Gulshan and impressions from the first fortnight

Easily I went two weeks without even leaving the district where we live - for two exceptions for going climbing and getting a SIM card. In this time I already had awesome food and could experience what traffic means. But let us start at the beginning.

The Diplomatic District

Usually I get woken up shortly after 4AM, when the first call for prayer of the day sounds through the city. The nearest source of that inadvertent wake-up call is a mosque, whose design does remind me a lot of the SLUB¹ in Dresden. For breakfast there is even coffee that is roasted locally by the “North End” chain, I also heard there is a variety of beans harvested in the country. If it is a workday I go directly back to the desk. But on weekends, which here means Friday and Saturday, going outside is rather the norm.

Once I leave the apartment and take the lift downstairs, I walk past the guards through the usually locked entrance gateway and already see the first diplomatic building in front of me. Directly next to it is the jogging park, very useful to get a few steps in when I was in home office the whole day. In this park you can measure your run with a one kilometer long path that was explicitly marked for its visitors, who mostly opt for simply walking in their running shoes. Spending the time going round and round is accompanied by the beautiful view of the jungle-like flora with some cats being the cherry on top. Late at night you could even see some gracious people feeding them all together.

Back to going outside one would not even consider crossing the park but instead choose one of the many rikschas in the vicinity. With three wheels and either pedals or nowadays even an electrical drive they are sure to let you know they are free and can bring you anywhere in a short distance. Their confidence in navigating the chaotic traffic on Dhaka’s streets lets you arrive definitely faster than going by foot. There are some more alternatives to taking a walk, which I will probably get into in a future post.

For us the goal is mostly Gulshan circle, which is not really a roundabout but rather an intersection and on top of that the only one of the city with traffic lights. Towering around the circle are highrise buildings, shops, and restaurants which leave no culinary desire unfulfilled. So far I had the opportunity to try the local chinese, japanese, arabic, and italian cuisine as well as visit a bakery that offers not only bagels, but also croissants and sourdough bread.

Assuming you are not encumbered by shopping bags and decide to take a leisurely walk back home, you will notice the area is more of the posh variety by the way the apartment buildings are designed. Lots of visible concrete, balconies surrounded by glass, guards and gates on most entryways to the buildings. But the most apparent indicator is the sheer number of fibre cables which span trees and rival local plants in their spread along the street, possibly due to the cables being introduced quite recently.

Back at home you get cordially greeted by Findus, the apartment cat. Or at least that is how you interpret the meowing, because it is very likely he is merely distracted by the birds you can see perched on some metal bars outside of our window, tweeting excitedly about this and that.