Sometimes things don't turn out quite as planned....

Today was an interesting day. It's Friday, the official day off, so I was on my own to find something to do all day. My main goal was to spend as little money as possible, but that didn't work out as planned....I began by procrastinating like I normally do on the weekend, and watched an episode of America's Got Talent where this bum looking dude played an amazing acoustic version of Walking on the Moon by Sting, and I agree with the judges, played it better than Sting.

Once I finally got out of my room, I went over to Banani Supermarket, my favorite place since I know where it is and generally what's in it, plus a lot of the shop owners speak English. I made a copy of my passport since I realized I completely forgot to do that before I left the States, and then wandered around in search of something to do. I discovered another half to the market where they sell food. It was the most chaotic thing I have ever walked into in my life! I couldn't see what all was there at first because it was dark inside, but it turned out to be a hall full of vegetables, which was very pretty, but literally every seller tried to get my attention as I walked through. I didn't buy anything because I have no kitchen, but outside I bought a mango. Now I haven't bought a mango for myself yet (we have some from one of the field offices at work), so I'm not sure what the going rate is, but I can bet it's less than 40 taka. Unfortunately, I paid that anyway because my bargaining vocabulary is less than adequate and the guy didn't understand my pointing and saying 20 taka (I'm pretty sure it wasn't a fixed price place either).

From there, I didn't really have a plan nor did I really need to buy anything, so I decided to take a rickshaw to Gulshan and check out the market there. Again, I ended up getting over charged for that, partly because I couldn't find a five taka note in my pocket. So I walked around the market for a bit, although many of the stores were closed, looked at some shoes, and bought a water and a caramel. That was probably the only reasonable purchase of the day.

Having exhausted all the apparent attractions in Gulshan DIT-II Circle, I went off in search of the park that I visited last week. However I didn't know the name of the park and couldn't remember exactly how we got there, so when the rickshaw driver suggested Lake Park, I said acha (OK). I mean, that park had a lake, so it made sense. Turns out there is a different park with a bigger lake a few blocks from that one, but the lake is drained right now, and they are doing some major renovations, so it looks like a giant crater. It was still pretty though, and there was a beautiful garden at the main entrance. I walked around the park and first sat down on a bench near a group of men, but got sick of the stares and walked around to a place where a couple of women were sitting and just enjoyed being outside. While I was walking around, I noticed the tiniest frogs I have ever seen and tried to take a picture of one. After looking at all these pictures of the ground, though, I can't find a frog in any of them.

The crater from the first place I sat

Crater from the second place I sat. There is a couple across the crater (see the woman in red) - for hearing that PDA is unseemly so many times, there sure is a lot of it parks, although usually just hand holding and cuddling.

The Garden

A picture of the ground where I am almost certain there is a tiny grey frog - let me know if you find it...

Eventually I got hungry and needed a bathroom so I went back to the guesthouse and ate my mango. It may have been tasty enough to justify paying 40 taka for it. After wasting a little more time and making a few calls, I went out again for dinner. My plan here was to i) try some real street food and ii) save money on dinner by eating street food rather than food from the guesthouse. To give you an idea of why I haven't done this yet, these places are completely dominated by men. I have never seen a woman in one, although I took the Lonely Planet guidebook's word that women are welcome. There is also no menu. I've obviously had Bangladeshi food while I've been here, but I can't even get the guys that get lunch at the office to understand "Ami shobji ebong baat chai please" (I'd like vegetables and rice, please) because my pronunciation is so wrong. So I walked into this restaurant and they looked at me funny as I passed the guy frying stuff, so I thought maybe I'm supposed to order there. No, they told me to sit down. I assumed there would be no menu, but tried to ask anyway, and the man couldn't understand "menu" although I think it's the same as in English. I didn't know what I wanted, because I wasn't really sure what they had, so I got out the guidebook and tried to ask what he would recommend, but mauled the pronunciation again. The Bengali is written in the book and he could read, but he just kept reading the phrases out loud and not really processing that I was trying to ask something. I tried to say it a few more times and eventually some guy in the crowd around me figured it out. The waiter said "rice? fish?" in English, and I said "ha" (yes). He brought rice and fish (prawns actually). and chicken. and salad. and more rice. and another prawn. All I wanted was rice and fish!! But, being unable to communicate this, I ate as much as I could handle (it was incredibly spicy) with everyone watching me eat rice with my hands for the third time ever (not that easy for a klutz like me). I must have been fascinating - some traffic police even came in for milk so they could watch. And after this...experience...my plan to save money on dinner completely failed again, as I really don't know what this should cost, I couldn't argue if I did, and I ended up paying 330 taka (nearly $5) for the whole thing. I'll be studying up on Bengali before I try that again.

On the way out, I also attracted the attention of a guy eating at the table next to me, and so have a new friend, Rubel. Don't worry, I made him work for my name and questioned him intensely about his intentions before giving him any information - he was the first to say he just wanted to be friends, help me out, and practice his English. I decided he was trustworthy enough, so I gave him my number and let him walk me home - dinner took longer than expected and it was getting dark, so I was glad to have a man with me anyway. On the way we talked about siblings (because "brother-sister" friends is the best way to clarify that I'm not looking for a date) and he invited me to his house for mangoes and jackfruit and meeting his brother and parents next Friday. We'll see how that goes...

Now I'm back in the privacy and security of my room, getting ready to wind down for the night - it's been kind of a long day!