One day boat trip

If you don't have much time to go far, but want to have fresh air out of Dhaka....
How about one day boat trip?
 
The tour is to drive 1 hour from Dhaka, spend slow time on the boat, visit nearby village and come back.
Good refreshment for weekend.
Let's me share my experience of the boat trip with JABA tours.
 
We started from their office in Banani at 8am.
It is south east of Dhaka city.
After an hour drive(or even less), scenery changed totally.
From congested city to peaceful village.
 
Car pulled over to the side though I didn't find anything there.
But got off the car, there was river and a boat.
JABA tours owns a boat.

 
Very cozy.
Inside the boat, there is a small room with table and chair.

lf you want to lie down or sit in relax way, there is also place.(right side of the picture)

Of course, you can enjoy time on the deck.
Wind feels good!

As boat started, tea and cookies were served.
Tea time on the deck.

I was in Dhaka city just an hour ago, but now on the boat seeing rural scenery!
Dhaka is quite a small city.

There is not much thing to do on the boat, so just seeing scenery.
Children playing besides river, women washing clothes, men taking care of cows....looking people's life from deck.
Children wove their hands, so I wove back.
"ভাল আছো!?(How are you in casual way)"

However, I was too much tired due to lack of sleep on that day.
So I went inside cabin, lay down on the space I mentioned, and went to sleep.
It was short time, but I slept deeply.

Then, I got up when the boat stopped.
I was half asleep, but tour guide told to go for a walk.

We got off boat.
There are square papers all over the ground.
Guide told that the paper will be recycled to box for sweets e.t.c.

 Then, visited Hindu temple and school.

Take a look at village life.

It was a formal village.
For me, it is one of the normal villages, but it seems very interesting for participants from Japan.
But even though I say normal village, it was very refreshing coming to rural area from Dhaka.

Then, we visited saree weaving village.
The sarees were just so beautiful!! 

How do they weave with design?
For my question, they showed design paper.

Can you believe!?
From this paper, the design came like picture below.

Impressive.
I wanted to get one, but it was too expensive.
Hand weaving can be 10,000 tk to 20,000tk, or more.

After visiting those places, came back to boat and had lunch.
Of course, curry.

Not spicy at all.....felt a bit strange after living in Bangladesh more than 2 years.
Maybe good for tourists.

Had lunch and took a rest, then it was already time to get off boat.
Other tourists went to next village for home stay, but I came back after the boat trip.

It was very short trip, but if you want to have fresh air in weekend, you can join the tour.
Ask details to JABA tours.
http://www.jabatour.com/

Green Goose

There is a Japanese guest house which serves Japanese food at their restaurant.
(In high possibility, you will find Japanese people too.)
But if you want to have Japanese food, this is one of your choices.

It feels strange to introduce dumpling as Japanese food, but familiar taste it was.
Dumpling(400tk) for a plate.

Then, "Agedashi dofu(fried tofu in sauce)"
It was 250tk.
Leek and ginger added good taste.

Crispy shrimps.
Good with drinks.

"Yakitori"
We even couldn't see stick.
Chicken was soft and tasted good with vegetables.

"Mabo doufu"-250tk.
It was spicier more than expected, but I liked it.

 FISH.

I know what is on the plate is obviously fish......
We asked the name of fish, but no staff could tell its name.
They told us some of fish names and finally brought raw fish.....but truth didn't come out.(we couldn't tell the name even though we saw raw fish)
But anyway it was good....simple taste with salt and lemon.

Fried vegetable.

 Fried noodle.

These taste was as it looks.
Not bad though.

We ordered another kind of fried noodle(Yaki-udon), but they didn't have it.
Instead, somehow eggplant....though it was not bad.

The restaurant is located between Gulshan 1 and 2.
It is certainly your choice if you look for Japanese food in Dhaka!

Green Goose Restaurant
Address: House#30, Road38, Gulshan Model Town-2, Dhaka
TEL: 9880050, 9881283
E-mail: ggoose@global-bd.net
Webpage:http://www.greengooseguesthouse.com/

Returning to Bangladesh.

I haven't updated this blog for a while, but I came back to Bangladesh a month ago.

Dhaka was Dhaka as it is.
Rikshaw and CNG and cars are running without
People are drinking tea beside street,
Many of roads are under construction and holes are here and there....

What is change?
Maybe the difference from 2 years ago (when I came for the first time) is that all these seem too much normal for me, and there are people welcoming me.
I returned to Bangladesh with job this time, but I still have curry at local restaurant, have tea on the street, ride #6 bus, fight over 5tk with Rikshaw puller, and walk from Baridhara to Banani when I don't catch a bus.

I won't be able to update much, but will do time to time.
Thank you for being with me!

Heritage

Updating some articles I kept as drafts.

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

Introduced as one of the fanciest Bengali restaurants in Bangladesh on a Japanese guidebook, "Heritage".
My mother kept telling me she wanted to visit when she came to Bangladesh(though missed chance)...so instead her, I visited this time :D

I went for lunch buffet.
Heritage is located near Gulshan 2 circle, about 10 minutes walk.

Looks "Fancy restaurant", doesn't it!?

There was no one when I went with my friends at 12:30.
Lunch starts from 12:30 though they were still preparing at that time.

So wait for 10 minutes, let's have food!

Chefs were cooking behind the glass.
I was afraid if staffs say anything my taking pictures, but they welcomed, made dishes look good for pictures, and introduced
"this dessert is prepared by him!!"
and so on.....
This is Bangladesh.
People like pictures.

So let me tell about food.

At first, Bhorta(vegetable paste with spices).
Tomato, Papaya, Pumpkin Bhorta were there.
These are not so popular menu that every restaurant prepares.

There were 3 kinds of salads beside bhorta.
Then, curry.
Vegetables, Shrimp & Spinach, Mutton, Chicken, beef, fish, small fish & potato....e.t.c.
With curry, you can choose some kinds of naan, rice, and beef teheri.

Left side of picture below shows 2 kinds of daar.



One with brawn color is Indian daar, and with yellow is Bangladeshi.
I prefer Bangladeshi daar with mild taste.
Daar and white rice....this simple combination was just so good.
Guidebook told me that curry were cooked for foreigner so that it was not so spicy.
But it was spicy.
I was worried if I can have real Bangladeshi taste here, so it was good for me.

My plate.

Dessert.

Fruit salad, rice pudding, and Bangla sweets(which most of Japanese can't eat).

 

An hour had passed, but there was still no one.

My friend told me that restaurant would be full of Bangladeshi customer around 2 pm, but only I and my friend were there till 2pm.

"Are we only customer for today?"

"What will they do with that amount of food??"

We were worried for the restaurant.

 

But no worries.

After 10 minutes, groups of Bangladeshi people came and seat was full before 2:30pm.

Really seats were full suddenly!

If you want to enjoy meal in quiet place with no one, better to go before 12pm.

Lunch buffet is 600tk(+VAT15%).

 

HeritageAddress：House10, Road109, Gulshan2, Dhaka
TEL：02-8829359, 01711-541441
Opening Time ：Lunch　12：30pm～3pm
　　 　　            　Dinner　6：30pm～11pm

Coming Back to Japan

Updating this blog after a long time.
I came back to Japan on March 28th after 2 years of volunteer work.

It was very very unique experience in unique environment.
Bangladesh was not my first choice for volunteer work, but it was meaningful time at last.

Off course, there were lots of problems at work.
Yes, thousands!
But as I could get along with co-workers, neighbor, and people around me, it was good.
Especially relationship with neighbor was so unique for me, coming from Japan.

My house is 3 minutes walk from main road.
When I came inside from main road, it was almost like my home.
I know everyone(though I couldn't tell names), everyone knows me.

Friends from fruit shop.

Whenever I visited the shop, he gave me fruits.
If I find any fruits I had never seen in Japan, he led me taste.

A friend from curry restaurant.

We met everyday at the same time in the morning.
He always prepares Singara...and we repeated the same conversation everyday.

A friend from medicine shop.

He talked to me when his eyes caught me though conversation with him was a bit weird.
"Did you buy cauliflower?"
"Yes, as you see"
"What to do with cauliflower?"
"Cook and eat! what to do with cauliflower otherwise?"

A friend who sells vegetables.

By the way, he only sells greens.
I often chatted with him because he always sits next to egg shop I always went.

The egg shop.

There was a boy who always told me "Dim niben na-?(don't you buy eggs?)".
Now he is in village, but he used to tell me "dim niben na-?" every time he saw me.
He found me in the morning,
"Dim niben na-?"
He found me in the evening,
"Dim niben na-?"

 

Though I bought eggs in the morning, he asked in the evening.
But he always chose good eggs for me.
"Dim niben na-?"
"I still have 2 eggs! I will buy tomorrow"
Isn't it interesting life that shop staff knows the number of eggs left in my fridge?

Then, my land load and his family.
They always welcomed me, so I could knock whenever I feel like to visit them.

They often offered tea and meal.
It was good and made me feel at home to have "Bangladeshi family".

My area was said poor area, but this is the place where I had spent 2 years and where I love.
Dhonnobad!

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Well, but actually.........I will be coming back to Bangladesh again.
So this blog will be updated.
Please be with me :) 

NIROB HOTEL

I would like to introduce a famous local restaurant in Old Dhaka.
Especially all the students around the area know the restaurant, I heard.

It is located close to Shahid Minar and along Nazimuddin Road.
If you come to the road, all the people can tell direction, so don't worry.

But even though you come to the restaurant, you may pass over without noticing.

Can you see sign on the picture?

Passing through corridor....

 

Climbed up stairs.
It is on the third floor.
As I heard, long line is often found in front of the restaurant.
I visited around 4pm between lunch time and dinner time, but still needed to wait for a while.

As you get seat, waiter brings many kinds of curry and fried vegetable on a plate.
See how many kinds!?

There were
- Fried mix vegetable
- Fried bitter gourd
- Fried cabbage
- Small shrimp and potato curry
- Mashed green banana with spices
- Cucurbit and egg curry

I sometimes can only find potato & carrot curry, but there are this much of dishes.
Even though staff said many other dishes were already finished.

I didn't take picture of each items, but the right side of the dish....it is chicken curry.
It was more like "Chicken with tomato sauce cooked with spices" than curry as I imagined.
Natural sweetness from tomato...it might be the best chicken curry I had in this 2 years in Bangladesh!!

I could find each dishes have different taste and different spices.
It is difficult to explain....but simply taste good!!
No extra charge of extra plate of rice.
200tk will be enough to try enough kinds of curries.

Try a famous restaurant loved by locals!

NIROB HOTEL
Address: 113/2, Nazimuddin Road, Dhaka
Tel: 01815-468942/02-7300265

Hazi Biriany

There are many famous food in Old Dhaka, and one of them is Biriyani.

Among many Biriyani restaurants, "Hazi Biriany" is the famous one.

 

All Rikshaw pullers also know the restaurant.

I just told a Rikshaw "Hazi Biriany", and he took me there.

It was a road side store where many Rikshaw made line.(and stuck)

So, can you recognize which is the restaurant?

In the front, a guy is sitting with a huge pot.

 

Let me say again, it is the famous restaurant everyone knows.

If you don't know (or even if you know), you may pass the store without noticing.

 

"Welcome!" 

It was between lunch and dinner time, so there was no one.

Menu is very simple.
-Special  160tk
-Normal  140tk
-Half        80tk

Difference is amount.
They only serve mutton Biriyani.

Here you are!

Biriyani in leaf cup.
It is actually for taking out, but I asked to serve it with leaf cup for picture. 
In old time, there wasn't good plate so people use rind of Jack fruit instead of plate.
This leaf cup reminds the old style.

There are a lot of packets and leaf cups on the shelf.

Oh, I forget to mention to the taste!

Though I haven't had enough biriyani in my life to tell about it, but it was good.

Very mild.

Maybe because of ghee(butter made from milk), it has rich taste.

 

If you have chance to visit Old Dhaka, try one of traditional Biriyani.

 

Hazi Biriany

Address: 30/1, Kazi Alauddin Road(Najira Bazaar Chourasta), Dhaka
Tel: 01911233155
Opening Hour: 12pm-11pm