Dhaka Broiler House

It’s been a long while since my last post…… haven’t done anything much….. shoot a bit, set up my darkroom finally, develop some films (still have six rolls on my table at the moment) and been busy at work…….. and more importantly planning my trip to Krungthep.

Was browsing thru my Dhaka trip photographs…….. and saw this one……. from the wet market in Gulshan 2. So rather than prolong the “no activity” here, I’ve decided to share it with the world……

Maowa

Maowa is small village by the banks of River Padma, which started off as the Ganges in India. Located in Munshiganj Thana, it is approximately 44 kilometres to the west of Dhaka.

As the road network in Bangladesh is still not well developed, Maowa is the ferry point to get across the wide and open river. The significance of this ferry point is that it decreases the travelling distance with the southern region of the country. It is said that it takes only 5-5.5 hours to reach Khulna if you travel through Maowa whereas the other routes more or less double the travelling time.

The Ferry Terminal, none of those state of the art technology. You pay for your ticket at a chicken coop and then jump into the awaiting ferry.

The convenience store….. buy somethings for your relatives and loved ones back home here. Sorry, no duty free shops available.

Dine at the best restaurant in the area…….. at your own risk.

You can also opt to travel in luxury on the river limousine, but don’t trust the captain when he says the boat is equipped with life jackets. I am still waiting for him to show them.

The colour photograph is from my Canon G9, the only digital camera that I bring along now whenever I go out shooting.

Travel on the best ferry money can buy, and enjoy the 360 view on its viewing deck.

Faces of Dhaka

After a short interval with some photographs from Saigon, which I will continue in the future, let’s go back to Dhaka.

Not sure if I can classify the photos as portraits …….

Tailors of Gulshan 1

Curiosity gets your picture taken

Saleskid, Newmarket

Samosa sellers, Gulshan 1

Workers @ Textile shop, Gulshan 2

Another Saleskid, Vegetable Stall. Gulshan 1

Ricksha-Wala

Trishaws…… here, there and everywhere

Like I wrote in my first posting on Dhaka, I have decided to dedicate this post to the 1/2 a million trishaws in Dhaka. May they never stop pedaling…….. in the “Trishaw (Rickshaw) Capital of the World”.

Newmarket

Badda

Tejgaon

Dhanmondi

Dhanmondi

Badda

And the last one in colour……

Newmarket

btw, if you notice….. the lungi aka sarong aka kain pelikat aka dhoti is the standard issued attire for the ricksha-wala.

Between Kamalapur and Tongi

Bangladesh Rail must be the most unreliable train service that I have ever rode. I managed to ride them from Dhaka’s central station in Kamalapur to a small town in the out skirt of Dhaka, Tongi.

Tongi is where the Biswa Ijtema is held, where an estimated five million people from the Tabligh movement congregate annually around January.

Coming back to the most unreliable train service. It seems that nobody knows when will the train depart….. the information desk, the ticket counter and even the locomotive driver (and that was after a delay of half an hour). And btw, make sure you asked for your ticket at the counter if the person manning it suddenly has a memory lapse and doesn’t give you one. And if you want to ride for free, you can have the best view, either on the locomotive or on the roof of the carriages.

Two camera were used a R4A and M6, two film; Neopan 1600 and HP5+ and two lens; a 21mm and 35mm.

boys of Kamalapur

Alone

Man and Lady

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welcome to Tongi

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boys of Tongi

Dhaka: Gulshan 2

I was in Dhaka in February 2011, didn’t actually do ‘moment capturing’ the way I like to do them, as I was kind of chaperoning my family, my sister in law and mother in law.

Gulshan 2 doesn’t actually show you the real Dhaka, it is where most of the expatriates live in this city of half a million trishaws, well, officially they say there are only 80,000…..

Confrontation?

Tailors of Dhaka I

Tailors are everywhere in this city…… this one is just by the roadside outside the Gulshan 2 Market. I do have them in colour……. maybe in another post.

3 men and the Boss

Roadside fruit sellers

And something in colour in Gulshan 2

Drink…… at your own risk, btw…… the cha / tea was superb

Fishmongers…….

The places I visit according to me………

Why do I say this?

The photographs here are my shots of the moment I was there….. not before or after. You can call my shots whatever, be it street photography, candid, urbanscape or potrait, they came out from what I see…..

Within this next few days or weeks, I will upload photos from my previous visits to Krungthep Mahanakorn, Hong Kong, Dhaka, Saigon and also places around Malaysia.

For my first post I’ve uploaded a photograph taken between Kamalapur and Tongi in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Wished the train ride was longer……..

The shot was taken with a Voigtlander R4A, CV Color Skopar 21mm and Fujifilm Neopan 1600.