Cruisin'

We’ve mentioned before that we’ve had a guest staying with us for the last month or so. She has been doing some research here in Bangladesh and we’ve had a nice time hosting her. We all decided we had been working way too much lately and that we needed a little break from Dhaka city. Not having a lot of energy or time to plan much of an adventure, we went full tourist mode and booked ourselves on one of the guided river cruises available from a bunch of different companies here in Dhaka. It was fantastic!

Sam had actually taken this same basic cruise before when she was here with the language program, but it was a different company (and not as good) and with a large group there is a totally different dynamic. The minimum for the tour is 6 people, and we were only 4, so we just paid the extra between us and got a totally private day out on a boat. Did we mention it was fantastic? Here’s how:

They set you up in every way because it is really marketed to people who are either only here for a short trip or who work for the embassies or whatever and don’t know how to do anything for themselves. First, they drove us out to the boat dock at Demra about an hour away from our house. Then we boarded the boat and had our tea and cake right away.

PHOTOS of the boat and tea

We began our journey down the river and took in the sights along the banks. It is always so relaxing and refreshing to get out of Dhaka and we spent the morning just looking at everything and taking photos. Here are some of them:

After about an hour and half, we docked at an old zamindar mansion that has been converted to a college. We noticed that the hindu temple was particularly pretty with the dark ominous clouds gathering behind it as we pulled to shore.

The clouds brought rain, obviously, so we ducked into a little tea stall to wait it out. Once the rain lightened a little, we took a stroll around the old mansion and took more photos. We had fun talking to the students and looking around (and listening to the sadly inaccurate historical information the tour guide provided). Once Atticus got mud on his leg and hands though, he was finished with it all and booked it back to the boat. Here are some photos from around the area:

We all followed and continued our little cruise down the river. We saw several river dolphins, but never quite caught one on camera- they jump up fast! Here is a tiny piece of one though:

They also provided us with an absolutely delicious vegetarian lunch. It was so great – traditional Bengali dal, all kinds of veggies, bread, rice - it was an excellent meal and to eat it while sailing down the river was just great.

Atticus followed up lunch by explaining to our guest in detail his issues with dry skin on his feet. She didn’t mind, but we plan on following up regarding his choice of pick up lines and tactics.

After lunch we cruised some more and Jon decided he really wanted to go for a swim. (He had been fully clothed for almost the entire day after all…). Sam had suggested that Jon bring his swim trunks along since they had told us at booking that we could swim if we wanted. Jon, however, had turned his nose up at the idea and decided not to bring along a swimsuit. Fortunately, the boat had a pair of trunks Jon could borrow.

And what a pair of trunks! While they were pretty great dry, the true awesomeness was revealed after they got wet.

Jon had fun swimming (Sam was not even remotely interested in entering the water after we had seen a big-ass snake in the water earlier and Atticus has an ear infection so he didn’t go in.) At first it seemed like Jon would be jumping in and swimming around alone, which was a little lame, but the call of the water soon got to the cook and the guide. The cook dove off the boat roof (which meant, of course, Jon had to do it too) and then the guide decided to join in. The swimming was fun, there were no snake attacks, and the mild industrial waste provided a nice exfoliating chemical treatment for Jon’s skin.

After our swim we docked at a little village spot and got to look at some weavers. We saw a little umbrella factory, and then had fun sitting with the weavers and chatting. This time around was especially fun for Sam because previously she had been with a big group and hadn’t really been able to talk to the weavers. This time, we were only four people and Sam’s bangla is better so it was nice to talk about their work and participate in the encounter a little more. Atticus, of course, was the big star though and he was pretty adorable as he worked with the weavers.

Afterwards the children all waved goodbye in true Bangladesh style and we headed back to the boat.

Just as we docked at the car though Sam had one more delightful moment in store. There was a man selling Tiler Kaja, which is a sesame candy that is the most delicious and wonderful thing ever created. Sam fell in love with it in 2007, but in 2008 and since it has been unavailable. You can only buy it from the street vendors, and Sam has always held out hope that soon it would come back, but we hadn’t seen it – until now. Sam delightedly bought up a bunch and we headed home.

The old package of the candy used to have an adorable little girl clutching the candy and smiling. Now it has some stern mustached guy instead, which is much less cute, so here is a fairly close approximation for those that missed the previous packaging.

Finally, upon arriving home, we all looked in the mirror and realized how ridiculously sunburned we all were (Atticus had been wearing sunscreen but not us!). It was also fun to see the perfect outline of all our shirt collars – Jon had a triangle, Sam had the sweetheart neckline, and our guest had the square. Hooray for funky tanlines!

All in all, a fun break from work and great day on the water. This picture of Atticus was technically taken on the boat but doesn’t really show anything about the cruise. Atticus looks so damned adorable though that we’ll end on this!