Dhaka 3

If I were to describe Dhaka, the title of incredible should not belongs to India.

This is the road in front of my hotel...yes, these were those hon and siren.



If you think Bangkok has bad traffic, at least they congested only with vehicles. Here, can you see the people walking in between fast moving car? They can judge the space and time better than anyone!!



It happened all day long, including night. As Dhaka is facing power shortage since July, most of the street were not light up. The people are invisible at night.

I didn't see any accident in 2 days. Amazing.

The amazement should extend to the public bus, which stop in the middle of the road (you see why the traffic is bad?) to drop the passenger when it is full, to prevent more passenger on board. but nothing can stop them. They chase, run, catch, trying to hold any part of the bus with their life. A moving bus cannot change their determination to board.

I saw one like a "trail" of people besides / behind a moving bus after that was already 50m away from the bus stop. That fellow was dragged on the road with his legs down, then the bus slowing down, so he was back with his foot again, eventually he jumped on it and got the ride.



There were also a lot of beggars knocking on the window asking for money. And many of them were naked or half naked, even the normal road crosser, many wear only sarung (I bet without underwear). I saw one guy scratching his buddy and witness the flash of genius. Yes. In the middle of a cross road.

I stay in a nice room, I eat in a nice restaurant, I complaint the crowded MRT and Bugis village. I will think of Dhaka the next time I complaint, for awhile, but maybe not too much. I empathize them but will not feel blessed myself just because I have a better life than them.

We live in a different world.

Dhaka 2

It is probably my own problem because living in Dhaka city alone is very stress.

The stress originated from too many nothing-better-to-do people staring at you. And too many people doing too little things or even nothing gets done.

We left the hotel at 11am, and back in hotel for dinner at 630pm. There were bloody >6 hours and actually the most productive period was that one hour in 2-3pm. We spent most of our time talking, stuck in the traffic and even more waiting for something (to happen). We even didn't have time for lunch. (?!?!)

Even during that hour when I am fully focus on my job, at least 5 people were surrounding me in that room, and a lot of people moving in and out that room. For those staying, they were either blocking my way while chit chatting, or they were not blocking my way chit chatting.

For those neither, they were blocking my way when they stared at me doing the job. They will stick out their bloody head want to see it (and block my view), or they will stick out their bloody hand to touch it (and mess up my calibration). They certainly placed their curiosity higher priority than for me to get the job done.

The best part was, I asked for a scissors they gave me a plier; I asked for a pen knife they gave me a used surgery blade without handle (I dunno what the blade cut before!! heart? brain? HIV tissue? Hep B+ liver?). And they all stared at me using 2 fingers holding the 1 inch surgery blade to cut open the tape seal on the boxes.

Now is 930pm local time, the hon and siren are simply unbearable.

I miss home already.

Dhaka

I am having a Bangladeshi-flavor moon cake festival in Dhaka.

Checked in the hotel at around 1230am last night. I can't sleep well because the siren and hon from the road started waking me up at 630am. Non-stop since, so I decided to wake up around 8am, damn it.

The expressway and city area is probably the main connection to all area around Dhaka. It was an expressway shared by trucks, city buses, cars, green mini-tutu-bike (don't know what it called) and 3-wheels-bicycle carrying many kilograms of kuli-bao.



Unlike Pakistan, here got no good mango. juice. or dessert. Not sure what to expect from everyday meal, I have mango-meal 3 times a day in Pakistan and Manila. Don't know any local signature fruit or food so far, except the "fried rice" that was just plain rice that were fried. Not very imaginative.

Have not had any real impression to Dhaka yet but it got a bad start because I have to spent my mid-autumn here. I read their newspaper and found this "funny" editorial column talking about the anthrax threat in Bangladesh that spread via the beef. The author said something along this line:

"...when the ministry suggest the people microwave-cook all the beef for meal probably don't know most of his people in rural area cannot afford the microwave....When you got headache, chop your head off so you don't have headache."

Bangkok

When I am still over-clocking my brain to sort out several personal matters, I have duty in Bangkok for 3 days.

At least the hotel view temporarily make me relax. The day and night view from 24th floor of Lebua Hotel at State Tower.





For an equivalent room-type, it is 1/3 the price compared to Shangri-La. I bet Shangri-La don't even include your breakfast and internet in their package. Ban Shangri-La.

Dear Bangkok is a damn busy place with incredible traffic. It is plain tough to drive there. The traffic drama reached its peak on my way to Airport, where the expressway was jammed like city central. Police on duty during off peak hour at 3pm to control the expressway traffic. It took me 90 minutes to go Airport for a 30 minutes journey. Sweat.

I walked along the street to find cheap thai massage, unfortunately, there is no 150 baht massage if Shangri-La is nearby, so sorry. I settled for a 300 baht one for 60minutes, and quickly back in hotel to clear my emails so that it doesn't drown me on Monday next week.

The truth

The truth is, disappointing.

So, plan B now.

The week of truth

KS thinks he is more hardworking than me in blogging. So he came all the way from KL to give me a push here.

The blog has not been updated for weeks, because I write only when I feel like it. So it means I have not been in the mood for a while.

I am a little bit distracted by the heavy traveling (again), and also not in my right mind to blog anything although September 2010 is special to me.

It is my last birthday month in 20s, and the blog 6th anniversary. But that is not all about it yet. I am actually waiting for the application result for my post graduate study, and the final result will be out next week. So the truth will be reveal in the next 5 days.

Last week, I hit the first stumble in application, but a strong recommendation follows. Not sure how much that counts, so all I can do is to believe I deserved it.

It is not difficult to explain the decision going back to school, but it requires understanding for anyone listening to accept it. We spare the reasons for another day, but the bottom line is, I will try my best to fight for it, but not at all cost.

There is only one route at the moment. And frankly, I don't even think of working towards my plan B right now.