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The Dhaka Sheraton - The hotel kindly had a sticker on the hotel wall pointing out the direction of Mecca.  They also had on hand at the concierge copies of most of the known holy books of the world.  One bathroom wall was devoid of any decoration or appliance except a rather primitive bottle opener about 3 feet from the ground and, in somewhat odd contrast, the minibar was empty unless we solicited its filling. Even though it was tempting to test the utility of the bottle opener, we resisted.

The hotel had decent gym facilities - one whole facility for men and another for women.  The hotel also boldly advertised a swimming pool. I would not have dared use it, except for Felix's strong presence with me.  The hotel provided no dressing gown but expected me to walk from the gym down a passage (also used by security staff and dining-kitchen people ferrying food) and then unwrap myself in full view of a bar and multiple groups of business men seated around the very basic pool.  As discreetly as possible I slunk into the pool and swam very close to my son.  I don't think they really wanted the pool used. It just added to their prestige.

On our way from the airport to the hotel we noticed a large sign advertising Sweetmeats.  Bert found this very odd (confusing sweetmeats with sweetbreads) and when I protested that it was merely another name for a bakery a serious debate started which ended in a 300 taka bet.  (Not too large a risk with about 70 taka = $1).  Wanting to cash in on my bet asap, I asked a young hotel minion in the hotel lobby what the word 'sweetmeat' meant.  What could I buy in that shop?  He thought very hard and then said he'd get back to me.  When I saw him next he had several addresses for me where I could buy sweetmeats!  I had not managed to convey my query clearly.  The issue was resolved, in my favor, naturally, at dinner the following evening.  In fact we should have guessed because there is an area in New Delhi called the Bengali market that is just FULL of shops selling sweetmeats (even if they don't call them that in New Delhi).  There seem to be many varieties of ladoo - small deep fried donut like sweet bread dipped into a delicious sugar syrup - with slightly different shapes and colours, of course, with different names.  My  earnest young hotel friend asked me each time he saw me whether I had found the shop yet and although I hadn't, I could at least honestly tell him that I had tried some of the sweetmeats and found them scrumptious.