See Us Waving from Deshi Heights

We set out to get out visas for the trip to Nepal on Wednesday. After three trips to the embassy, we finally have them, and welearned that bureaucracy translates into any language.

Tuesday was primarily spent seeing some of the architectural highlights of Dhaka. First stop was the Lalbagh Fort. Construction on the fort originally began in 1677 but halted after the death of Pari Bibi, the daughter of Shaista Khan, as her death was taken as a bad omen for finishing construction. The walls of the fort now surround beautiful gardens and the masoleum for Pari Bibi-- apparently the only site in Bangladesh where you'll find black basalt and white marble. It also appears to be a lovers' lane of sorts for young Deshis-- or at least that was inferred from the numbers of shy looking couples holding hands and whispering around the masoleum.

We walked along the top of one of the walls and generally served as the tourist attraction for locals. Kids clamored for our camera, striking wonderfully unnatural poses. We also were approached by a group of college students from a local university who invited us to their birthday celebration for one of their friends as a chance to practice their English. We were also the recipients of a few (unsolicited) invitations to tour the closed museum.

We then drove on to Dhakeswari Temple, a nearby Hindu temple. Again, we had an unsolicited tourguide, who according to Anne seemed to be saying "temple" a lot. A lot of the shrines were closed off from viewing, but after removing our shoes, we were bidded by our guide to step into one area despite what appeared to be an ongoing memorial of some kind. The family gathered there didn't seem to mind and the marbled floor and ceiling fans were somewhat of a cooling relief.

We then drove on to the National Assembly Building-- a source of real pride for the Deshis as it is world renowned for its being designed by Louis Khan, but unfortunately, we couldn't get very close since the caretaker government has closed off public access to the grounds out of security concerns. That didn't stop one man who works in the building from trying to insist that he could get us inside-- in exchange for Anne's phone number, of course.

Finally, our tour ended with a stop at the Bangladesh China Friendship Center-- a conference center established by China in 2002. It was hoped that I could use my heritage to provide some leverage for getting us access... I'd just have to fake speaking the language which I suppose i could do my usual counting 100 "boogers" in cantonese and no one would be any wiser.

Off to Nepal today-- so Namaste!