Excursion to Sonargaon

Panam Nagar

I repeated yesterday’s awesome breakfast before meeting Nur at 0915 on the ground floor of the hotel.  We walked to a tea shack where tea was being sold, despite Ramadhan, but hidden behind canvas so that no one would then be drinking in public.  That’s like Indonesia, but not Malaysia where one could be fined.

Nur explained that he had a family emergency and would hand me to someone else.  Fortunately, Nazmul was a very pleasant young man with his own tour company and spoke good English.

We took a rickshaw to catch the bus which took us out of the city area, then changed to another rickshaw which dropped us off at the preserved historic homes at Panam Nagar.

These 19^th Century homes belonged to mainly Hindu merchants who left for India during the Partition.

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The Sonargaon area has a much older history dating back to the 13^th Century with various sultanates.  Some of the historic buildings are too ruined and others too far away.

Goaldi Mosque

However, the Goaldi Mosque was just a short rickshaw ride away.  While originally built in 1519, what we see now was built in 1705.

 

River Island

I hadn’t remembered exactly where I would be taken today, except that Nur had rattled off a long list.  So, it was a pleasant surprise when Nazmul said we were a rickshaw to the Meghna river so we could go to a river island village.

The village was very pleasant and peaceful compared to Dhaka.  It was litter-free and people took pride in their simple homes.  Corrugated-iron walls had been enhanced with dark wood frames and colourful panels near the top of the exterior wall.  This style was consistently used through the village.

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Museum

Taking the boat back to mainland, we took a rickshaw to the museum which was formally known as the Bangladesh Folk Art & Crafts Foundation.

This comprised of a beautifully kept historical building (Bara Sarderbari) by a pond and a modern building that held three floors of exhibits.  The historical building was built in 1901 by a Hindu landlord in the Indo-Saracenic style.

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Missing the train

At the museum, I asked Nazmul what time we needed to take the train and he replied 1400.  Strangely, he told me not to rush but as I didn’t have a deep interest in the exhibits in the museum, we moved on by foot, rickshaw and then bus.

For such an involved journey, I was surprised we hadn’t left earlier.  It was past 1400 when we hopped off the bus to wait for a shared rickshaw (total of 7 people including driver and infant) for Narayanganj.

Getting to the station around 1430, we had missed the train, and it would be another 2h till the next one.

I was a bit miffed at missing out on the train ride, but the river island village made up for it.

We found a bus to take bus back to Dhaka, which dropped us off near the contemporary National Mosque.

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At the end, I paid Nazmul the agreed amount.  He mentioned that Nur would be taking half of it and asked if I could give a tip.  I declined because tipping is not part of the culture here and the amount was already generous by local standard.

He gave me a hug, which I wasn’t sure was local custom and then pointed to somewhere where I could get a rickshaw.  He didn’t even try to get me a rickshaw at a local price or help communicate the address to the driver.

The area seemed interesting enough and I ended walking all the way back.  I finished the day with another chicken and rice standard iftar meal before climbing into bed at 1915!

The two days of adventure in Dhaka seems to have worn me out completely.