Bye-bye Bangladesh, hello india!

Yesterday I got up at 5:30 am to catch a bus to India from Dhaka. For the gigantic price of about 11 dollars, I took a 12 hour ride in an a/c bus (well two buses actually). Now you would think in the span of 12 hours, one would go a looong way. Well I will put it this way: it would have taken less than 2 hours to fly between the two cities (closer to 90 minutes) and it took 2.5 hours to go about 75 KM here in India. Long live the developing world!

Anyway, I had a farewell party of four: Rizvi, his older brother, Shaffiullah, and Shafiullah's shop assistant. I stayed at Rizvi's place the last night since he lives 5 minutes away from where I caught the bus. Shafiullah and his assistant met us at the bus office. When I arrived, Shaffiullah was on the phone and handed it to me. Someone else wanted to say good-bye. After that brief convo, we went off to get breakfast. I couldn't eat a thing. I felt sick and I was getting teary eyed. They thought i was scared about going to India and was upset about that. Umm no fellas, I was just overwhelmed by the hospitality you all showed me. I have never had that kind of good-bye from any other country, that is for sure.

Normal for Bangladesh: the man sitting next to me struck up a conversation with me. He spoke very good English (not normal) and worked for the Japanese Embassy, helping process visas. He was returning to his family home in the city of Jessore, which is very close the Indian border.

Abnormal: He did not give me any food or buy me any tea. He had his opportunities. In his defense, he said he wish he could but in the interest of my health, he didn't want to give me food bought from the "road" so to speak. Had I not been feeling queasy (due to nerves primarily) I would have politely informed him that I had survived a month in his country thank you very much, and only had two bouts of stomach problems. He was probably the richest Bangladeshi I met in my travels. I do not regret not spending times in the posh areas of Dhaka. But anyway, let's get back to the trip.

Had no problems exiting Bangladesh.The crossing was about as dirty and bleak as other border crossings I have seen. Just something about them that makes them that way I suppose. Perhaps all the trucks and buses are the cause.

Welcome to India: Walked through a little gate and I was in india. As I was walking to the immigration building, there was a group of men just sitting around. One had a bunch of immigration forms, and I took one. Another asked me, "Do you have a bus ticket?" I said yes. "May I see it?"
I handed it to him.
"Do you have indian rupees?"
"Yes" I replied.
"85 rupees please" he requested.

Yeah dude, I'm just going to hand you 85 rupees and assume you'll give me a ticket here in the middle of this courtyard. Do I look that stupid? Instead of saying all that I said, "Uh yeah, can I have my ticket back? I want to get my passport stamped first." He handed it back and I walked away.

And so I entered the immigration building. As some of you know, my hand writing is messy. That being said, I put some effort into writing things out clearly on the form. Well apparently I did not write them out clearly enough. The immigration officer tore up my form and decided to fill out a new form himself. Doh. What is it with me and immigration people on this trip? At least they are amusing me and not creating problems for me.

After that, a bus employee (who actually had a badge) showed me the way to the bus office, and soon after that, we were off to Kolkata.

I'm still alive people

Due to a) the serious lack of internet facilities here in Bangladesh b) the fact I am almost never alone, I have not been able to be on the internet much. This is the first time I've been online in over a week. In the past month, I have been online 3 times, one of which was for about 15 minutes.

About 20 minutes ago, I bought my bus ticket to Kolkata. I am leaving the morning of June 14th. I could have left tomorrow (13th) but due to the whole 13 aspect, and the total opposite of June 14th (the day I graduated from HRS, friend's b-day, and last but not least flag day!)I thought the 14th would be better.

Originally I was planning to leave today since I left the USA on april 12, Malaysia on may 12th (and arrived in bangladesh the same day), and going home on July 12. Alas, the Bangladeshi people have "forced" me to stay here an extra couple days.

When I returned to dhaka 2 days ago, I thought I would just need 2 days to say good-bye to everyone. Alas, that was half the time I needed. In fact, I have had to be rude just to be able to leave here on the 14th. I will end this entry with the following story that I think sums up my experience well:

I am on the bus with my friend Shafiullah and a friend of his that I met 15 minutes ago. The friend has invited us to his house in the suburb of Mirpur. While on the bus, they are talking and I am sending text messages to friends (I will elaborate on my cellphone usage at a later date) while periodically Shafiullah points out a site. We come to a place I've been before.
Shafiullah: That is the national museum
me: yes, I know. I visited it last week
Shafiullah: Alone?
Me: Alone? Is one ever alone here in Bangladesh?

He laughed. And of course I wasn't alone; I had a companion who showed me around dhaka for 3 days. I will have been here in Bangladesh for a little over a month.
The number of days where I've been alone for the majority of the day: 3.

Number of meals I've eaten alone: 4 or 5 I think. Today is the first day in over 2 weeks where I've been alone for more than an hour (excluding one evening of sleeping).

# of houses I've visited: I'm guessing close to 50. Definitly more than 30. yesterday I was at 5 homes (although 3 of them I had previously visited).

# of houses I've slept in: 4

# of home cooked meals I've had: no idea

# of cups of tea I've had: probably averaged 3 a day. Yesterday I had 6 in a span of about 4 hours. Total # yesterday was at least 10. How many have I paid for during my month here? None.

OK, I have to go. I am going to meet Shafiullah and go with him to pick up his older daughter from school. I will be sending out a mass e-mail summarizing my experience here. I figure the # of readers has gone from 5/day to .5/day due to my lack of writing. Inshallah, I will be writing more frequently in India.

negative part- food

Before I get to the negative part I will let you know that I am in Sylhet. I am sure I am one of the first people to ever say this: Sylhet has been heavenly. What I was seeking in Srimangal, I have found here in Sylhet: peace and calm. It is clean by Bangladeshi standards and it seems rather chill. No god-awful buses spewing smoke, nor taxis. Most of the vehichles are rickshaws. There is a lazy river that goes through town. Amazingly, they have a nice little waterfront area in one part of the city. They actually have nice sidewalks here too. But enough of that, let's get to the bad stuff!

You're probably thinking I don't like the food due to the subject heading. No, that is far from the case. Here is my issues with food here:

1. Variety and Bangla food will never be in the same sentence unless "no" or "lack of" come in front of variety. I have had curry nearly every day I've been here. All the food seems to have the same type of spices. While it does taste good (20 times better than Yemeni food), it just gets tedious after awhile. I'm bored with it all.

Now had I just eaten in restaurants, I would think, "hmm, the good stuff is at home" like it is in many poor countries. Yemen was like that. Alas, I have been to numerous homes and had meals in them. Quite good, but same food I've had in restaurants. Blah.

Oh, and they love fried chicken just like the rest of the world. Fried chicken is the one universal food of the world. You might not find any western food in a country but it'll have fried chicken. Well except Japan for some reason. I don't recall seeing much fried chicken there (minus KFC).

2. Eating with the hands. Honestly, I don't mind. In fact, in the privacy of my hotel room last night, I had silverware but I said screw this, I'm eating with my hands. seemed weird doing it other wise. What is the problem then? Apparently I don't know how to do it. My first meal here, a kid laughed, shook his head and told me to give up. I'm not joking. While others have been kinder, the results have been similar. Come on people, does it really matter?

Consequently, my meals usually go as thus: I start with my right hand. The above happens, so they bring out a spoon. I try that. Or the reverse happens: i start with a spoon, but pulling the meat or fish off the bone becomes a real pain in the ass, and I revert to my hand. Things get messy and people smile, etc. Fun times.

3. That leads me to: the stares. People stare at me while I eat. I'm like, "yes people, I look silly eating with my hands. I don't grip it right, I know." And if it is a restaurant, it isn't just the person I am with. It is the waiter, the bus boy, and the people sitting nearby. I just play it off and whatnot, but it gets tiresome after awhile.

4. The unhygenic practices. I will just provide an example. I had lunch with some men. They washed the dishes by pouring water over them, then scrubbing the dishes with their right hands. Soap? Yeah right. What had their right hands been up to that morning? i really don't want to know. And I know that is normal and not an exception. So it goes.

This post is dedicated to Chris H. He asked me before I left, "what are you going to eat there??" He was refering to India, but I think he was also wondering about Bangladesh. Well chris, I eat curry, rice, bread, and dal. Oh, and fried chicken of course.

After this, I am going to try a chinese restaurant. Chinese restaurants in Bangladesh cook some weird ass shit, I'll just leave it at that.

A ho hum day and why I'm going to Bangladesh

Today has been rather uneventful but pleasant. Due to the "all-nighter" i pulled the previous night, compliments of that night bus ride, I slept for quite awhile last night: crashed around 11 pm, didn't get up until 10 this morning. When does my hotel stop serving breakfast? 10. Whoops. It was no problem though: I walked a block and got a much better breakfast for about 75 cents: roti canai and an iced tea. the tea cost as much as the two servings of the roti (which was a whopping 20 cents/serving) I got.

After that, I headed to KL Sentral to buy a train ticket to Butterworth, which is right across the water from Penang, my departure point from Malaysia. Now you would think there would be more than one train/day between Malaysia's two biggest cities. Well you would be thinking wrong. Not only that, but the one train leaves KL at 9 PM. Logically I wouldn't choose that, and would take the bus instead. Well logic goes out the window sometimes. See, I have this fault: when I get an idea in my head to do something, I HAVE to do it, regardless of how illogical it might turn out to be. This is a perfect example, as was the kuala besut-KL bus ride. There is only one "good" reason for me to take this train. Scratch that, two reasons. #1: it is very cheap: 5-6 bucks (yet it only saves me about 4 bucks, so not a huge gain). #2: I have never taken a train in Malaysia before, so it is a good way for me to check out the train system. Plus I enjoyed all my train rides in Thailand (a whopping 2 in my life), so I am sure I will get at least a little pleasure from this ride. Well that's what I keep telling myself.

Following that, I stopped by the Malaysia post office (much cleaner and nicer than the one I went to in Bangkok), then headed to the Islamic Art Museum, on the edge of the Lake Gardens. I was there back in 2002, and both times I've been there, the place has been dead. I realize it was mid-day on a Wednesday this time, but still, rather sad. It is a really nice museum too, I wish more people would visit it. Oh well. Part of the reason I went back is the first time I went, I was with a g/friend who had no interest in Islamic culture and was mad at me for taking a rather long way to get to the musuem, including falling down a small grass hill. Fun times.. Anyway, I spent about 2.5 hours there today and really enjoyed the two special exhibits. One was on the spice trade (do you know the difference between an herb and spice? I do now, woo woo!), and another on a dude named Lafayette and his photos of Indian and Malay royalty in the late 19th/early 20th century.

After that, I wandered around the Lake Gardens, a rather pleasant park on the edge of central KL. Highly recommend a stroll through them. And by the time I got back to the Golden Triangle (my hood here in KL) it was 5:45. How time flies when you're having fun...

So why am I going to Bangladesh: this dude's blog (the first part at least) is why.

Attempting to do it w/out a guidebook

I am going to attempt to do this trip w/out a guidebook. Well some of the trip at least. I've already gotten the LP guide to Bangladesh (thank you Faizun). I also think it would be a little too much to attempt to get around that place without a book. I might be a little daring but not THAT daring. I will probably do the same for India as well.

Southeast Asia and Japan though? Nope. I figure with Japan, I can a) get a lot of info from the internet b) it actually has useful tourist offices. And hey, it might force me to use the Japanese I've been learning for the past 9 months.

As for southeast Asia, I've been there before. In addition, there is a lot of english speakers in the tourist industry there, so I think I'm pretty safe. In the case of Malaysia and Singapore, English is used everywhere.

Today I will be purchasing a notebook to keep notes and whatnot. I am also writing a list of items I need to obtain before I leave. Only two months to go, ha ha.

I figure this "method" will force me to ask for help and assistance- something I HATE doing of course.