Sonargaon trip with Mahmud's classes

Saturday we went on a field trip with my officemate's classes, to Sonargaon and Paran Nagar, previous capital of Bengal with ruins dating back to the 13th century. Only 27 kilometers from Dhaka, but easily 2 hours each way with most of the time spent on city streets at a crawl. The bus was called a murimati (I think) which has something to do with rice that's popped like popcorn...


We started at the folk art museum


which had some electricity problems -- some of the displays I saw more clearly in the pictures Matan took!

But the newer building with the fabrics! WOW! amazing works of art.


We walked through the gardens and saw boats, flowers,


people-powered ferris wheels and many booths with fabrics, saris, etc.



Matan enjoyed the shooting balloon stand and at 1 taka per shot (70 taka = $1), it was quite a deal.

Then we had a picnic at Paran Nagar which is a very old Hindu neighborhood, with little restoration done.


(yes we eat with our hands, even rice, no silverware).
Walking through the street -- it was a place of immense wealth at one point.


I didn't understand when I was seeing it, but most of the waterways are engineered to be moats and water sources, it's not a river running through.



Pictures of the girls dipping in the water,

and others exploring more buildings.


One of the students commutes from this village and our last stop was to visit her family's home. Up five flights of stairs and they hosted all 28 of us for tea and fruits. Then the long long ride back to Dhaka. I followed the map out of the city, but the sun was setting when we got back and I was very disoriented. Really I know so very little of the city.