With a few weeks left though we had to start finding things to do though! One of the good things about living in the cultural lull that is Dhaka for two months is having the time to visit the array of attractions that that no other tourist would visit. First stop Dhaka's very own theme park - Fantasy Kingdom.
Mariam having Bengali roots means she knows half of Bangladesh (Bengalis like to be very well connected with everyone having everyone's mobile number, even the rickshaw driver will ask for your number then text you pleading for money) so using her connections we all got free passes - YEAH.
The obligatory two hour drive through Dhaka's terrible roads just to move a few miles thanks to Dhaka's dreadful roads was worth it (almost). You see firstly as it was Ramadan the place was deserted with the eery appearance of the set of a Scooby Doo episode. Walking around the bright coloured paving and rides with slightly fading paint you could also be touring sets for a horror movie. While the rides were definitely more fairground than theme park, on the way there one of the girls declared that Thorpe Park was 'not that good' so she was in for a treat when we arrived.
It was a wonderfully surreal experience though as the few working rides had no queues, in a few hours we managed to go on a whirly thing, walk though the Vortex Tunnel (a few dodgy mirrors and a shaky floor), even braving the Roller Coaster (more of a Caterpillar Train for fairground veterans). Without a doubt though the highlight was the Bumper Cars that after a few technological difficulties proved to be an almost deadly experience thanks to the boys. With no breaks and an accelator than goes from 0 to 60 far quicker than my own car these things are damn snappy and a lack of seatbelts provides the potential for whiplash as an added extra. So it was great fun crashing into each other full pelt as we were able to do what would make a UK health and safety officer turn in their grave.
Next on our cultural quest was visiting the historic core of Dhaka the aptly named Old Dhaka. My first trip was at night with Mariam's cousins to experience the last meal Bengalis have before dawn, Sehri at 2am. Even at this late hour Dhaka was packed with people all eating from stalls and the sweet shops were all making delicious fresh mushti. We however shunned this for a very old school restaurant and a meal of naan bread, dahl, and fish in an oily sauce. Scrumptious food and we were even put in a booth that was for women only (not needed anymore just a decorative quirk I was assured).
My next trip to Old Dhaka involved a tour that showed us around the heritage sites that need renovating. With so many development issues in Dhaka and Bangladesh as a whole any budget NGOs or foreign actors in the country have goes straight, and rightly so, as aid to development projects. Therefore projects that aim to rejuvenate old parts of the cities or reconstruct old historic buildings have little or no funding available. Finding these architectually beautiful buildings that are crumbling away is quite a trail as they are tucked away behind side streets or old rusty gates. Old Dhaka is definitely where the character of the city is contained full of old mosques (one of which we entered creating a potential religious crisis as I tried to put my shoes on inside) as well as plenty of tiny streets with shops containing a plethra of items. During Ramadan the breaking of fast at Iftar is a huge event so in the main food market, Chowk Bazaar, the stalls were all selling snack type (and very fried) food for Iftar. As this is the most exciting food market in Dhaka to buy food with street stallers all busily frying and preparing the feasts in front of you a local news crew was there filming a feature. To their delight us 'stick out like a sore thumb' foreigners were there to add the perfect addition to the news feature so with them speaking no English and us speaking no Bangla we stood surrounded by Bengalis announcing very slowly and loudly 'HELLO, WE ARE IN THE CHOWK BAZAAR BUYING IFTAR FOOD. IT IS DELICIOUS'. Mariam's family later saw us on the news, so although I have yet to find it, I definitely have Bangladeshi celebrity status now. In the BRAC office, a woman even recognised us in the lift!
Feeling that our stomachs had strengthened sufficiently we decided to buy some snacks from here and sneakily eat them in the car (before Iftar time) and I wish I could say my eating decision was a good one but the Chowk Bazaar got its revenge and food poisoning managed to take hold of me for the next few days. Luckily shopping is one thing that can not get me down on our discovery that Dhaka does actually have civilisation. Firstly in the form of a shopping mall, that has many floors of shiny delight, yet still bizarrly manages to maintain a completely Bengali identity. Bangladesh is one of the few places where Western culture has not hit so the shopping mall is stuffed full of shops selling Bengali clothes and material, pirate DVDs and Playstation games, and even the food court only serves curry or fried chicken. At least it looked shiny and I managed to purchase a very outlandish chilli necklace and Bengali baggy trousers for some hybrid Bangla style.
Our other encounter with civilisation has been through our tours of the various ex-pat clubs around the city. These are a sort of haven for foreigners living in Dhaka where you can go and find normal food, exercise in safety, drink alcohol without being judged, and wear strappy tops. So far the American Club has been the only one I have managed to get in to as you need a member to sign you in and our Dhaka contacts only stretch as far as US citizens (apparently the Nordic club is where to be, and there is even a Caledonian Society already taking bookings for its annual Burn's Supper). The American Club is definitely fun to visit as it contains so many foreigners you could (almost) be out of Dhaka and being able to have a drink without a dodgy back alley deal is a novelty.
While finally of course we have managed to eat out in as many restaurants as possible in Dhaka, using trip advisor as a rough guide, however KFC and Nandos are the top rated which is slightly worrying, they do love their fried chicken here! Dhaka prices mean that we can afford to eat in the nicest restaurants which we always enter wearing the casualist attire. Having interns from all around the world means we have attempted to sample restaurants from everyone's country (haggis is non existant sadly). We have had chinese, japanese, korean, indian and thai receiving mixed reviews from everyone. The North Korean restaurant here though is apparently used by Kim Jong-il for money laundering, adding a little extra to our experience there. The best bit though is getting free Iftar food from Mariam's family which is always absolutely amazing....
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