Accomplishment #1 of the day: not capsizing. Some friends and I hired a boat out of Sadarghat (Dhaka's main ferry terminal) to take us up and down Buriganga river for a couple hours. The history of the river is hard to reliably report (as with many things history-related here), but I believe it used to be a course of the Ganges. Or so Wikipedia tells me.

Anyway, we're warned as tourists to never take a ferry in Bangladesh. This warning especially refers to Dhaka, where the ferries are routinely overloaded with people, cargo, buses, etc. and are in danger of capsizing or sinking. Yes, straight up sinking. So, what did we do... but hire a launch instead.

For 4 taka (about 5-6 cents), we bought admission to the boat terminal. Then, we talked to a couple launch rowers and settled on a price of 200 tk/hour for a cruise. Many boats hang around the terminal waiting for passengers to cross the river (though today was a bit quiet, because it's both the weekend and Ramadan); the only bridge in the area is quite a distance downstream. Below is one picture while we were leaving the terminal. Many more are on Picasa, and will do the trip better justice than my words.