Wandering North

Asia Central Asia 2022 Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan

Almaty to Bishkek

Almaty and Bishkek are close together, making visiting both of them (and Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan together on one trip) temptingly easy. Driving is probably the easiest way, but if you don’t have a car or the ability to drive, you can fly (super short flight; you’d spend more time at the airport than you would in the air) or bus/taxi/walking.

In the past, and maybe even now, you could/can take a bus from Almaty to Bishkek right through. From what I hear, it is convenient and comfortable. When I went though they had temporarily stopped that service, so the option was to take a bus to the border, walk across, and then take another bus. That sounded fine. I took a taxi to the huge bus station (Sayran Station) where I discovered that I had just missed the bus and the next was not for about 4 hours. I wasn’t about to spend my time sitting around, so I walked outside to where a ground of men were gathered around cars and hoped that they were taxi drivers and that one of them spoke English. They were, and they didn’t. Through a few words of Russian and a series of pointing, smiling, and nodding gestures, and writing numbers on paper, we set on a price for one of them to drive me to the border at the town of Kordai.

These are shared taxis; you can wait for others to fill up the car and pay for your seat, which is a bargain, but if you’re impatient, you can pay for all of the seats and go. Still not that expensive. That’s what I did. It cost 20,000 Tenge and took about 2.5 hours.

*mural spotted on the way out of Almaty*

The ride was pleasant and took about 2.5 hours. There wasn’t much to see. A few herds of cows and the odd monument to mark the turnoff to some other place.

*No idea what this is for, but doesn’t it look cool?*

Finally we got to the border crossing. A long line of cars and buses waited to cross, but I was walking, so I left my taxi behind, took my backpack and walked across the border, passing the cars and finding myself at the border without having to queue.

The border crossing was a wordless affair as the guard looked at me, looked at my passport, stamped it, and let me go.

*me, walking across the border to Kyrgyzstan with my backpack, a bit bedraggled but happy*

On the other side, I was descended on my predatory taxi drivers, charging too much for their services, but knowing they had me. I did overpay for the ride to my hostel, but it was still a bargain and I was not in the mood to stubbornly wait in the heat.

About 20 minutes later, my driver dropped me off at my hostel: USSR Hostel. In an old Soviet apartment block, now with a row of highly commercial shops at the bottom. USSR Hostel is really more of a shared apartment. The woman who owns it lives upstairs and the 2 bedrooms in this unit are rented out, with guests to share the washroom and kitchen facilities. My room was a cute little pink room with twin beds and a picture of Lenin on the wall. The other room had four guys from Pakistan. They didn’t speak a word of English but seemed nice and invited me to share in their dinner.

I liked this hostel. It was cheap, had a good location, and gave me a look inside one of the style of buildings I am always curious about. It was like staying in a museum or play acting what it was like to live in the USSR. It suited me just fine.

I’ll save my thoughts about Bishkek for the next post, but I’ll just say, if I’m ranking cities (I’m not and no one asked me to), Bishkek came out ahead of Almaty. More for later.

Asia Central Asia 2022 Kazakhstan

Almaty: Green Market / Red Meat

The Green Bazaar

Almaty’s central market is the Green Bazaar, technically Kök Bazaar. I walked there from my hotel. A nice walk. Sights and sounds of Almaty.

It opened in 1875 but was rebuilt after an earthquake later that century and then rebuilt multiple times over the decades. The market does not look interesting from the outside. It’s just a big green building. Nondescript. Inside though, it is bustling with everything you could want from a Central Asian market. Piles of colorful fruits and vegetables. Bins of spices. Jars of pickled … everything. Nuts and dried fruits. Locally made honey. Horse meat. And unidentifiable food items.

I took a lot of photos of everything; the familiar and the new. Smiling at vendors and sampling items as they were offered.

The butchery section of any market is always one of my favourites. I just find it fascinating and gruesome. We never see this stuff at home (unless you’re actively involved with the killing and processing of animals for food). And I do love gross stuff, so seeing piles of hearts and stomachs, intestines strung up like morbid party streamers, severed heads staring back…I love it.

As far as markets go, the Green Bazaar was not gruesome. Pretty tidy actually, but still vastly unlike the markets we have in Canada. There was the section for horse meat (of course, of course). Horse meat is a staple of Central Asia. It doesn’t bother me at all. Meat is meat and I don’t eat any of it.

My favourite thing about the Green Bazaar though was the dairy section. They had very local and specific products that I would eat: fresh and fermented camel, cow, and horse milk. I didn’t care for the fermented milks, but the fresh camel milk was excellent. (I think this is more due to the freshness and quality more than the animal of origin.)

Also, they had qurt, which is a fermented and dried milk ball. It was created many years ago as a portable source for calcium and protein that nomads could carry without risk of spoiling. It comes in many different varieties. I can’t summarize all of the differences, except that some are from different animals, and some have different amounts of salt. The consistency is like really hard chalk, and it tastes…strong. Salty and pungent. I really liked it, a fact that seemed to delight the woman at the stall who let me sample everything.

The Metro

I went to some different areas of Almaty that day. Partly just to check out some different neighbourhoods; partly to look for a specific cigar lounge that I never did find. I walked a lot but also used it as an opportunity to take the metro.

The Almaty metro is not super comprehensive, nor is it very old, but it is nice. Each stop is a little different in its design and decoration. One had a stained-glass window of an apple tree (Almaty means ‘city of apples’); another has this 1960s modern style décor. (Lousy photos, but you get the idea). They feel quite Soviet but opened in 2011.

My favourite thing about the metro though was that when you buy your fare (super cheap: 80 Tenge, which is about 25 cents Canadian) you get a bright yellow, thick plastic token. It is oddly satisfying – and ended up being my only souvenir.

I spent my evening with cigars and shisha at what became my favourite evening patio. The next day I would cross the border to Kyrgyzstan by a car and foot combo.

Asia Central Asia 2022 Kazakhstan

Glorious Kazakhstan

I had decided to go to Kazakhstan. There wasn’t a particular thing that drew me. I just felt like it was time to go back to Central Asia. I hadn’t been to any of the ‘stans since my 2011 trip to Uzbekistan. (I had been to Pakistan in 2020, but that seems different.) Plus, in all honesty, there was something appealing about being able to color in such a big landmass on my travel map. Most of the pictures I had seen of Kazakhstan were of its natural beauty. Spectacular vistas of snow-capped mountains, bright blue lakes, and thick, evergreen forests. It all looks lovely…but it also looks a lot like Canada, so I decided to just visit Almaty. The former capital and largest city. I was light on expectations but brimming with curiosity. It surprised me but did not disappoint.

Facts

Kazakhstan has spent much of its modern history dominated by Russia. First the empire, then the Soviet Union. Prior to all that it was a country populated by nomadic peoples. Today it is a massive independent country sitting next door to Mongolia and just under Russia. The world’s ninth largest and the largest country with no connection to an ocean. Its capital is named Astana…or Nur-Sultan. It switches back and forth. Kazakhstan is considered one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world with a mixtures of cultures languages from the region. Kazakh and Russian are the national languages. It is a Muslim country but doesn’t feel particularly religious. It is well off (oil) and its cities are modern, but it still has a close connection to its nomadic and rural heritage. They grow tulips and apples, ride and eat horses, produce formidable boxers and mixed martial art fighters, and men who hunt with massive eagles while wearing large fur hats. (The men; not the birds.)

Kazakhstan is an easy place for Canadians to visit. No visa needed. No bureaucratic cash grab. Just show up, change your Dollars to Tenge and you’re set.

Arrival

I knew right away where I wanted to stay. I eschewed my budget accommodation preferences for a room at the Hotel Kazakhstan; an iconic, Soviet era high-rise with an imposing design. It’s even on some of the currency. (Also, while there are cheap hostels, none of them looked like anything special.) I arrived around midnight and when I awoke, I had a view over the city and to the mountains beyond.

Like all visits to a new city, I spent my first day walking. The streets of Almaty were pleasant. Lots of trees and inviting cafes. The architecture of the city has some definite highlights, but for the most part is unremarkable. Much of the old buildings were destroyed in an earthquake, but some Soviet apartment blocks and a few pretty buildings remain.

*Hotel Kazakhstan & and an impressive statue*

Wanderings and Impressions

Almaty surprised me. I guess I was expecting it to be more like Tashkent; a little more ‘exotic’ feeling. Really, it is more European, but with a central Asian twist. People are, for the most part, not dressed in any traditional style and the city operates like an orderly city. I didn’t find it exciting, but it was pleasant and I think it would be a decent place to live for a time.

One of the highlights was The Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen (aka Panifilov Park), a short walk from my hotel, it is a green park with the excellent Zenkov Cathedral (aka Ascension Cathedral) in the centre. The Zenkov Cathedral was built in 1904 and survived the earthquake. Candy colored and ornate. The most remarkable thing is that it is built entirely of wood – and without a single nail. Like Legos or a 3D jigsaw puzzle.

Just off to the side of it is the fantastic WWII war memorial. I’ve seen countless war memorials, but this one is one of the most impressive. A huge metal sculpture of soldiers bursting forth, roughly in the shape of the USSR. It has this aggressive power about it. I loved it.

Fun fact about the 28 Panfilov Guardsmen, it was a story about 28 Red Army soldiers who were killed in battle after destroying 18 German tanks and stopping the advance. It was famous. The were declared heroes. This park was named after them. The thing is…it was just a propaganda story. the Germans did advance, six of the soldiers survived; one of them joined up with the Germans maybe and another surrendered. Still, it is a lovely park.

*Soviet insignia are everywhere if you look for them*

*Kazakh Museum of Folk Musical Instruments*

*Another park. Flowers were everywhere.*

I did pay a visit to the Green Market, which was one of my favourite things in Almaty, but I’ll put that in a separate post.

Museums & Galleries

Between my days in Almaty (I’m condensing a bit here) I visited a few museums. The Museum of Arts of the Republic of Kazakhstan and The Central State Museum of Kazakhstan.

I really liked the history museum. Lots of artifacts and clothing and weapons from the nomadic tribes that inhabited Kazakhstan.

The art museum was very interesting and worth visiting, though I can’t say that I loved the art. That said, I liked it for the purpose of seeing the culture and people represented. Nomadic peoples with huge furry hats and embroidered coats, eagles, and camels. The 20^th C paintings had a lot of depictions of workers and industry.

Kok Tobe

On my second day I took the cable car to Kók Tóbe Park, a small amusement park perched on a hill with excellent views of the city. It has more games than rides, but it is fun to ride the cable car and look around. There are great views of the city and a Beatles statute, and if you want to you can get your picture taken dressed as a Kazakh nomad with a real and massive eagle on your arm. I was tempted to do the latter, but ultimately did not or you would be seeing that picture now.

The only ride I went on was the Fast Coaster, which was a small cart on a metal track that races down the side of a mountain at up to 45km. I let go of the speed control and zoomed along. It didn’t feel entirely safe, but that’s what made it fun.

Evenings

Because I was staying at a proper hotel and not a hostel, I didn’t really meet anyone. While the local people were friendly, I didn’t have any of those great experiences of meeting and hanging out with anyone. The language barrier was probably also an issue. The national languages are Russian and Kazakh.

I spent my evenings in Almaty walking, smoking shisha at patios, drinking pots of local tea, and eating some excellent food. I am not a foodie, but Almaty had a great selection of restaurants we don’t see a lot of in Vancouver: Georgian, Armenian, Central Asian, Syrian, and Yemeni. I didn’t eat much Kazakh food because there just aren’t a lot of vegetarian options. I spent two full days in Almaty on the front end of my trip and a third on the back end, where I splurged and went to the opera. I’ll write about that later. I was a little sad that I wasn’t seeing more of the country, but I was onward to Kyrgyzstan.

Around the World 2022 Asia Singapore

Singapore day 2: Mostly Museums

Singapore. Day two. I probably didn’t need to set my alarm for 5am, but I did. I wanted to make the most of the day. Leaving my hostel, I set out to get a coffee and a bite to eat. Singapore is not an early morning place; at least not where I was staying. Almost nothing was open except for Starbucks, and I wasn’t going to visit an American chain restaurant. I tried to go to a couple of hotel restaurants but was told they were only for guests. I am pretty sure this was not true.

Now is maybe the time to mention that I did not meet a friendly person in Singapore. The people were, at best, cold and polite; and, at worst, rude. I have hardly ever thought that. Vienna, I think, and Hong Kong. Mostly I think people are great. But not here. Not in my brief experience. Anyway, I got a coffee and a juice and went on with my day.

This was a day of walking and museums. I took the metro to the vicinity of Little India and walked from there.

The metro in Singapore is not expansive but suited my needs well enough. Now is the time to mention that the metro in Singapore is also not friendly. I have never seen so many signs admonishing people for possible behavioral transgressions. There were signs that said no eating, no drinking, no talking, no pets, no durian, no bags on your lap, no sitting if someone else needs the seat, no holding the door, no standing near the door…it was a bit much. I just stood still and tried not to make eye contact.

Little India was a nice place for a wander. It was not as picture perfect as downtown and has candy-colored temples, busy markets, and side streets with street art murals.

*Tan Teng Niah – A Chinese-style Colonial structure*

I popped into the hawker centre there – the Tekka Centre – and had a meal from Pakistan (Delhi Lahori). Excellent and cheap.

I wandered around some more, aimlessly, taking pictures of all the lovely buildings, street art, and scenes. It was hot though and starting to get to me.

I walked quite a way in the punishing heat and humidity to the Raffles Hotel. (There’s that name again – as noted in my first Singapore post, he founded the modern colonial Singapore.) The area around the hotel was not great. A big mall. Big buildings. Busy, wide streets. But the hotel is beautiful. A low rise, gleaming white colonial era building with palm treed courtyards and Sikh men in white suits and turbans at the door. It is definitely of another era.

*Raffles Hotel and my one and only Singapore Sling*

I was there, like so many tourists, to visit the Raffles bar to have a Singapore Sling, as this is the bar where it was invented. And what a bar! Dark wood panelling and wicker fans. Well-dressed bartenders. Jazz playing. You could imagine Humphrey Bogart or Ernest Hemingway there. Unfortunately, smoking was not allowed. I had the cocktail, which was excellent. This was the most expensive thing I did in Singapore. It was $37 cdn dollars for the standard version. Worth it for the experience, but one was enough.

I didn’t find Singapore that expensive for the things wanted to do. Meals were normal to inexpensive and most of the stuff I wanted to see was free – walking the streets and looking at art and architecture. Price-wise, Singapore was fine – but stick to one Sling.

From the bar I went to the National Museum of Singapore. It was excellent. I knew almost nothing about Singapore’s history and this was a great overview.

From there I planned to go to the Singapore Art Museum, but it was closed so instead I visited the National Gallery Singapore. Definitely worth a visit, but also had I skipped it my life wouldn’t be dramatically different.

Paintings at the National Gallery

After that I went to a fun mini museum: the MINT Museum of Toys. It’s a small space, several storeys high with just displays of toys. I really enjoyed it. So many things I remember seeing (or in the case of a couple of things: having) and an interesting look at things like horror toys or Beatles toys, or all the diverse modern Barbies. It was cool.

The rest of the day was sort of vague. I wandered, drank coffee, smoked cigars, ate Thai food. I am really glad I got to visit Singapore. Two days was fun, but I’m content not to return.

I had a flight home very early in the morning, via Tokyo, back to Vancouver. Heading back to where I started out when I flew to from Vancouver to Saudi Arabia. All around the world, visiting Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and Singapore. A great trip.

Around the World 2022 Asia Singapore

Singapore at Night

I’m sure there is a lot to do in Singapore at night if you want to enjoy some foodie experience or go clubbing or just get drunk with all the foreigners who seem to be there for precisely that purpose. But I didn’t want to do those things. I gobbled up some inexpensive Thai curry and then started walking from the area of my hostel to the Gardens by the Bay.

I walked along the waterside promenade. It reminded me a little of Vancouver; all the waterways and people out walking – except that Singapore had much more appealing looking patios and architecture.

The city looked nice, with all the tall buildings clustered together and lit up. The restaurants were packed and people were out enjoying the evening air. Out too were the buskers. Lots of them on the walking paths, playing music. The thing I found weird though was that all the ones I saw (maybe seven of them) were playing the sappiest, blandest songs I have ever heard. It sucked. Not the voices or talents, but the song choices were the worst kind of music I can imagine. Bland, meandering, vaguely romantic trash. I found this disappointing. I love buskers but give me something with some energy. Some jazz, an electric guitar, an accordion…something. But I was clearly in the minority opinion, based on the crowds appreciatively applauding and throwing money into hats.

As I got over to the area across the water from Merlion Park, where the dome-shaped Apple store is, there were crowds of people waiting. For something. I loitered a bit and then music and colored lights engaged as fountains erupted from the still waters and began one of those choreographed water and light and music shows. It was very Las Vegas. A bit corny. I mean, I’m certainly glad I happened upon it, but I also found myself judging it for its general lameness.

I walked off before the crowds disbursed and carried on to my destination.

The Gardens by the Bay are … a huge garden by the bay. But they are more than just a garden, they are a proper attraction, with rare flowers and plants and cloud walk platforms. I’m sure it is lovely in the day, but I went at night when it was quite dark and I could see nothing except for the super tall, tree-like pillars, covered with plants. Like something from another planet. I went to see them because they looked so unusual and specific to Singapore. What I didn’t know is that there is a light and music display that happens every evening.

I immediately rolled my eyes. “Great, another corny display.” I had already been appalled by the buskers and underwhelmed by the ‘water ballet’, so I braced myself for the bore to come. But then all of the lights came on and started swirling and sparkling and music swelled. The songs ranged from classical to traditional, to jazzy and showtune-y; all paying homage to Singapore musical styles. I wanted to hate it, but I was delighted. It felt like Disneyland (which I love). It felt corny in just the right way and was magical and fun. I can’t explain why I like this and not the water show and I would totally get it someone hated both, but I found some joy in it.

It was a great end to the day. Singapore does feel, in many ways, artificial and hollow and materialistic, but there are some nice things there.

I walked back to the strip of restaurants and bars along the water near my hostel and ended day one of two for me in Singapore by having a cigar and an iced tea on the patio of a middle eastern restaurant, watching the crowds of tourists getting increasingly inebriated against the backdrop of pretty, colonial buildings and still water.

Around the World 2022 Asia Singapore

Impressive Singapore: first impressions

Singapore is one of those places I had no interest in. I never doubted that it was clean or safe, that it had world class restaurants, a high standard of living, and excellent shopping; I just don’t care about those things. Give me dirty, overcrowded, dodgy, chaotic cities. To be fair to Singapore, because I quickly dismissed it, I didn’t spend any time reading about it. I might not have gone at all, except that on my flight back to Vancouver from Bangladesh, many of the flights had layovers in Singapore. It was my opportunity to see it for myself.

I would spend two full days and two nights in Singapore, which was enough. I saw what I wanted to see in that time – but it was at an exhausting pace. I think stretching it out to three days would be more reasonable.

A teensy bit about Singapore

The micro country of Singapore is an island at the tip of the Malaysian peninsula, just above the Equator. Singapore was a trading port city back in about the 14^th century. In the early 17^th century, the Portuguese destroyed it and then then it remained in relative obscurity until the British colonel and governor Sir Stamford Raffles (his name is everywhere) arrived in 1819 and ‘founded’ it as a new port. Singapore became a British possession in 1824 and it became an important trade location and, later, military base. It was occupied by the Japanese in WWII and the British lost control to the Japanese in 1942 at the Battle of Singapore. It then fell into more bad times post war with a loss of infrastructure and continued discord in the region as it and other former British colonies moved towards sovereignty. Singapore was part of Malaysia for a time and then became its own country in 1965.

Today Singapore is very wealthy and multicultural. Known for being clean, expensive, and modern, having great food, having a ban on buying and selling chewing gum for non-medicinal purposes, having the death penalty for many crimes including drug trafficking, and having caning as a possible punishment for many offenses including voyeurism. Oh, and it is illegal for men to engage in sex with each other. Not women though. Countries are complicated.

First Impressions

I landed at about 5am. Breezed through the airport where, disappointingly, they do not stamp passports, even if you ask. Twice. I took a taxi to my hostel. There is no train, there are buses, but I just wanted to get to where I was going with maximum efficiently. It wasn’t too expensive. I forget exactly how much. Maybe about $30 cdn.

My hostel, KINN Capsule Hotel, was located right in the centre of downtown, in a perfect location near restaurants, the harbour, the subway, a hawker centre – pretty much everything I needed. The hostel was tidy with clean and comfortable dorms; the kind that are like little pods, closed with a curtain. It was great in many respects, except that it didn’t have a kitchen, just a coffee station and the hang out area was designed in such a way that it seemed like they didn’t want people to hang out. Anyway, I was there such a short time I just needed a place to sleep. The hostel was pretty cheap by Singapore standards ~$70/night cdn.

My failure was thinking that I did not need to book a bed the night before I arrived. (I know better but was trying to save money.) I got there at 5:30am to drop off my bag. What I really needed was maybe 2 hours of sleep. That would have to wait.

As I walked out, the sun was just about to come up and I stopped for a coffee. Once up, the city was illuminated but still quiet. People were out jogging and doing tai chi along the waterfront promenade. The city did look flawlessly clean, and the tall, skinny towers gleamed and reflected in the still waterways. Lower to the ground were British colonial buildings, with buttercream columns, and pristine white statues of British figures.

My first impression was that it was a very impressive looking city. I would not say it is beautiful and it did not excite me, but it did feel impressive and, importantly, it didn’t remind me of any other city. It wasn’t like Seoul or Singapore, Hong Kong or Taiwan. It seemed more refined, more uptight. Well put together in way that looked great but doesn’t seem like that much fun. That’s why the word that I keep coming back to when I think about it is impressive.

Day one

I spent my first day walking around the central downtown neighbourhood, the waterfront, the harbour, and Chinatown. I walked along the waterways and to the Merlion Park, which is a scenic view of the water with a large Merlion statue/fountain. Merlion? Yep. The city’s national icon is a Merlion: half fish, half lion. It is supposed to be a reference to Singapore’s origins as a fishing village combined with the original name for the city, which translated to ‘lion city’. I was told that many people hate the Merlion statue. I liked it. It’s white and pretty and different.

From this view you can see over the water to some iconic modern structures. It is all quite scenic and impressive. I got a fresh juice and continued to wander.

En route to Chinatown, I sopped and had breakfast. I went to a coffee and toast place. Or more specifically a Kopi and toast place. Singapore has its own coffee traditions. First, they call it kopi. It is roasted differently. It is strong coffee served in small portions with sugar or condensed or evaporated milk or many other variations. “Kopi-O” is coffee with sugar. “Kopi-C” is coffee with sugar and evaporated milk. And so on. The Kopi is served at breakfast with toast. You can get the toast a myriad of ways, but the traditional way seems to be butter and kaya (some kind of sweet coconut jam), served with soft boiled eggs. I ordered the breakfast set but didn’t have the eggs because eggs are gross.

I walked to Chinatown. I visited the temples, including the Buddha Tooth (replica) Temple (I think it is hilarious that they just openly admit that it’s not an actual relic) and the Hindu Sri Mariamman Temple. I liked the Hindu temple much more. The Buddhist one is very new and feels it. It looked impressive (there’s that word again) but felt a little cheap.

Chinatown was great for a walk though. The streets are lined with these pretty two-story buildings, painted pastel colors and with wooden shutters. Lanterns hung in the streets. And there were lots of appealing cafes and shops to poke around in. I was also looking for (and found) a cigar shop/lounge but it was closed.

Feeling peckish, I visited the Chinatown Complex Food Centre, one of Singapore’s famous hawker centres. A hawker centre is kind of like a food court, but it is partly outdoors, and each food stall is of the highest quality; often with a family making a few dishes for many years to perfection. There is even a Michelin star hawker centre stall. And it is cheap. I had a bowl of some sort of laksa type of vegetarian soup for less than $5 and it was excellent.

I spent the late afternoon doing more of the same: walking and poking around the streets. I took shelter at a café for an hour when a torrential downpour made the streets impassible. I had a cigar along the water at a Thai restaurant. As the sun started to set, I headed out again after a short nap and went to the Gardens by the Bay and did more eating and walking, but I will put that in a separate post.

My first day in Singapore was really good. Not exciting, but pleasant. I enjoyed the walking and the sights. while it is quite modern, it has enough of its own character that I still found it interesting – and impressive.

Around the World 2022 Asia Bangladesh

Day trip to Sonargaon

On my final day in Dhaka, I was determined to visit Sonargaon. It seemed to me to be best day trip from the capital. I had originally planned to do it earlier in the week, but it was surprisingly closed so this final day was my last chance.

Sonargaon is an historic, mostly abandoned city and former capital of the Bengal region. It was settled in the 13^th century and over time and various rulers and through various wars (I was going to summarise them, but, seriously, it’s a lot) it came to be a major river port city known for literature and learning and commerce. Today it is an area popular for trips outside Dhaka, festivals, and crafts. There is also the abandoned town of Panam Nagar, which was, by the 19^th century, a bustling merchant and administrative centre. It is now a stretch of decaying, beautiful buildings.

Getting to Sonargaon

When I planned to go to Sonargaon I meticulously figured out the route by bus. It is quite doable by bus on one’s own from Dhaka, provided you start out at the right bus station. Because I ended up going on a different day – a day on which my flight to Singapore was scheduled in the evening – I was paranoid about going solo arriving back in Dhaka too late and missing my flight, so I hired a car. But if I had not had the flight, I would have made my way there solo, which would have involved getting a bus from the Gulistan bus station in Dhaka and taking a bus to Mograpara to the stop by the side of the road and then walking or taking a rickshaw to the site. Once at Mograpara, it was obvious that the distance from there to the Sonargaon Museum would have been easily walkable (maybe 20-30 mins) and that there are tons of rickshaws and businesses. No worries of being stranded. The only unpredictable part is the traffic in and out of Dhaka, which is highly congested, but it should take about 3 hours to get there. To go by bus would cost only a couple of dollars. To go by private car is a lot more and I missed out on the fun of the public transport, but I also didn’t spend my day rushing and worrying about missing my flight.

Sonargaon Museum and around

If you google pictures of Sonargaon you will usually see this:

And it does look exactly that beautiful. There is a small collection of gorgeous buildings along the water that you can visit (and I did). They are nice inside, but the exteriors and the setting are really the draw. Around them are waterways with little boats for rent, lush, green picnic areas, and some odd, colorful animal statues. It is all quite pleasant.

It was very busy with visitors, but not many tourists like me; mostly it was local families and school groups. Many of whom wanted to introduce themselves and take selfies.

The Museum at Sonargaon is also worth visiting. It has a great collection of arts and crafts on display (clothing, musical instruments, jewelry, tapestries, etc). My enjoyment of the museum was somewhat hindered by the school kids that were there that just stared at me or asked for pictures. It was all kind and friendly, but I did feel rather on display. I had to say no to many of the photo requests, but I did agree to take a picture with this one group of kids because they were so nice, but you can see on my face how awkward it all was. Me and children? Not a natural combination.

The Abandoned City of Panam Nagar

From the Songaraon Museum area we drove a short distance to Panam Nagar. Panam Nagar was a thriving and prosperous area until the mid 20^th century when ethnic tensions between Hindus and Muslims and the Indo-Pakistani war sent the mostly Hindu residents away and left the area abandoned. What remains is a long road lined by ornate British colonial era buildings slowly crumbling.

It is so photogenic, with the bones of the architecture there accentuated by the deterioration and discoloration; it is surrounded by vibrant greenery.

Almost every building had people in front of it taking highly posed shots in colorful clothes. All locals though. And me.

I did get persuaded to pose with a few families and with one female police officer who approached me, causing momentary alarm, only to be dissipated by a bashful request for a picture.

There isn’t much to do there, but strolling amongst the buildings and under the trees was lovely.

Back to Dhaka and Onwards

We drove back to Dhaka at a crawl in the traffic. At least I was comfortable and got to take in all of the decorative trucks (not as ornate as those in Pakistan, but vividly painted with scenes of flowers and rural areas) and beat up buses.

Back in Dhaka, I had time for a cigar in the garden at the Ambrosia Guest House where I was staying before I taxied to the airport for my red eye flight to Singapore.

Bangladesh had been awesome. Dhaka was a delight. I felt so free and alive. Especially after the subdued and Jeddah. Everything was super affordable and the people area amongst the friendliest I have met. I would love to go back one day and see the rest of the country. Sail the green waterways and take in some small-town life; search for tigers in the jungle. It says a lot for Bangladesh that I would return. Maybe someday. This time, I had one more stop on my short round-the-world trip: the not as delightful and very different Singapore.

Around the World 2022 Asia Bangladesh

Foiled plans on a Pleasant day in Dhaka

My third day in Dhaka, a Thursday, was originally to be the one where I would travel outside of the city to see Sonargaon. I had planned to go on that day and researched the bus routes, but as it turns out, those sites are closed on Thursdays (not that this information was available anywhere online that I found). So I moved my planned trip to Friday and decided to spend Thursday visiting various museums on foot. The thing is, they were also closed on Thursdays, a fact that was also not communicated online or anywhere outside of the signs on the museum doors. So I didn’t see any museums in Dhaka, but I did enjoy walking to them. Being flexible and easy going manages to keep me pretty content while travelling. (If only I could import more of that easy going nature into my non-travel life.)

The excitement of the city streets that I experienced on my first day was still there, so I was happy to be out and about. I felt free and happy as I walked from my hotel according to the route I had chosen. I bought some sweet lentil ball snacks from a little bakery and tea from a tea stall and had a little snack in the shade under the trees.

I walked first towards the Bangladeshi parliament building, Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, designed by Louis Khan and built between 1961 and 1982. I knew I wouldn’t be able to enter the grounds, but I wanted to get a closer look from the gate. It is this super modern, quasi brutalist structure that seems totally out of keeping with anything one would imagine about Bangladesh. It looks like it should be in a Soviet country.

I walked around it, taking shelter under some thickly leafed trees (along with everyone else) during a short but powerful downpour. I then crossed the street and walked through a park where locals were strolling and relaxing under the trees or diving off the bridge into the small river below.

I walked to the various museums that I would not be able to visit.

Foiled, I walked to the New Market and wandered around there for a while, which was pleasant. I walked across an overpass where I got a terrific view of the exhilarating chaos of the market area outside the market.

I saw some new things, including horses pulling carriages covered in mirrors and jewels. I assumed they were for weddings or something ceremonial, but I found out that they are part of the regular public transportation system. Like you can take a bus, a taxi, a tuk tuk, a rickshaw, or a jeweled carriage. Like Cinderella. I tried to take pictures, but couldn’t get any good ones.

One is rewarded for walking in Dhaka; rewarded with little things that might be missed if on your phone in a rickshaw or whizzing by in a vehicle. I saw a monument that was basically a giant machine gun, endless portraits of, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s first prime minister (for less than a year, as he was assassinated in a coup in 1975), a monument to rickshaw pullers, kids playing cricket, cute cafés, and some sort of … Siamese twin dog? I’m still not sure about that last one. I saw a dog – or two dogs – but they were definitely physically connected at the hips and had suffered some serious physically trauma to their back(s). It was really weird and disturbing, but I like weird, and I wouldn’t have seen these things if I wasn’t wandering aimlessly.

All of this walking (and it was a lot, like over 20 km that day), took up most of the day. I walked back to Ambrosia guest house where I was staying and had a cigar in the garden before heading out for dinner in the area at a restaurant that was upstairs. I forget the name, but it had leafy patios going up and up, like a tree house. There evening air was so pleasant after the heat of the day.

I slept soundly with plans for my actual visit to Sonargaon, transpiring in the morning.

Around the World 2022 Asia Bangladesh

A Day in Dhaka

For my second day in Dhaka, Bangladesh I had hired a guide. It seemed unnecessary, in a way. On my first day I had seen and experienced so much and satisfies myself that Dhaka is perfectly fine to explore solo, but it turned out to be a great idea. Having a guide met me get a little deeper into Dhaka, to see things I wouldn’t have found on my own, and it was nice to have the company.

I booked the tour through Bangladesh Eco Adventure and had Afridi as my guide. He was great, as was the tour. I was so happy that he didn’t pick me up in a car. We started out on foot from my guesthouse and hopped in a tuk tuk to get to the market during the busy market.

Tuk Tuks

The tuk tuks in Dhaka are a little different. First of all, they call them CNGs, which stands for compressed natural gas. Unlike the colorful tuk tuks of SE Asia, or Dhaka’s blinged out rickshaw, they are a stately grey. The most notable thing though is that they have cages. When you get in the back there is a metal cage separating you from the driver, and there are cages on the sides, which are locked from the outside. So it is like a little deathtrap. (You can unlock the doors yourself from the inside if you slip your fingers through the cage, so you aren’t entirely confined.) As with tuk tuks everywhere, haggling pre-journey is essential.

Kawran Bazaar

We snaked and jerked through the traffic to the Kawran Bazaar market. And what a market! So lively and crowded, busy and colorful. Piles of produce, sacks of spices, stalls of house wares, labyrinths of raw meat. It was terrific. Men with huge, flat baskets carried fruits and vegetables, apparently acting as porters or personal shoppers for wealthier residents.

Afridi took me into the dark corridors at the heart of the market, where the lighting is uniformly green, to hide imperfect limes and squash. There were bricks of amber colored sugar and mandalas of tobacco leaves. Deeper inside were freshly beheaded goats, still leaking blood onto the floor, and blacksmith areas, where young men beat white hot molten metal into knives.

We also walked through the areas where many of the vendors live, at least during market days. Tiny bunks separated with tarps and repurposed rice sacks. From the roof we got a view over the market.

Alongside the market were train tracks, also busy with less organized commerce.

*me, on the wrong side of the tracks in Dhaka*

Dhaka University

From the market we caught another tuk tuk to the University, which was an impressible Mughal structure surrounded by a green respite. We walked around the grounds and had a bite to eat (lentils and rice) at the outdoor cafeteria. We mostly looked at the art department where there were rows of busts, sculpted by the students, graded, and then mostly left out amongst the gardens. Afridi said this is partly to do with the ban on Muslims making art depicting the human form. It was a lovely spot.

*University lunch spot & mobile libraries*

*me in front of a particularly colourful mural at the University*

Back to the Old City

We took a tuk tuk to the old city, where I had been the day before, but we stopped for local tea from a street stall and drank it in the courtyard of the policeman’s barracks.

*Tea time. Weirdly, served in a “Canada” mug.*

We visited the famous “Star Mosque”, which is beautiful but was under construction, so I didn’t see it in all of its glory. It is amazing the stunning and small mosques hidden in the ramshackle Old City streets.

*A view of the Star Mosque. Not visible are the many stars.*

To the River

We then walked to the river’s edge, near where I had been before, but this time, I got to go out on a boat. It was a comfortable, relatively small, flat-bottom boat paddled by a single boatman.

We floated along the river past commuter boats and ships. It was heavenly. There was a perfect breeze and was quiet and relaxing. The boat ride also took us past factories – the sort that make those cheap, disposable clothes and that both provide jobs and subject workers to horrible conditions. Yeah, those.

All along the river people went about their business and enjoyed the weather. I saw two very little girls standing on the end of a boat, holding up in front of then a small piece of torn cardboard; they repeatedly posed and smiled at it – pretending to take selfies.

The Ship Yards

We docked on the other side of the river and hopped out to explore the shipyards where enormous commercial ships were being repaired and painted. To look for defects or thin spot in the metal, men pounded on the ships’ hulls with hammers, creating a loud cacophony.

We also saw people making enormous propellors by digging the mould into the dirt and then pouring molten metal into it. Once cooled, they smoothed off the rough spots. All of this done without any protective gear of course. Most men wore sandals.

Back on the boat, we went to the other side and had lunch at a local spot near the courthouse where I met several barristers on break. Once I mentioned I was a lawyer the conversation turned to work before I naturally flowed into a chat about Islamic black magic and horror movies.

Wrapping up (and a few more photos)

It was an excellent day that left me exhausted and full.

My first two days in Dhaka had both exceeded my expectations. Not every place can do that. I went to bed excited for day three, where I had almost nothing planned.

Around the World 2022 Asia Bangladesh

Discovering Dhaka, Bangladesh

I like cities, better than nature if I am being honest. Sometimes when I pick a city to visit it is because it has something specific I want to see, but sometimes I am just curious about a city itself. Dhaka, Bangladesh was one of those cities. I had little on a list of ‘sites’ to see in Dhaka; it was just the city itself that appealed. Everything I read about it suggested it would be either a lively chaos or a miserable cesspool. (Seriously, most people had nothing but negative things to say about it.) Either way, I knew it would be interesting. I’ll just say now, I loved it. I loved it instantly and throughout.

It started the moment I stepped out of the airport, having flown there from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. People crowded, shouting, pushing perilous towers of beaten-up luggage, cars bumper-to-bumper, instant heat and smells of people and exhaust and perfume. Terrific.

I got a taxi to take me to my accommodation. Dhaka is notorious for its traffic, and we did spend a little time crawling along, but I didn’t mind because everything was exciting. The overcrowded buses that looked like they had been through 50 years of bad driving, the tuk tuks, bicycles, rickshaws, and trucks, all jockeying for position. I’m sure that if I lived there, I wouldn’t be so enthusiastic, but as a new arrival, everything seemed new and thrilling.

And then we pulled up to the high gate of my accommodation: the Ambrosia Guest House. I can confidently say I would not stay anywhere else in Dhaka. There are no hostels to speak of and most of the budget hotels look grim. The fancy hotels look generic and are in a dull part of town, but this Guest House is in a perfect location for a walker like me, just off a main road but slightly tucked away with a beautiful garden oasis. I had a big private room, use of the common areas, and enjoyed breakfast each morning with the other guests. In the evenings, I had a cigar in the garden.

But I didn’t travel to Dhaka to luxuriate in gardens. So out I went.

The streets in Dhaka are wonderful madness. Endless traffic with a parade of colourful rickshaws, creating a cheerful din of handlebar bells. Old, repurposed, red double-decker buses from the UK. The regular city buses, so beaten up but painted with colourful patterns and sometimes with whimsical hearts or birds. And of course, bicycles, tuk tuks, and people on foot, like me, all moving together. It is chaos, but it works.

Everything is loud, from the voices to the horns and bells, to announcements made over loudspeakers about, presumably, things for sale at the central market.

It is colourful. Not just the buses, but the people, many dressed in bright local or traditional clothing, stalls selling fresh flowers, businesses covered in a riot of multicoloured signage that can only come from a lack of regulation.

Nothing is orderly or slow. It is all terrific and exhilarating.

I walked for a bit, stopping for coffees or teas. I wandered through book stalls and shops at the market and meandered around taking it all in.

I then hailed a rickshaw to take me to the edge of Old Dhaka. That was fun. I discovered later that I paid about 10x more than I should have, but the price I paid was still like $3 cdn, so it was cheap – especially since I was paying for a slightly-built human being to pull me by the power of his own cycling whilst I rode in my sparkly rickshaw seat like a king.

I was dropped off at the Dhakeshwari Temple, a candy-coloured Hindu temple. I can’t tell you much about it, but it was busy with worshippers and had altars of slightly fearsome, slightly comedic looking gods.

From there, I wandered towards the Lalbagh Fort. It wasn’t difficult to find. Buildings in Old Dhaka are not that tall and eventually I saw the walls and the tops of the fort ahead of me. The entrance fee was negligible and well worth it. The fort structures inside are fine. A bit like the Red Fort in Delhi or the Lahore Fort in Lahore, but much smaller. The real treat are the grounds, lovely expanses of green with beautiful flowers.

It was all locals (and me) inside, everyone enjoying the serenity. It was there though that I discovered the Bangladeshis’ fondness for selfies. I couldn’t go a few feet without being asked to take selfies with people. One person asked me to hold their baby for the photo. (I declined that. I’ve never held a baby in my life and was not to start with a stranger’s child.) Eventually I had to start declining the selfies or I would never get where I was going. People asked me where I was from and, smiling, wished me happy travels in Bangladesh. Both the selfies and friendly greetings happened everywhere. Even people that spoke very little English would manage to ask me where I was from and say, “thank you”.

From there I visited the Armenian church, a pretty buttercream and yellow church surrounded by trees. I was let in by the caretaker who unlocked it and was happy to show me around. (All my pictures were lousy, but it is worth visiting.)

I stepped out of the church and was trying to decide which direction to walk next, when a young man approached me. He spoke English and asked me where I was from and if I was lost. I explained I was just looking around and he suggested I walk to the river and told me the way. He gave me his business card and said that if I needed anything, to contact him. That too was not the only time that kind of hospitality happened.

I did walk down to the banks of the Bariganga River. The river is the life of the city, connecting it to the rest of the country. The waterways are filled with passenger ships, cargo ships, and little boats transporting people and goods. It is as energetic as the streets. I sat on the banks of the river, smoked some cigarillos and watched the action. I did not go out on a boat that day but did the next.

After that, I continued to walk the streets of Old Dhaka. Old Dhaka is, well, the oldest part of the city. The streets are narrow, sometimes not even wide enough for cars. The buildings are in poor repair and the streets are lined with shops, restaurants, small mosques, and tons of food vendors.

Mysterious fried snacks filled with vegetables or meat, sweets, fresh juices, overly sweet tea, fruits, plates of curries and biryani. I ate some things where I was able to discern that they were vegetarian. I assumed I would get some sort of food poisoning not matter how careful I was, so why not go down enjoying the local food? (Amazingly I did not get sick on this trip.)

I walked back to my hotel, getting there after dark.

On the way back I saw something I had not expected. I was on a busy street with sidewalks and there was a man lying down. I hadn’t seen this yet in Dhaka, so it caught my attention. Plus, the man was lying in an uncomfortable position…with his eyes wide open…and not moving. I stopped. Also not moving: his chest. I know what a dead person’s open eyes look like and this was it. No one else was stopping, so I walked to the corner, where there was a group of policemen. I approached them and tried to say what I had seen, but they didn’t speak English. I tried to communicate through miming. I pointed, then leaned back with my arms crossed over my chest. Made a slashing movement in front of my throat…but they didn’t seem to understand. So I carried on. At that point it wasn’t exactly an emergency situation, and I did what I could. It was a little jarring to see death in the middle of a city that feels so alive, but you can’t have life without death. You just don’t often see it.

I had only been in Dhaka a half a day but saw so much. I finished the evening in my hotel’s garden with a cigar, reflecting on all of it.

A few practical comments:

As I discussed in a previous post, I did have to get a visa ahead of time, but there was no other hassle entering the country.

Dhaka is inexpensive. Like, really cheap. You can obviously spend more if you want to go to western-style restaurants and cafes, but just walking around, taking local transport, and eating at casual places or on the street, you would struggle to spend $10.

This is one of those places where you should have cash. I brought a mix of Euros and US dollars and exchanged them for Bangladeshi Taka as needed. I did try some ATMS just to see if they worked. Some did. Some didn’t. You can’t expect places to take cards unless they are more upscale.

I felt completely safe, day and night. It is so busy and there are always people around and they are exceedingly helpful. No one was rude or leering or threatening in any way. Probably the only risk is tripping or stepping into a hole in the sidewalk.

It was really hot and humid. Staying clean was impossible. That said, despite the heat, it felt good. There are so many trees and often a nice breeze, especially near the river.

Most people didn’t speak English but often there would be someone around who would speak it a bit if you really need to communicate.

In case I haven’t made it clear: I thought Dhaka was awesome and was happy to have more days ahead.