The main street of Painam Nagar looks haunted.
Empty decaying old buildings, spooky beckoning doorways–the whole street looked like a horror movie set.
Later, when I found my way into one of the buildings, the few people who were around yelled to me to come out because the building was, in fact, haunted. Or maybe they were saying it was structurally unsound. I’m not quite adjusted to the Bengali accent yet.
I really wanted to get inside these grand old mansions, but padlocks, chains, and boarded-up windows and doors discouraged me. Then I had an idea: ask the local children. Kids always know how to get into abandoned buildings.
I consulted the appendix to the Lonely Planet, which consists of five pages of useful Bengali phrases. Amazingly, “Can you help me break into this building?” is not one of them. (I will have to alert the LP editors to this obvious oversight.) So using gestures and pantomime, I managed to convey to the gaggle of kids that always seems to condense around me here what I wanted. Ten taka helped seal the deal, and soon I was wandering around inside (and on top of) these magnificent ruins.
My day in Painam Nagar was the highlight of my trip to Bangladesh.
(Back to Painam Nagar, Part 1)
truly incredible. what a unique insight, and such a treasure for us, your adoring fans. I assume that you have no problem with me sharing your blog with my daughter? she has an insatiable dose of wanderlust.
Julie, I would be honored to have this shared with your daughter. Or anyone else. Thanks for your kind words.
Amazing photos Jim. Absolutely stunning. Thank you for sharing your talents with us. Monica
Very interesting stories of your trip and the sights and people you ran across. Keep telling them.
Incredibly beautiful photos! Can I use some of them in our website with photo credit to you?
In case anyone is interested about visiting this colonial period abandoned city in Bangladesh, you can find a day tour here: http://nijhoom.com/bangladesh-tour/bangladesh-old-capital-tour/
Raw, I would be honored it you chose to use some of my photos on your website. Please go ahead. I look forward to seeing my first photo credits.
Thanks a lot! I see some very beautiful photos of Bangladesh in your recent posts about Bangladesh. Surely I’ll use some with credit to you and let you know.
As you are writing about Bangladesh, I welcome you to write a summery post (trip report) about your whole Bangladesh tour with some of these beautiful photos. I’d like to publish it in http://nijhoom.com for our readers under the travel story section in your name and with a link to your blog here. People who are interested to hear more from you will come to your site to read more and you’ll get some more readers. Let me know what do you think.
And last bust not least, thank you very much for taking time to write the wonderful review about Nijhoom Tours in TripAdvisor! It will help us a lot.
O.T. Set a photo in Gravatar of you with the email address you are using here, so that your photos will be shown in your comments here. That will look good.
Cool stuff Jim! This is my favourite blog of yours from your holiday. Great photographs too.