We were in Dhaka City for 3 nights from 4 to 6 September and had a few jobs to do. First of all, after the long travelling time to get there it was important to decompress a bit and chill but… I had no clothes! Well, actually I had travelled in one set of clothes (hiking trousers and long sleeved t shirt) and had one Salwar Kameez to change into but was planning on buying the rest in Dhaka.
So off we went to the new Jamuna Future Park on 5 September, the largest shopping mall in South Asia apparently. I downloaded Uber onto my Bangladesh phone and used it for the first time in my life – it was about 200 taka (£1.90) for the journey there and back! We have it in London but I’ve never used it… it really is/was a game changer for Bangladesh as you remove all the issues around double pricing for foreigners. The only slight issue is that the driver pretty much immediately calls you to ask you your exact location. My Bengali is ok, but it’s a bit limited on the phone so I’d tend to simply hand my phone to a random person standing around to explain where we are.
Well I am not sure if Jamuna Future Park have quite got their market right it being in Bangladesh, or indeed their marketing, and not at all sure how the shops survive as despite the fact that we only went on a Thursday it was pretty empty…. but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless! It’s a curious place which has a rollercoaster outside and the Indian Visa Processing Centre on its ground floor! We had lunch in Pizza Hut where Tiger got looked after by the staff whilst I ate my lunch. And eventually after trailing in and out of so many clothes shops eventually we found what we were looking for (cotton, simple Salwar Kameez) and bought four for around £25 each.
On 6 September we went to the Dhaka International Yarn Fabric Show at the International Convention Centre Bashundara (225 taka by Uber £2.12) just for a nose around. I’d signed up online and actually only went into one hall, but it’s enormous. Somehow, in and amongst the fabric suppliers I managed to meet the Bangladesh Tourism Board and was filmed.
On the way back we went to Gulshan 2 for shopping (168 taka by Uber, £1.60) where we got nappies and formula, but also wandered into the fish and poultry market, and then took another Uber home (91 taka, 86p). Went out again to try and get my orientation and had dinner in Nandos – a real refuge of AC especially if you have a baby with an exploding nappy!