---
type: Place
title: Dhaka
description: The capital of Bangladesh and, by Harry's account, the most densely populated city on earth — 22 million people, markets with railways running through them, and the best first impression he says he has had anywhere.
tags: [dhaka, bangladesh, markets, street-food, rickshaws, density, garments]
coordinates: {lat: 23.7644, lng: 90.3890}
timestamp: 2026-08-05T12:00:00Z
---

# Dhaka

The capital of [Bangladesh](/countries/bangladesh.md), 22 million people, and
the most densely populated city in the world by Harry's reckoning. He had
passed through the country before without coming into the city, and his verdict
after one day is that it is the best first impression he has had anywhere — not
for anything he saw, but because in a full day of crowded markets nobody was in
a bad mood.

His Dhaka is the old city and the market districts. There is no sightseeing in
it at all.

## What Harry did

Walked the old city and the biggest market in Dhaka, drank sugarcane juice off
a press, asked his way to a chicken biryani, crossed town on a cycle rickshaw
and tried to pedal it himself, and worked New Market for a cricket shirt.

## The markets

The main market runs from fresh produce through a fish section you smell before
you see, into carpenters and steel workers — and a live railway line runs
straight through the middle of it, which anyone can and does walk along. Quiet
at the weekend by local standards, which still means dense.

**New Market** is the copies and clothing quarter: a maze of stalls with
football and cricket jerseys, shoes and bags. Two categories worth telling
apart:

- **Counterfeits**, which the sellers themselves say come from China.
- **"First copy"** — genuine factory stock from the brands that manufacture in
  Bangladesh. A real Zara jacket sold at 800 taka, about eight dollars, fixed
  price.

Bargaining is expected everywhere else: a shirt opened at 400 went for 300.

## Street food

- **Chicken biryani** — 150 taka, about $1.50, oily and soft with a boiled egg
  buried in it, served with a sweet, creamy fish sauce Harry expected to be
  spicy and wasn't. Found by asking, not by searching. No cutlery: you eat with
  your hand.
- **Sugarcane juice**, pressed through a cog-driven contraption with steam
  coming off it, about 20 US cents. Expect wasps all over the crushed cane.

## The university district

Harry's rule for finding street food in Dhaka: go where the students are. The
stalls around the University of Dhaka have no fixed pitch and aren't listed
anywhere — you find them by walking — and they cluster there because that's
where the customers are. Battered fried mushrooms, chicken chop, and momos both
steamed and fried off a cart mounted on wheels. The fried momos, which he
compares to chicken nuggets, are the pick.

## Chawk Bazar

Wholesale rather than retail: this is where the city's small shopkeepers come
to buy their stock. Bangles and women's accessories, cards, flowers, sweets and
food, packed tight enough that Harry says you have to watch every step.

Behind the shopfronts are mini-factories — soap, eggs, confectionery — which
visitors get walked into without ceremony. One stood idle while he was there,
because there was no income coming in on that side. Children work in some of
them.

## Street barbers

Working directly on the pavement, with a chair, a mirror, scissors, antiseptic
cream and toothpaste. The order is scissors first to set the line, then
antiseptic, then shaving cream, then a fresh blade opened in front of you, then
the neck.

Thirty taka — about thirty cents. A shop a street away had quoted 350 for the
same thing.

## Staying there

The InterContinental in Old Dhaka is the top of the market — around $200 a
night, which Harry calls the most luxurious hotel in the city and possibly the
country. Outdoor pool with a screen at the water, gym, spa at about $85 for
sixty minutes, steam room and sauna switched on to order with an hour's notice,
and a business centre.

Two things worth knowing beyond the brochure. The Wi-Fi runs at 47 Mbps, which
Harry says is remarkable for a large five-star — the big ones are usually worse
than the small ones. And the location is the argument for it: Old Dhaka is
where the markets and the street life are, so you are not commuting in from a
modern district. There is beer in the minibar, and more greenery visible from
the window than he says he has seen in any city.

Breakfast is worth eating local. Alongside the Western spread there is a full
Bengali section — paneer, poha, sambar, jeera aloo, mutton nihari and chicken
tikka masala at breakfast — plus beef bacon and beef sausage in place of pork,
and lassi. Room-service chicken tikka masala runs 1,600 taka, about $15, and is
markedly spicier than the British version of the dish.

## What ten dollars buys

Harry ran his $10 challenge here on a budget of 1,000 taka and spent it exactly:

| | |
|---|---|
| Jalebi | 20 |
| Salted mint lemonade | 60 |
| Beef pulao | 150 (given free; counted anyway) |
| Head and back massage | 300 |
| Burberry jumper, first copy | 500 |

Notes from the run: biryani and pulao vats are cooked elsewhere in the city and
delivered, so the shop you eat at is a serving point rather than a kitchen.
Back-street gents' parlours do a head, arm and back massage for 300 taka with
no oil at all — pure friction — and will trim your arm hair if they think you
need it. And a copy jumper at 500 was fixed price; shoes were quoted at 2,000.

New Market on a Sunday is as crowded as the city gets, to the point that Harry
says he was pushed around and found it overwhelming.

## The fish market

Harry's own tip, and he states it as a general rule rather than a one-off —
it has since become the [walk into the fish market](/tips/walk-into-the-fish-market.md)
page: the
people in a fish market are the friendliest anywhere, and almost every visitor
walks straight past. Dhaka's stinks, is full of live fish, goats and enormous
blocks of ice — which he points out is the same ice going into the street
drinks — and gave him the best reception of the day.

## Getting around

Cycle rickshaws — no motor of any kind, pedalled all day — and they beat the
cars through the traffic. Harry asked to take over the pedals, was politely
refused, was eventually allowed, and found it extremely hard work. He notes
that he almost certainly overpaid and that the driver had earned it.

## Harry's tips

- Ask people where to eat rather than looking it up. The biryani came from a
  chain of strangers pointing.
- Learn which language you're in. Harry's Hindi and Urdu reflexes kept coming
  out and he had to keep correcting himself.
- Know what "first copy" means before you bargain — sometimes it's the real
  factory item.
- Overpay the rickshaw drivers. There's no engine.
- But don't assume a tip is welcome. Bangladesh is one of the places people
  decline them — see [insist on paying](/tips/insist-on-paying.md) — and hand
  money over with the right hand.
- Eat around the university. That's where the stalls are, and they aren't
  findable any other way.
- Start in Gulshan if you need English. It's the modern district and where the
  English speakers are.
- Walk. Harry gave up trying to get a lift because the traffic made two feet
  faster.

## Source

- [First Impressions of DHAKA, Bangladesh (Busiest City on Earth) 🇧🇩](/videos/yRqxNlu-dRs.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRqxNlu-dRs
- [$200 Street Shave in Bangladesh 🇧🇩](/videos/8Y7Cxkq9II4.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y7Cxkq9II4
- [The Most Expensive Hotel In Dhaka, Bangladesh ($200) 🇧🇩](/videos/V2d4MUNKqcE.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2d4MUNKqcE
- [Chaotic $10 Challenge in Dhaka, Bangladesh 🇧🇩](/videos/4g2DnFX1R78.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g2DnFX1R78
- [I Survived 24 Hours in Dhaka, Bangladesh with No Money 🇧🇩](/videos/znFaw0GnSRw.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znFaw0GnSRw