Now in Bogra. Had a bad day yesterday. I made 19 separate journeys.
Firstly I left Rajshihi for Puthia. At Puthia I visited the big Shiva Temple where I met a Japanese girl and her guide- the only tourist I have seen since leaving Dhaka. The caretaker showed us the large blackstone phallus which he had proudly oiled. He wanted to show me around but I escaped and walked off to the once stately Puthia Palace. It is huge and ornate but so dilapidated. It had once been a college and amazingly enough some of the rooms are still used as classrooms. I had the pleasure of being shown around by 3 delightful 7 year olds who made sure I didn't miss any thing. There were other ornate temples inside and around. The village had a good friendly atmosphere. I stopped for a tea with ginger near the vegetable market.
At the kindergarten the children were being transported home in their version of a school bus - a cycle rickshaw to carry 4 children either side. I shall post the picture.
Then I asked a rickshaw driver to take me to the bus to Natore. At the junction he pointed to a bus that was just leaving and said Natore bus. I quickly got on saying Natore? Yes yes and they grabbed my backpack and took at to the back of the bus. Once there a man started talking and asked where I was going. I said Natore. He informed me that the bus was going back to Rajshihi, where I had come from! Then the bus refused to stop to let me off for about 20 minutes. Really annoying.
So eventually got another bus on to Natore. There I rickshawed to on of the many rajbiris (palaces) there. When they tried to charge me 50 times more than the locals I refused and walked away.
After a refreshing coconut drink I rickshawed to some other rajbiris where I met 6 charming 17 year olds who had been playing cricket and who could speak reasonable English. They told me they learnt at school as they had a good teacher. They wanted to tell the history. That the king had built 2 extra rajbiris for for his 2 sons. One son was good but he died. The other son was bad and drank alcohol and misbehaved. Then the British took over the palaces and they became ruins. The British seem to still be blamed for an awful lot if things.
Then I rickshawed to get the bus to Bogra my final destination that day.
On the bus just about to leave, on of the lads got on and said 'Please come with me and I'll take you to the ? Rajbiri'. He was so upset that they wanted to charge foreign or so much. It was so kind but I had to say no as I needed to get to Bogra before dark.
The LP book said the journey would take 2 hours and I asked the man next to me and he said 2 hours. After about one and a half hours I noticed that the bus had emptied out. Then a fellow came over to me and I said Bogra? He said Bogra back there. Oh **** not again. Again the bus refused to stop but I realise now that he was going on to another junction. There they put me on a shared auto rickshaw and insisted on paying.
Eventually I reached the YMCA where I had booked. The 3 bedded room was grubby but the staff tried very hard. The beds were very hard and the pillows like boulders so I put the covers of the other two beds under me which made it ok. What can you expect for £2.50. My iPhone was dead so I put it on to charge while I went out to eat at Red Chillies which was a good restaurant with a guest house above. I had called before but they said they' were full. Had a delicious meal of spicy vegetables with chicken served by a gorgeous waiter. I was pleased to book a room for the next night.
Back to my room i found that my phone had not charged, possibly because of the worn out lead. So took rickshaw back to town and stopped at a Samsung shop for advice. The young man told me where I could get a new lead and phoned ahead for me.
Another Rickshaw ride (it is good that they only cost10p for a short ride and I generously always pay double, 20p for goodness sake!) found me at the mobile mart where I bought a new lead with a Bangladeshi plug for less than £2. Then back to the Y and the thing still wouldn't charge. Everything is on that phone and I couldn't access anything. Tried everything but no. So back to the shop all in the dark. They fiddled around and it was still playing up. At last it seemed to be charging and back I went.
At the Y the people there and some guests were desperate to speak with me but I had to make my apologies. I was so tired. At first the phone still didn't charge but I changed to another socket and it worked. It is still playing up and yesterday I wrote this blog and lost it when the IPhone crashed. Perhaps it just didn't like the blog eh!