Blogs from Rajshahi, Bangladesh, Asia

Travelling in to Dhaka from the airport at 1 am, the traffic is horrendous. Three or four lanes of vehicles interwoven; hooting, flashing lights, sirens, belching fumes, dust; road works and half-built structures in the gloom beyond the headlights; dense housing, shops, advertising with the distinctive sanskrit letters of the Bangla language. Welcome to Bangladesh. The lane to the hotel is blocked by a truck that is unloading bricks … at one in the morning. We discover the next day why: trucks are banned from Dhaka during the day so have to unload at night. The next day we meet the labourers who carry the bricks into the site; each man has 20 bricks balanced on his head on a board; they use one free hand to help them climb the ladder to the second story. ... read more

The City of Temples 14-15 May 2008 This was by no means my first visit to Rajshahi. But I could manage little time for sightseeing during my earlier visits. This tour was different, at least, from time availability point of view. Even though this was a visit in work purpose, I had some time to spend during the morning as my work needed me during the afternoon. As always, whenever I go on tour I try to have a look around with whatever time I have in my hand. Sometimes, even an hour’s break between work was enough for me. At Rajshahi I had the whole morning with me. So, I devised some plans that would enable me to utilise the whole morning hours. I knew from my previous searches that Puthia Palace is one of ... read more