After visiting most of South-East Asia, it was time to tackle a new region in the world for me. Being situated just west of Myanmar, Bangladesh seemed to be the perfect next stop. This time it was not possible to cross the border by land because of the Rohingya refugee situation the land border between Myanmar and Bangladesh is closed to tourists. So I needed to take a relatively expensive (160 €) flight from Yangon to Dhaka, which takes only about 1 h. Bangladesh is almost surrounded by India from the land side and has only a short border with Myanmar. It is one of the 8 countries of the most populated region in the word – South-Asia (consists of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan). 
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh with the population of 19 million people. For each square kilometre, there are 46.000 people, which makes the city the most densely populated city in the whole world. It is almost twice as dense as for example Mumbai in India. Bangladesh itself is also high up in the list of countries by population density. Bangladesh takes the 12th position there, but if you do not count really small countries (and city-states like Monaco, Macau or Vatican City) then Bangladesh takes the 1st spot in there as well. The population of Bangladesh is 165 million people. And these numbers are growing rapidly. The estimation is that by 2025, Dhaka will be home to 25 million people. At the same time, it is one of the poorest megacities. Bangladesh has been colonised and part of the British East Indian Company for about 200 years (from 1757 until 1946). After that, it was unified with Pakistan and called East Pakistan until the War of Independence in 1971. Bangladesh is also a deeply religious country, with 90% of the people are following Islam.
Photo. Regular traffic jam in the streets of Old Dhaka. 
Photo. Most common means of transportation in Dhaka – rickshaws. 
Photo. Ahsan Manzil.
Photo. Lalbagh Killa Fort.
Photo. National Parliament main building on the right side of the picture. 
Photo. Cow market in the centre of Dhaka as seen from the bridge. 
Photo. Sunset with the boat traffic on the Buriganga river. 
Photo. Sunset as seen from the roof of my hostel.
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh with the population of 19 million people. For each square kilometre, there are 46.000 people, which makes the city the most densely populated city in the whole world. It is almost twice as dense as for example Mumbai in India. Bangladesh itself is also high up in the list of countries by population density. Bangladesh takes the 12th position there, but if you do not count really small countries (and city-states like Monaco, Macau or Vatican City) then Bangladesh takes the 1st spot in there as well. The population of Bangladesh is 165 million people. And these numbers are growing rapidly. The estimation is that by 2025, Dhaka will be home to 25 million people. At the same time, it is one of the poorest megacities. Bangladesh has been colonised and part of the British East Indian Company for about 200 years (from 1757 until 1946). After that, it was unified with Pakistan and called East Pakistan until the War of Independence in 1971. Bangladesh is also a deeply religious country, with 90% of the people are following Islam.Transportation and traffic
Dhaka is filled with cars, rickshaws (both motorised and cyclo), motorbikes, trucks, carts etc. I booked my accommodation a little bit further away from the city centre in an area called Gulshan. It takes an incredibly long time to get from Gulshan to the city centre. The riverside where I was going was 14 km away and to get there with a CNG (motorised tuk-tuk, rickshaw) took me 2,5 hours on the first time! The traffic is just that insane. There is basically no room on the streets. All the vehicles have extra bumpers installed just because they are bumping into each other constantly. The sides of the buses are totally scratched and ruined. The CNG’s I was taking were actually driving into other vehicles when I was in them. The local city buses do not stop but only slow down so that people can jump on. There are no other public means of transportation besides taking the bus or hiring a taxi/CNG/rickshaw. Traffic in Dhaka and in Bangladesh is absolutely the densest and craziest I have ever experienced. The traffic in places like Vietnam and India is nothing compared to Bangladesh. Photo. Regular traffic jam in the streets of Old Dhaka. Photo. Most common means of transportation in Dhaka – rickshaws. Old Dhaka
Old Dhaka which is the centre of the city lies right next to the Buriganga river. Some of the small streets there are so congested that it is really complicated to walk. I was constantly squeezing through and between bicycles, rickshaws, cargo “trucks” and people. Besides the vehicles and the people, there are chicken, dogs and cows roaming around freely. The riverside is also packed with a lot of activity. Even the traffic on the river itself is also pretty dense. So in order to experience the local life, then all you need to do is to go for a walk in the city. It is a great way to see the locals living their daily lives. Besides just walking around the city there is also possible to visit some point of interests.- Ahsan Manzil (Pink Palace ). It was an official residential palace until 1901. Since 1985 it is home to Dhaka National Musem. Ahsan Manzil is one of the most significant architectural monuments of Bangladesh. The Pink Palace was closed though on the day I wanted to go there but I saw the building from the gate.
Photo. Ahsan Manzil.- Lalbagh Killa (Fort). The construction of the fort started in 1678 but it was never finished. At the moment there is a large park beside some completed buildings inside of the Fort grounds. It is a nice place to have a rest and more quiet time away from the bustling city streets.
Photo. Lalbagh Killa Fort.- Bangladesh National Museum. A big building with several floors filled with information and items describing both national and political history. It takes a couple of hours to visit all of it and I enjoyed it a lot.
- National Parliament House. The complex is the largest legislative complex in the world. It is not possible to get really close to the main building which has a fascinating architecture but it is possible to see it from a bit further away.
Photo. National Parliament main building on the right side of the picture. Tourism
International tourism is basically non-existent in Bangladesh. Actually, it is one of the least visited countries in the world per capita. I managed to experience it firsthand since I saw “white people” only a couple of times throughout the whole 2,5 weeks I spent in Bangladesh. It is in an interesting experience for sure since also having blond hair colour I got a lot of looks and stares almost all the time. Even though Bangladesh is not the first on the list for many people there a lot of interesting sights and things to do. Beautiful nature in the north-east region, cultural and historical sites in the north-west region, longest unbroken beach in the world in the south-east region and the biggest mangrove forest in the whole world in the south-west region. Since I managed to visit the north-east and south-east regions, then more about these places already in the following blog posts.Price level
Based on my research before heading to Bangladesh I got the impression that the country is really “cheap” to visit. Even cheaper than India and famous Thailand and Vietnam in South-East Asia. My first days in the country turned out to be not THAT cheap though. Here is a little breakdown of my expenses on the first days:- Taxi to the hostel from the airport (pretty close) – 250 taka (2.5 €)
- CNG to the city centre (2 hours trip) – 500 taka (5 €)
- Snacks from a supermarket in Gulshan district (“fancy area of the city”) – 200..300 taka for cookies (2..3 €)
- Cheap restaurant food (chicken biryani) – 200 taka (2 €)
- Hotel (dorm bed in Dhaka) – 13 €/night
Photo. Cow market in the centre of Dhaka as seen from the bridge. Future of Dhaka
In general, Dhaka is economically successful comparing to some neighbouring countries. More and more investments are coming in and growth is exponential. At the same time, more and more people move to already congested Dhaka from the rural areas in search of better opportunities. Being the fastest growing city in the world it faces many problems to solve, with the main one being the infrastructure. One of the solutions could be building metro and Skytrain systems. Overpopulation also results in difficulties in topics like public health care, access to pure drinking water and pollution levels. Besides that, Bangladesh is also strongly being affected by global climate change. The rising sea levels are already washing away and taking land in the Chittagong region. This combined with the countries location on the planes of the Ganges Delta (80% of the land is floodplain) means that the country is at risk of being flooded in enormous capacities each year. If the leaders of Bangladesh manage to tackle the infrastructure and overpopulation problems successfully in the upcoming years then the country might have a great future.Video
But enough of writing and talking. The best feeling about the city can be given by images and especially moving ones. Here is a video of my visit to Dhaka!Sunset
During my time in Dhaka, I managed to capture some great sunsets as well. Photo. Sunset with the boat traffic on the Buriganga river. Photo. Sunset as seen from the roof of my hostel.