The last lot of photos from the Dhaka Scott Kelby PhotoWalk on 23rd Aug:

First batch of 20 images from yesterday's photowalk : click the thumbnails for a larger version.

Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk, Dhaka Bangladesh, 23rd August 2008 led by David Mckee. A great morning, met a lot of new people and many very good photographers. The Walk was interesting especially to go out to an area of the city that I do not visit often. people on the street were really friendly, though a bit curious as to what a whole bunch of camera-toting people were suddenly doing there! As part of the walk, a friend and I also took a boat trip up and back the Buriganga. It was fascinating to note, that there are pre-defined «lanes» for the small passenger row-boats to cross across from one side to the other bank. It is a busy river, with barges, ferries, sand-boats, and boats of all shapes and sizes...that this system of orderly boat-traffic makes it as safe as possible.

The back-lanes in the Sadarghat and Old Dhaka areas were so full of life! Everyone with a purpose. No one seemed to be «just there» or strolling. The streets were crowded, as expected in a city with one of the highest population densities in the world. Rickshaws, pull-carts, push-carts, a few horse driven buggies, even a few cars in those narrow lanes! I have one photo, in this set showing the scrape-marks of vehicular traffic along the wall of a lane.

All in all, a great morning well spent!

Participated in the Scott Kelby World-Wide Photo-Walk today....

We met at Ahsan Manzil Museum [The Pink Palace] in Old Dhaka near Sadarghat on the banks of the Buriganga, and separated into groups to re-group at 10 AM.

Great experience! Met many new people. Will post photos once processed and posted to the Flickr group online.....

A trip to Sonargaon, around 30 KM from Dhaka city.... the ancient Capital now in ruins. Like a ghost town, the homeless living in abandoned buildings. Buildings that were probably majestic and stately at one time, now crumbling in neglect, robbed of their ornate carved doors and windows, full of rubbish and the homeless... pathetic but still beautiful. The old Hindu temples and the Havalis in a similar state of disrepair.

We had first made a stop at Sadarghat, the jetty on the banks of the [very highly polluted!] Buriganga..... it was disgusting. The stench from the river, the jetty and the street was overpowering and so we made a hasty retreat to the car and were off to Sonargaon as quick as we could. Here are a few images from Sadarghat - we stepped on to the jetty the ferries were coming in [or leaving?, or both?].
   

THANKS HEATHER & STEIN. Great trip!