh, well an advertisement anyway!

So weve been a bit busy the last few weeks and blog posts have been a little light, so stay tuned for a few in the next couple of days,

First off, Jemma made another appearance in the paper. The Daily Star which is the biggest English Language paper in Dhaka, you can see her down the bottom left hand corner, and I've blown up the add so you can read it too. Not too many people can say they made the front page of the paper with Barack Obama (top right), ok so that might be a little bit of a stretch, but gotta take all the fame you can.

Pimp my Rickshaw

As I climbed the stairs after work today...32 degrees...power out again...I spotted some odd sights out the window.

The men were scaling the wall on some kind of make-shift ladder/harness to clean the building.  The sight disturbed me no end and I shivered with the OSH regulations that would be plastered over the walls at home.  They have no such regulations.  You read in the paper everyday of people dying on constructions sights, falling 11 floors to their death and road deaths on a daily basis reaching 11.

In Bangladesh 13,000 people die of road deaths every year.  That's mental.  For a country that does not drink alcohol...that is not drunk driving.  That's just gross incompetence.

However, I also saw some people revamping their rickshaw down stairs.  I did mention the other day to Grant how awesome it would be to buy a run down rickshaw and pimp it out and ship it home.  How awesome would the Walker's look hitting the streets of Auckland  in that machine?  Don't lie you would be so jealous!!!!





Anyway will add more over the weekend on the school updates...oh how it makes me cringe.

Jem

Torn

Confronting moment on our travels yesterday - the tiny homeless baby was crying, lying on her back in the middle of a busy street.  Heaps of people just walking by paying no attention.  No sign of a mother...I stopped, grabbed Grant & broke into tears (uncontrollable).
I faced the conflict of

1. I can not leave this baby.
2. I can not take this baby anywhere. 

We waited, watching, me tearing up and Grant and I both torn.  Thankfully (if you could say that) the homeless women came round the corner, grabbed the baby and tossed water over her bottom, obviously she had had an accident. 

Hard on the heart-strings!!!

Food

I would like to say it tastes like home but nothing here seems to.
It is either totally wrong and does strange things to your insides or it is appetising and cheap.
We try a lot of new things which is fun and I have never been quite so adventurous.






This was my attempt at people pancakes last weekend. More like Mr. Blobby I think.

And this was our dessert tonight!!!!

Trip to Dhamrai

Last weekend we ventured out of Dhaka City for the first time and went to a Hindu Village called Dhamrai, about 20kms out of the city (About an hour and a half drive!!). They make the most amazing brass castings there, all individual and all hand made. They carve it out of wax, then paint thin coats of clay on to it and then pour hot brass in forcing the wax out.

Even though it was a small village, it was still incredibly busy, with people everywhere. Definetely a good trip, and seeing the brick factories on the drive out there and the staggering amount of pollution they create was really interesting. Incidentallly driving on the main road out of Dhaka it was very easy to see how the road toll here is 13,000 every year, with some very hair raising moments with oncoming cars, buses and rickshaws. Getting in a car is definetely not for the faint of heart, especially outside the city boundaries.

 Brass Casting

 Brick Factories