A Weekend in Dhaka

Friday 15th/ Saturday 16th March

I did my (now) usual Friday walking tour with the Urban Study Group.  I was excited about this one as we were going to see the waterfront - a part of Dhaka I've never actually dared venture to!

Waiting outside Sutrapur Police Station for the group to assemble, you can already see bits of old rubbing up against the new...

 After setting out from the  Sutrapur Police Station we first visited the Reboti Mohan Das Residence, the palatial building built in Neo Classcal style which used to overlook the famous canal of Dhaka the Dholai Khal. Unfortunately, the canal was filled up less than 20 years ago, and is now a barely used road (I'm not sure it actually goes anywhere).

 

Reboti Mohan Das Residence

Reminded me of my red and cream bike at home...

 The house is now used by the Dhaka fire service (or equivalent) and used to home about 60 families of its employees.  In one way it's nice that it's being used, but it would be an incredible tourist attraction too!

We then visited Kalicharan Shaha Street. The most unique feature of the Mohalla is that, it has experienced very little change, most of the buildings from the colonial period have survived so far.

Now a kind of college residence

Internal courtyard of the residence

Detail of relief tiles originally made in Calcutta

Detail of the woodwork

The top of the building says '1915 Mongol Alaya'

We then walked through a market and some paper recyclers!

Recycling in full swing

The dust in the air made it hard to stay for long - we soon started coughing and spluttering - goodness only knows how they tough it out.

The main highlight of the walk was Ruplal House,the waterfront palace, which has been converted into a vegetable/spice market and Lalkuthi.

The market makes it almost impossible to take a full-frontal photo of, but here's one I found from the 19th Century, of what it used to look like:

And bits of it now:

The rusty roofs are the spice market which have taken over the ornamental gardens

The internal courtyard

 The current waterfront:
 

Had a lovely (late) lunch at the American Club with a fellow walker, and crashed out at the hotel after a tiring day in the heat of the city.

Saturday was mainly chilling out at the Nordic Club spa with a friend from the garment industry, getting our nails done and remember what it is to be clean and girly!

Back to poo tomorrow...