Monday, February 25, 2008
first days in bangladesh
i'm safe! =)
dhaka isn't as bad as i tot it would be. i mean, 2 engineers spoke to me abt the country on fri. 1st one said, "i've been there 3 times and nv wanna go again. you shouldn't go too." n later went on to elaborate that the moment he stepped outta the airport, hoards of pple would crowd round him - to help? to steal? you wouldn't know... 2nd engineer sat me down and said with dead pan seriousness, "its a islamic country. you should nv wear skirts. you should know wat to wear... avoid jewellery too." countless of colleagues kept repeating: be careful, take care.
so far, it really hasn't been all too bad. for starters, the airport wasn't as scary as described. we had airport pickup and the hotel rep was even quite dashing. haha =p there was smog. ok, that i can accept. no traffic lights or marked lanes on the roads, but roadside lights are still considered sufficient.
our hotel is in the commercial district, surrounded by universities, so the crowd here is rather young. the hotel's up to expectations, with the exception of the lousy water heating system - it alternates from cold to warm to scorching hot and back to cold again despite me not adjusting anything. so that sux since taking nice long hot baths is one of those things i look fwd to in staying in a hotel... oh well. oh yah, power failure is common. just today, think it went off 5times or so. but it'll always return in like 1 min, so not that much of a worry.
food is one of the main concerns before coming here, which explains why i packed quite alot of food supply as compared to nothing for bangkok. buT! turns out that we have free food every 2 hours. breakfast 830, tea 1030, lunch 1230 (ok, this aint free), tea 1530, and late tea again 1730 after class ends. thats why i've been skipping dinner this 2 days... yay, can save money and eat safe hotel food =)
going outta the hotel, however, isn't very fun. the streets are crowded, the traffic is bad and honking is a national pastime. 95% of the people on the streets are men, and they just STARE. everywhere we go, every single one of them STARE, whether they're walking past us or hanging out on the opposite side. i mean, its quite harmless but its not very comfortable.... so i keep my eyes on the ground (which actually needs much attention to not fall), avoid eye contact and grasp tightly to my bag. every going out experience so far (which is only 4times) has been tensed and stressful because you hafta be alert and on guard all the time - to the people, the traffic, your belongings, just everything! hopefully it'll get better after awhile, ie i'll get more used to it. we just went out for abt 2hours this evening, and i was so tired when we reached back... my colleagues felt the same too. its like a big sigh of relief back in the hotel.
oh guess wat?? =) our bangladeshi colleagues brought us to this shopping place just 15min walk away from our hotel and i bought a bright orange salwar kameez (otherwise known as punjabi suit)! i'm happy with my buy =) only abt 28sgd for a 3piece. maybe i can blend in better with the locals after this... haha, fat hope la since its real bright orange. will post pics when i wear it =)
so yahz... everythings been pretty good so far la. as long as i dun fall sick, dun get mugged / raped n dun get into any kinda accident, it should turn out to be a good trip. but its only day2 now! gambatte!
~~~ Angela 11:36 PM
