INDIA & BANGLADESH 2014: 10 From Dhaka to Khulna, Bangladesh

Monday, October 20, 2014

Farouk was at the hotel before 6 AM and neither of us slept well so were ready to go. The advantage was lighter traffic to the airport where we were ticketed and through security fairly quickly. Farouk, who has only been a guide for a month, was with us right to security. We were very impressed with his dedication and willingness to please. He'll make a great guide.

The flight was on United Airways (BD) Ltd, no connection with the USA United Airlines. Other than screwing up our morning with the four hour earlier flight they did a good job. We had bulkhead seats until we got on the plane, then the stewardess said no women were permitted in an exit row, which the bulkhead is on the ATR72 turbo prop, so a great deal of shuffling ensued in moving another passenger beside me, moving carry on baggage, and so on. She didn't move another woman across the aisle, though. The one hour flight was smooth and boxed fruit juice, cakes, cookies and other snacks were provided. I read in the newspaper that the government is proposing a 124% increase in the minimum wage to $66.78 per month. Business is protesting.

Imran, the guide who met us at the Indian Border, was there with our big van driven by Kubeer. They drove for twelve hours yesterday to have the van in Saidpur, the northernmost province of Bangladesh, located below Sikkim and Aswan in India.

Along the way we noticed the rice harvest was underway, but done differently. A couple of people scooped large woven baskets of rice from a pile and threw it in the air in the middle of a circle of 8 people. They then flapped madly with the sacks blowing away everything except the rice grains.

We stopped at the Kantajeev Hindu Temple to the God Krishna, which was built from 1704 to 1752 by the local king. He died before it was completed, so his son finished it. The entire outside of the three story 19.2 meter sq (63 X 63 ft) is carved into story lines with animals, gods, demons and many other represented things. Originally there were 9 towers, but they were destroyed in the earthquake of 1897. It was built by a Muslim artisan who was a minor neighbouring king, on the condition that he be permitted to build a mosque in the same time frame. We visited the mosque after the temple, but it didn't have the intricate carving.

We reached Dinajour at lunch time, so checked into the hotel and had lunch there before heading off to a temple not far from the city. Any time we stop there are beggars, who pound on the side of the car and windows, or cup their hands around their eyes to peer inside the van. They are run off by our guide or driver, but are very persistent. There are very few cars, even in the cities, but loads of motor and bicycle rickshaws.

The government owned Parjatan Motel is very basic, but clean, and as might be expected, bureaucratic – loads of paperwork to check in. There is no internet but they have an elevator.. We invited our guide and driver to have lunch with us daily, as Imran says their meal allowance is so small it doesn't cover much - we ate in a quite good local restaurant. People eat with their hands, as they did in Sudan – utensils are provided only for foreigners. The hotel menu was hopeless, the majority of items were for 3 people, with a couple of selections for two. As Marilynn likes spicy hot and I don't we can't share, so the pickings were pretty slim.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The day began with the wailing of not one mosque, but half a dozen, as the faithful were called to prayer in a competition of fervour and amplified volume. Muslim women here vary from no head covering to only eyes showing – apparently the rules are quite relaxed.

The hotel breakfast was a disaster, but our guide and driver were there and we were soon on the road. This part of the country is very poor, cars are a rarity but that is more than made up for by traffic jams of pedal rickshaws, hand pulled carts, bicycles, horse carts and tuk tuks. Education is provided to grade 5, but if students are to continue it requires a boarding school elsewhere, so few can afford that. Agriculture is the source of income.

Imran pointed out the Indian boarder, a long line of rusting barbed wire fence that we followed for quite a distance. There are several crossing points, and some military bases. The roads are narrow, with pot holes.

We stopped to visit the ruins of the Buddhist Sompura Vihara Monastery, once the largest in the world with 177 cells for the monks. This is a world heritage site, built between 770 and 810, then abandoned after repeated military attacks on it in the 12th and 13th century. There were four large teaching rooms in the 281 X 280 meter (922 X 918 ft) building A local guide explained the whole story to us.

Our next stop was Bogra for another heritage site, Mahasthangarh. This fortress dates back to the 3rd century BC and is 1,525 X 1,372 meters (5,000 X 4,500 ft). It likely was built by the Gupta Empire, noted for military strength, good administration ability and religious tolerance. The Vasu Bihar Buddhist monastery is nearby, which also lasted from the 7th to 13th century. Both monasteries contained Buddhist and Hindu statues.

Nearby Mahasthan Garh was the capital city of the area from the 4h century BC until the 15th century, making it the largest and earliest city in Bengal. It had a city wall 465 meters (1,525 ft) long and 5 meters (16.5 ft) high.

We had to skip the Kusumba Mosque and other things due to lack of time. We finally arrived at our hotel in Rajshahi about 7:30 PM, dead tired. The Parjatan Motel (same government chain) was not as clean as the last one. The bureaucracy was less, but the restaurant was worse – we'd stopped at a fruit stand so I had an apple, a banana, some grapes and a chocolate bar for dinner – the restaurant food was close to inedible..

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

We left at 7:30 AM and had to miss the Varendra Museum, said to be the richest Museum in the Subcontinent. However, it didn't open until 10 AM, so we would have lost at least 3 ½ hours of travel time. Whoever made up this part of our program didn't have a clue about reality. The driving times are badly underestimated, due to bad road and continuous small towns we had to fight our way through at 5 or 10 kph. An extra day would be required to be able to see all the sights on the program.

Rajshahi was founded in 1634. It has the largest university in Bangladesh with 33,000 students and 3,500 staff. The campus covers 305 ha (753 acres). The city has a population of about 472,800, and has a big silk industry. It is situated on the Padna River, one of the branches of the Ganges River.

Our first stop was the temple city of Puthia. Rajbli Palace, built in 1895, is still standing but needs work. The swimming pool building behind was used by the British as administration offices. Gobina Temple, 18.25 m (60 ft) high, was built in the 16th century and a house behind the temple was built for the Mughal Emperor. The square in front is now used as a sports centre, where college students were there doing drills with WWI rifles. The Gupta Temple to Shiva is also ancient and makes a great reflection photo in the lake in front. The caretaker let us look at the inside, but it was not impressive.

We stopped in Gutava for a pretty horrible lunch – today guide and driver were smart enough to eat somewhere else, we were the only people in the restaurant, which should have been a warning.

We arrived at our destination, Khulna, after 6:30 PM in spite of cutting the program to bare bones. The Castle Salam Hotel was a definite improvement, in spite of a musty smelling room. It has a bar, opened one month ago, where foreigners and locals with a permit can go. We found out there is a brewery in Bangladesh, brewing Hunters Beer, so we tried a few to test it out. Dinner was not bad in the busy restaurant.

We got a text from our previous guide, Samir, saying he had been successful in Agartala in finding a supplier with good vehicles and a guide. The cell phone coverage in Bangladesh is unbelievably good – Marilynn gets both cell and internet everywhere.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

We first drove to Mosque City, another World Heritage Site, built between 1442 and 1459 in what was then the city of Khalifatabad. The city no longer exists, but once covered 2.5 sq km (1 sq mi) The huge pillared mosque has 77 domes, 11 entrances and covers 1,608 sq meters (17,032 sq ft). It is the oldest in the country still in use.

The next stop was the port of Mongla, one of two major ports in Bangladesh. Large freighters come up river from the Bay of Bengal to the river port. Our old but well appointed two deck boat pulled up to the end of a ferry that had just unloaded so we could board – we are the only passengers. The top deck had a large table with seating for 10. Marilynn and I settled down on a comfortable, forward facing three cushion sofa.

After chugging down the river a bit we docked at Karamjal, the headquarters for the Sundarbans Forest park rangers. This is another World Heritage Site comprising 140,000 hectares, apparently the largest mangrove forest in the world. It is not the low mangrove bushes we are used to, there are towering trees that have adapted to the brackish salt water. It is said to host 330 plant species, 35 reptiles, 400 fishes and 42 mammals in addition to birds. Last night the bartender told us remote areas of the park are being illegally logged big time, confirmed by large stockpiles of logs we passed on the way here, and that almost half the park is gone. Apparently corrupt politicians protect the illegal logging. Imran said most people in Bangladesh know about it but no one is doing anything.

We walked about half an hour on boardwalks through the park, and climbed an observation tower, seeing lots of monkeys, a monitor lizard about 5 ft (1.5 meters) long, and several crocodiles. A good lunch was served on our yacht as we continued down steam along the park, then we cut across the river and returned on the other side where Marilynn got about a thousand photos of the fisher people who live along the river banks. Many, mostly women, were in the water dragging nets behind them as they walked upstream catching small fish.

A tip to anyone thinking of travelling in Bangladesh – carry toilet paper. The locals use a bucket or water spray, not toilet paper, so most hotel rooms supply only a token amount of paper. For this reason the left hand is considered unclean, and not appropriate for eating or passing things to other people.

Today was the best day by far of the Bangladesh portion of the trip. We even got back to the hotel before dark!

Tomorrow we cross back to India.