Life as a Tourist - Old Dhaka and the National Museum

 Weekends are Friday and Saturday in Bangladesh and Friday is the holy day so almost everything is closed. Naturally, we tried to go to the National Museum only to find out that the museum was only open in the afternoon. Instead we spent the morning in Old Dhaka checking out the historic part of town. At one place where we stopped they were preparing to open a historic mosque for Friday prayer and we weren’t allowed in. Because Friday is the holy day, many people come to open mosques to pray with others instead of praying alone. 

Next we went to Shamima’s (a friend from Bangladesh who now lives in the states) house for a delicious home cooked lunch. The food was very spicy and oh so delicious! I got to meet several of Shamima’s family members and was even invited to a family party in honor of a young nephew’s circumcision… Traditionally boys aren’t circumcised until they are around 7 years old and it is a big deal for the whole family. I am pretty sure the kid wasn’t too psyched though!

When we finally made it to the National Museum, I was less than impressed. This place wasn’t a Bangladeshi museum, it was a life on earth museum.  For example, in the “Music” room there was a set of bagpipes and an accordion on display among the other musical instruments from around the world. I’m pretty sure that neither the bagpipes nor the accordion originated in Bangladesh… There was also a “Furniture” room which has a beautiful display of “Chairs.” It was an awesome display – a line of chairs from various times and places in history all marked “Chair” in case we didn’t know.

That night as we were getting ready for bed we saw several cockroaches and decided to take care of them once and for all. Thus began that great cockroach genocide of 2010…. Once we started spraying poison into the cracks in the walls and between the door frame, they all came streaming out but we were prepared with the shoe of death. 15 minutes later… about 30 cockroach bodies covered the floor!