Day 117 - The last time I used the Uber app we were in Boston going to the cruise terminal. Today, I got a ride to old Dhaka in Bangladesh. We wanted to see the famous ferry terminal here up close and personal. Wow, did we! From our apartment in Dulshan, we only travelled a distance of eight kilometers by car. The ride took about one hour and fifteen minutes due to the traffic and congested streets. I've yet to see an accident here but there must be hundreds, perhaps thousands, per day.
I knew we might pass the typical old wide avenues of a colonial-era town and we did see a few areas that fit that billing. However, I don't think I've ever been in amoungst as many people at one time as when we were in the area of Sadraghat.
The area contained some of the most polluted environments I've ever visited. I kept thinking about how, were it for fate, I was born where I was. The people seemed happy and were genuinely interested in me and Jay as foreigners. The attention was a bit disconcerting. The smells and sights more so.
We travel a lot and much of our time is for our own enjoyment. However, a large part of travelling is to learn something. Seeing how others have to live gives one an entirely more accurate picture of life and our personal places in it.
We had an amazing ride back to the apartment in one of the Bangladeshi tuk-tuks, called CNGs. We flew through back streets in efforts to avoid some of the traffic. Our young driver was successful and dropped us off in around an hour. We paid him around US $4 because we knew the trip in a car would have easily been twice as long as that. There was slight rain.
