Dhaka - Life on Old Harbour Road

Experience Old Harbour Road in Old Dhaka at rush hour is like stepping into a nest of ants. The only difference is the missing order here. Workers are walking with the tools on their shoulders to fix a pothole in the middle of the road, while a rich salesman is sitting on a colourful cycling rickshaw waiting to move another meter. Everybody is moving, while the traffic is standing still. This is the chance for the hawkers to try to convince bored passengers on the cyclo-rickshaws that life will stop without a useful pencil, plastic doll, a single cigarette or a sweet smelling rose. The mixture of an unbelievable heat and the diesel fumes make our eyes burning. Rats are running shameless out of an open air restaurant, while it is not completely clear, if they are unwanted guests or lucky ingredients for the dishes. A rubbish bin is emptied through a window on the second floor directly on to the sidewalk. Today it looks like it will rain and the rubbish should be washed down the road into the river. It didn't rain the last days, what doesn't particularly help to raise the appeal of Old Harbour Road. Thousands of cyclo-rickshaws from all directions are handled by two desperate policemen at the main junction before the harbour. Nobody should call his job stressful except these two poor creatures, although "Life is hard" can be said by almost all people on Old Harbour Road, maybe except me.