I visited Old Dhaka to check out some of the more historical sites. Old Dhaka reminds me a lot of Kathmandu, especially the Thamel area. Tight streets lined with small shops covering everything from clothes to brooms to cement coloring. Rickshaws are the mode of transportation of choice in this area. But we had a car. So a man walked in front of us for probably a mile, clearing the way for us. Cost me 200 taka, but it was worth it. Otherwise we would have been sitting there for hours. We did get a rickshaw at one point. Rickshaws are a lot of fun to ride in.

People in this area work incredibly hard. They were drenched with sweat while carrying massive loads on their heads or pulling them on wooden carts.

Old Dhaka is called “old” because, well, its old. Its the original part of the city, located on the Buriganga River. If you want to read about the history of Dhaka you can check it out HERE. I won’t get into it too much here.

I visited a few of the historical sites, starting with Lalbagh Fort. Construction of the fort was started in 1678 and is still not complete. I don’t think they have any plans in the works for its completion, however.

Then on to Ahsan Manzil. They had a museum inside complete with an elephant skull, tusks and all. The lights were out in the building, making in nearly pitch black inside. I had my cell phone out to use as a flashlight. I entered a room that had a thin, dim beam of light entering from the corner. It shone perfectly on the skull. To be honest, it freaked me out a bit. I wish I had a picture, but they wouldn’t even let me take my camera in. Might be for the better; I still see that giant elephant skull when I close my eyes.

From there we took a fifteen minute rickshaw ride to the Star Mosque. It was here that I got hit in the face by a soccer ball. I was chatting with some of the kids playing soccer and suddenly I felt the ball on the side of my face. I’m sure the look on the face of the boy who kicked the ball was just as surprised as mine. I looked at him and smiled, he smiled back. A smile goes a long way.

The drive from Old Dhaka back to where I was staying took around two hours with traffic. I have a feeling without traffic it would have only taken thirty minutes. It gave me a chance to see Dhaka better, however.

The next day, I went back out to see the Parliament building and the war memorial. Both are very stunning places. The Parliament building (Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban) was designed by the world famous architect Louis I Kahn when Bangladesh was still East Pakistan. Looking from above, the building is a star shape with a crescent shaped pond around it. Sound familiar? Take a look at Pakistan’s flag if not. After gaining their independence, the pond was made into a rectangle and is no longer a crescent. And, the building is surrounded by a moat. Everything is cooler when its surrounded by a moat. Unless your a British politician who has been using public money to get the moat surrounding your house cleaned.

The National Martyrs’ Memorial is amazing for its aesthetic form and also its meaning. Towering into the sky, the memorial is surrounded by the graves of ten unknown freedom fighters who died during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. The monument serves as a reminder of the formation of modern day Bangladesh, the peaks representing the victory and independence. The seven triangles represent the seven “stages” of the fight for independence that began in 1952 and ended with the war in 1971.

There is a great discrepancy as to how many people were killed during the war. Some estimates of casualties are as high as 3,000,000 while others are around 200,000. No matter the number, it was a large amount of people killed in a war that only lasted around nine months. Even one is too many. Unspeakable atrocities occurred during this war that still shape Bangladesh to this day.

More on Bangladesh to come later!