Tuesday February 5th - Night train to Dhaka (Again)

Spoiler Alert : Those anticipating another horror show with a sleepless night and railborne squalor will be disappointed.

Khulna station looks to have been quite recently rebuilt. It is on the western half of the railway system which is built to the Indian broad gauge, 5' 6" in old money. There are two modern rakes of coaches at platforms and one distinctly decrepit one. Fortunately our train is one of the modern ones and we find our coach without problem as it says AC Sleeper on the outside. The train manager introduces himself and shows us to our cabin, a four berth at one end of the coach, where we have the two upper berths. R pulls a face.

Once the luggage is stowed D heads along the platform to get a picture of the loco. It hasn't arrived as yet and after waiting for ten minutes or so while another train pulls in and various loco moves take place in the distance, he returns to the coach. Besides R there are three other occupants - a Dutch tourist, his guide and another Bangladeshi chap. The guide speaks good English and explains that they have been allocated two berths here and one in another coach but that they will just make do with these two.

The coach bears a very close resemblance to the modern LHB, German designed, Indian built coaches that started appearing on Indian Railways about 6 or 7 years ago. Somebody has replaced the builder's plate with a blank piece of metal but subsequent research confirms that these are the same coaches as used in India. What is different is the bedding. This consists of floral pattern sheets with matching pillowcase and a large fluffy blanket in a sort of duvet cover. The sheets actually smell laundry fresh and meet with R's approval.

Departure is due at 8.30 p.m. but it is about ten minutes later that there is a bit of a lurch as the loco reverses onto the front of the train. Another five and we are off. Not wanting to be zombies tomorrow, we make up our beds and retire. R reports that the first few miles were a bit bumpy but D goes out like a light when his head hits the pillow. Apart from a light that stayed on all night there were no complaints. The AC behaved and we had no need of our pre unpacked cold weather clothing.

We both wake at around 4.20 a.m. to discover that those below are up and about. An executive decision is made to get off at when the train stops at the airport station as it is nearer to our hotel and hopefully a bit less chaotic as we will need to meet an Uber. We get our act together and disembarkation goes well until D's sandal strap comes adrift as we walk along the platform. At the front of the station we have a short wait until our Uber arrives and this takes us swiftly to the Progati Inn hotel. Spell check amends this to Probation Inn.

There are no shutters but there is a locked gate. A member of staff comes to tell us there are no vacant rooms but we are able to explain that we have a reservation for tonight and that we want to leave our bags. This gains us admission. D is able to retrieve intact footwear and the fleeces get packed away. It is about 06.15 and they surprise us by saying that their restaurant is open for breakfast. Parathas, fried eggs and black tea all round. Over breakfast we formulate a plan based on the information about North Dhaka contained in Lonely Planet. On the way out we ask when a room might be free and they say come back at noon.

If you ever decide to visit Bangladesh, and we would recommend it, don't waste money on buying Lonely Planet Bangladesh 8th Edition. It is not one of their finest. Things start well enough as we get a CNG to take us to Gulshan Lake Park, in the heart of one of Dhaka's upmarket suburbs. As we enter the park we get a fleeting sighting of a smallish woodpecker. The park has trees and flowers and a well paved, wide path circling a pond in a deep hollow. Gulshan's power walkers are out in force getting their exercise quota. Signs indicate that only clockwise walking is permitted. We stick to the side of the path for fear of being trampled. There is a cafe at one end of the park and benches overlooking the pond as well as more birdlife than we have seen since Ratargul. There are even parakeets of which we have only seen a couple elsewhere in Bangladesh. We complete a leisurely circuit then head south into Gulshan centre, stopping for lemon tea on the way. 

Our plan involves checking out a couple of possible restaurants for tonight, before heading to a recommended bookshop and cafe, located next to a large clothing market. The traffic is building up and crossing major roads is a bit of an adventure. We find the first restaurant which might be OK but looks busy already at breakfast time. The second is ten minutes walk, through back streets, and is not yet open but the building looks respectable and LP gives it a star for its authentic street food. One other task on today's list is getting D's sandal repaired. There is a pavement shoeshine walla who appears to have the necessary equipment. He is in the middle of shining a pair of shoes so D waits for him to finish. The owner of said shoes speaks perfect English and insists that he will wait while the chap attends to us. D hands over the sandal and the man makes a noise that might mean cheap Vietnamese junk, but digs out his awl and thread. D plans to take a photo of this craftsman at work but the shoes owner, having established that we are from Scotland wants to talk about whisky, particularly Scotch whisky. D mentions that we haven't seen much of it about and is told "Plenty of Scotch in Dhaka, in high end places for high end people". No wonder we haven't seen any. Repair complete we are about to part company when he hands over his card. Clayten Rozario. Didn't he once play for Middlesbrough?

The route to the bookshop involves crossing one of the several lakes that are a feature of North Dhaka. When we get there two earth dams have been built and the lake drained between them. Not very scenic. We get a cycle rickshaw for the last part of the journey as it is getting warm. Arriving at the site of the LP recommended bookshop we discover that it is now a building site. The clothing market sells everything but clothes and smells mainly of fish. We do find a respectable looking coffee shop where two Americanos cost more than several of the meals we have had in the last 12 days.

We are starting to flag a bit so find a CNG to take us back to the hotel. On the way there we see that Bangladesh real has got life's problems solved. They have a room ready and ask for our passports so check in can be completed. After a while we notice that a couple of people are staring very intently at pages in the middle of our passports. D goes to see if there is a problem and is told that our visas expire today which is news to us. D explains that we have a train booked to go to India tomorrow and they seem happy with that. Not much we can do now. We are taken up to our room on the 7th floor which is nothing fancy but will do for us, especially after the room boy plugs in the AC unit. The 8th floor is occupied by the restaurant and the 9th floor is the flight path for jets taking off from Dhaka International. Turboprops don't climb as quickly so they have to fly round the hotel. Earplugs again tonight.

After a couple of hours R&R we prepare for a night out on the town. A few hundred yards down the road is a large funfair and something called Jamuna Future Park. This looks like something to check out so we decide to give it a whirl. The funfair is not operating when we get there but R spots a banner advertising a Body Shop branch within the Future Park which turns out to be a humongous shopping centre, as big as we have ever seen. We find the Body Shop which has prices three times those in the UK so R decides she can make what she has last the whole trip. By now we are thoroughly lost. Trying a clothes shop at random R finds a pair of fancy pants on the New Fashions rail. Photos later. On the way out we see that the funfair action has started but we pass.

Eventually we find our way out and look for a CNG towards supper. If you want a low mileage Toyota, North Dhaka is the place to look. Most of them spend most of the time static in traffic. We pay off the CNG and walk the last few hundred yards. A place that describes itself an an Art Cafe catches our eye so we stop off for a lemon tea. One of their pieces of Art is a series of display cases containing different traditional Bengali desserts.

We walk the last few steps to the Dhaka Dhaba, highly recommended for its food by Lonely Planet. It has become a paan kiosk with no food in sight. They suggest we go upstairs but that is a rather poncy tearoom. Our fall back is a ten minute walk but around the corner we see a place that describes itself as a Turkish restaurant. Hummus! What a good idea. A bit pricey but we enjoyed the food and the lime sodas. CNG back home for an early night as we are up before dawn tomorrow.