Saturday 26th January - Bagpipes in Bangladesh

Hotel 71, our base in Dhaka, has a few eccentricities. Our room is actually a suite, clean enough if overdue for a refurb. The hot water is reliable and the towels and sheets spotless so we can forgive the cleaning staff their inability to get round to our room before 3 p.m. The ground floor Reception area has been gutted and is in the process of being rebuilt, leaving the Security Staff to be the public face. A team of both men and women, they are unfailingly polite and helpful even if the do wear prominent badges reading RSS.  As they are not in either Mumbai or haph pants perhaps this is a different RSS.

The population of Dhaka do seem keen on a procession, the noisier the better, if our experience is anything to go by. Saturday seems to be a big day for such events. Having breakfasted we are preparing ourselves for the day when we hear a familiar skirl. In plain view out of our window is a procession led by a pipe band. The hundred yards or so of people behind are making no effort to compete with the noise and many of them appear to be carrying bunches of balloons. The only police appear to be traffic cops so it can't be anything very controversial.

In our wanderings so far we have encountered several Bangladeshis who want to know if we have visited the National Museum. Today is the day. Dhaka Museums keep banking hours and don't open until 10.30 on those days that they don't open later or remain closed. No rush at all for us. There is even time for a stroll through Ramna Park, scene of Thursday's police cordon.

No slack for foreigners at the Museum. Tickets are a fiver each, twenty times the rate for locals. Once through the gate we are told that bags and cameras are not permitted. There is a well organised left luggage office where our bags are left under lock and key. Inside the main entrance there are plenty of notices but they are all in Bengali. Most people are going straight up the main staircase so that seems to be the obvious next move.

The first room contains a 60 foot square map of Bangladesh, raised slightly off the floor. At one side a chap is seated at a panel of switches. He greets us and then performs his party piece, using the  switches to illuminate bulbs showing where each of the country's divisional cities are sited, starting with Dhaka. The crowd are enthralled and D only regrets that he is not allowed to photograph this triumph of technology.

The next few rooms depict some of the different terrains found in the country including the Sunderbans mangrove forest and the agrarian majority of the country. These galleries might be quite interesting but the light levels make it just about impossible to read the notices, which do have English translations on this level. In the fifth or sixth room the lights suddenly come on and we can see what is on show. There are painted plaster models of various fruits found in the country. According to whoever put the display together the small green fruit of earlier discussion is an Indian Plum, properly known as Ziziphus Mauritiana. 

From here on in things go downhill a bit. There are a couple of rooms of very badly stuffed birds and some exhibits of tribal culture and arefacts that lack any meaningful signage. Most of the mammals that used to occupy Bangladesh are extinct and the majority of the remainder are highly endangered. All rather sad. D is impressed with the large canoe that dominates one room. So much so that he feels compelled to break the photography embargo.

A couple of rooms contain a surprising quantity of terracotta depictions of Hindu gods and goddesses, whilst a further gallery has quite a collection of the same but in obsidian. These are obviously deemed so fragile that they have not been dusted for many years. One interesting room has an early printing press but the English explanation has gone missing. To be honest none of it can match the map with the light bulbs and the floors are extremely hard.

We resist the temptation to ascend to a higher level and instead find seats in the entrance hall where we consider our next step. Lunch is the concensus, to be taken on a lakeside bench in Ramona Park. Having recovered our bags our exit is delayed by a noisy procession of students parading down the road. We are accosted by two young men who write symbols on our hands with felt tip pens. On asking what these mean they struggle to explain, nor can they tell us what the demo is about. We are just hoping that we have not posted a picture that is rude or that will get us arrested.

On the bench in the park the red writing is washed off just in case. Lunch consists of small sweet Bengali bananas liberated from the breakfast buffet. There's plenty going on and even a good spot of a Black Hooded Oriole as well as a Brahminy Kite. D notices that the road behind is traversed by some very distinctive double decker buses but cannot get a good shot from that location. R waits on the bench while a suitable shot is taken from the nearby park gate. On the way D spots another procession, this time lead by a man on an elephant.

Bus photo achieved, D returns to the bench to find R holding forth to a multitude of adoring fans. They seem disappointed when she stands up to leave but it turns out they are really after a vacant bench. Passing on optician's shop R remembers that her specs need tightening up. The chap obliges, gives them a full wash and polish before doing D's as well. No charge.

 The afternoon is quite boring. Packing, arranging a taxi and lots of energy expended recovering our laundry. Housekeeping seem to have a problem locating it even though it is clearly visible on a shelf in their cubbyhole. It gets to is in the end. For supper we try a restaurant called Bhoj Company, a five minute walk from the hotel. We have eaten at Bhoj Company in Kolkata but it is unclear whether they are connected or if one is a copy of the other. The one thing that they have in common is almost no spoken English. We get by and order chicken khichuri with mixed veg and a nan bread. Very good and they have mishti doi to round things off. Best of all it is even better value for money than yesterday.