Bangladesh – Bagerhat: Tame Crocodiles, 17 extra domes, and another bus ride…

The morning after our awesome Sunderbans trip, I caught this bus from Khulna to Bagerhat.

The bus was pretty empty, so I threw my bags aboard and made my way to the shop on the other side of the car park for snacks and mum. 

It's lead and arsenic free!

In the two minutes that I was standing there considering what to buy, the bus had filled up with people and luggage, and started driving out of the terminal. Luckily I turned around in time, ran for it, and managed to swing aboard with far more panache than is to be expected from a man of my size and coordination. Bangladeshi buses wait for no man, even if you have your mum with you.

Bagerhat

Bagerhat is a UNESCO protected world heritage sight, and was built in the 15th century by Khan Jahan Ali, who was a Sufi (mystic) originally from Turkey. I'm sure he didn't actually build it himself, but he gets to take credit for all the hours of backbreaking labour that his servants and slaves put into building it. That's generally how history works.

There were heaps of Bangladeshi tourists looking at the ruins and the mosques, but I didn't see any other foreigners. Bangladeshis love having their photos taken with foreigners, and I think most of them were more interested in me than the various sights.

The Shait Gumbad Mosque


The most notable of the buildings in Bagerhat is the Shait Gumbad mosque. Shait Gumbad means 'temple with 60 domes', even though it actually has 77. 17 extra domes or not, it is pretty cool.

At Shait Gumbad, I ran into Thufill (a Bangladeshi kid from the Sunderbans trip), his father Metoo, and their family. Unfortunately, I've forgotten the names of his mother and sister. I found it really difficult to remember Bangladeshi names, probably because most of them aren't commonly found in English, e.g Arifur, Mani, Faisal, Mahamut etc. This led to a bit of confusion. I thought that when Metoo said 'metoo', he was explaining that his name was Thufill as well. 'My name is Thufill'. 'Me too'.

Metoo and his lovely family adopted me for the day. We went to see the excavations of Khan Jahan Ali's house, which are situated right in the middle of a field where local Bangladeshi farmers live.

Khan Jahan Ali's house

The local farmers collect sap from these trees. You can drink it straight out of the tree and it's delicious.

Sapping

   

These villagers were a little bit surprised to see a foreigner. They invited me for lunch, but unfortunately I was in a bit of a hurry and trying to avoid catching a bus at night. I still kind of regret not accepting actually.

We then went to see the Tomb of Khan Jahan Ali.

The tomb of Khan Jahan Ali also boasts a rather unusual tourist attraction. Two 'tame' crocodiles.

In Bagerhat tame means well fed. They throw them heaps of mutton, with the idea being that they will be too full to bother eating anybody. Makes sense I guess. You can walk right up to them and touch them too. When in Bangladesh…

 

Luckily, Bangladeshi crocs aren't used to foreigners, so they're not aware that we're delicious.


Source: https://joeliscurious.wordpress.com/tag/joel-vinsen/