Rajshahi
Evening walks along the Padma at T-Badh and Padma Garden, with sunsets over the river.
Rajshahi grew up on the north bank of the Padma, the name the Ganges takes once it enters Bangladesh. For centuries the river was the city’s road to the rest of Bengal, carrying silk, rice and people, and the old town still sits close to the water.
Today the riverside is the city’s favourite open space. Embankments such as T-Badh and promenades like Padma Garden turn into a long, easy walk in the late afternoon, when families, students and tea sellers come out and the sun sets across the wide river and its sandbanks.
The river changes with the seasons: broad and fast in the monsoon, shrinking in the dry months to channels and pale sandy chars. Either way, an evening here is the simplest way to understand the city.
Start in the late afternoon at the shrine near the river, a few minutes from the bank.
Walk along the riverside towards T-Badh as the heat goes out of the day.
Find a spot by the water and watch the sun go down over the river and the chars.
Finish at a kalai ruti stall in the city with bhorta, hot off the griddle.
Late afternoon to sunset, October to March; in the monsoon the river is at its fullest
Along the city’s riverside, by T-Badh and Padma Garden: a short rickshaw or auto-rickshaw ride from the centre.
