A dry country

Bdesh is a dry country. No questions about it. I hate drinking by myself, especially if it's in a hotel bar, and in Dhaka, that's pretty much all you can do if your throat's parched from all the heat.

Here is a blog with a list of places in Dhaka where you can get a drink. Pretty small list, right? Note that most of those places are hotel bars. You can go to the American, Nordic, British or other international clubs, but really, all you will do is shield yourself from the reality of Dhaka for a few hours and escape to a secluded bubble. Sure, that's fun (and also necessary from time to time) but that's no way to spend a weekend night.

In my quest to find things to do in Dhaka on occasional weekend nights, I've been trying to figure out if there's an active club scene and what I found wasn't particularly encouraging. The third name in the list I linked to is Privilege, supposedly the hottest club in the country at the moment. Is it really the best club in the country? I have no idea.

When I lived in New York City, we would find a new hangout spot every weekend and the next thing you know, the b&t crowd would show up and before you knew it, the place was no longer considered cool, and everyone would be on the lookout for the next "it" lounge, bar or club. The last time I was there, Pacha was the biggest b&t draw. I have no idea if it's still there. Didn't Pacha replace Webster Hall in that category? I have no clue.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there. I was talking about Privilege and well, it turns out that clubs aren't really all that legal in Bangladesh. Here is a report about cops arresting 113 people from a Dhaka club for "their links to different anti-social activities" which supposedly means they were drinking. Oops. I am not sure which part of the story bothers me more: that people were arrested for the "crime" of drinking, or that only 32 of the 113 people in that club were female, or that only 113 of the club's patrons were drinking? What about the rest of the people in there? Why weren't they drinking? Or maybe the club only had 113 patrons at the time; maybe the club had such a small crowd there because all the cool people had gone to Privilege; maybe the cops hassled the patrons of that club because they weren't a part of the cool crowd. Who knows? Anyway, I am sure they are all hella cool. Or maybe not. How cool could you really be if you were in a club with a 30:70 ratio? The first thing I learned during my gig as a bouncer (pretty short-lived, really, since I only did it my senior year of college for a pretty darn shady club) is that you never let the number exceed 70:30 because then there's too much estrogen in the club and it just gets hella catty but at the same time, you never let the ratio get close to 50:50 either because then there's too much testosterone and there isn't enough eyecandy for the men and they won't buy drinks for the women and that's just not a good situation from a business POV. So, no matter how you look at it, the people in charge of "the Korea and Bangladesh Nightclub" need to rethink their business strategy.

OK, maybe that was too TIC even for me, so I am gonna go back to what this post is meant to be about. Look, you can't stop globalization from happening. You just can't. While you can make laws and try to shield your country from the rest of the world by turning your country into an absolutely dry place where you can only get a drink in a hotel bar or an expat club and where drinking is considered a crime because it goes against the social and religious mores, you can't stop people from doing what they want to do. That's why people will go to Privilege, the Korea and Bangladesh Nightclub and wherever else.

What's happening in Bangladesh reminds me of something similar that happened in Chile a few years ago. Here's a quick history lesson, with my reductionist (and of course, revisionist) take on it. Under Pinochet, Chile went through a major social transformation and turned into one of the more socially conservative countries in South America. Sex ed was banned; abortions were not legal. You weren't allowed to divorce your spouse. Sounds kinda like Bangladesh, doesn't it?

Then the military dictator was overthrown, democracy was restored and the country tried to embrace free market economics. As a result, per capita income gradually increased, and one particular sector of the economy that saw tremendous growth (in fact, one of the highest in the region) was telecommunications. More and more people (and kids) had access to cellphones (and hence, cellphone cameras). They also had increased access to the internet. While the Chilean culture was still pretty conservative, Chileans now had access to foreign movies and TV shows.

Anyway, no matter how conservative a society is, kids are bound to rebel and that's what happened in Chile; they decided to break free from the social mores and it became trendy for these kids to tape their sexual encounters with webcams or their cellphone cameras and then broadcast these videos over the internet.

Believe it or not, that sounds an awful like Bdesh. When I read the last couple of paragraphs to a Bdeshi, without disclosing the name of the country, she thought I was talking about her country.

Now, going back to what we were talking about earlier, as if all that weren't enough, there's a new trend in Chile, according to the NYT.

It is just after 5 p.m. in what was once one of Latin America’s most sexually conservative countries, and the youth of Chile are bumping and grinding to a reggaetón beat. At the Bar Urbano disco, boys and girls ages 14 to 18 are stripping off their shirts, revealing bras, tattoos and nipple rings.

The place is a tangle of lips and tongues and hands, all groping and exploring. About 800 teenagers sway and bounce to lyrics imploring them to “Poncea! Poncea!”: make out with as many people as they can.

And make out they do — with stranger after stranger, vying for the honor of being known as the “ponceo,” the one who pairs up the most.

I am no expert on teen psychology but from what little I've seen of kids, the more you tell kids NOT to do something, the more they will try to do it. Whatever these Chilean kids are doing, that's their (and their parents') business, not mine. What bothers me is that these shenanigans have been almost institutionalized, or so it seems, in Chile.

As you might have noticed from the tone of my blog, I am not uptight; I am pretty socially liberal and I really wouldn't care if these kids were necking in the bleachers. What bothers me is that the Chilean society is still pretty conservative and doesn't believe in sex ed for the most part; it's still at the point where abortions are penalized. So, for these kids to go to these parties and do what they do carries an inordinate amount of risk ranging from STDS to unwanted pregnancies and everything in between.

“Before, someone would meet and fall in love and start dating seriously here; at a party today, you meet like three people and make out with all three,” said Mario Muñoz, 20, co-owner of Imperio Productions, which organizes some of the larger 18-and-under parties.

On a recent Saturday, about 1,500 teenagers piled into the cavernous Cadillac Club, another downtown disco, for Imperio Productions’ weekly event. The partygoers, many no more than five feet tall, lined up at the bar to buy orange Fanta and Sprite, wearing oversize sunglasses.

Not too long ago, Mr. Muñoz and his brother Daniel were teenagers attending such parties themselves. Now they defend their parties as good, clean fun. Alcohol is not allowed, and cigarettes are not sold, though smoking was widespread among the teenagers at the Cadillac Club. Security guards monitor bathrooms and regularly throw out boys whose groping crosses the line — if the girls complain.

So, with or without alcohol, these kids are gonna do what they are doing anyway. I can imagine the same thing happening in Bangladesh. I've often heard from the locals that one of the reasons for the ban on alcohol in Bangladesh is that it will lead to activities that are contrary to the social and religious mores of the country. I don't think that's true. Anyway, as the Chilean example shows, even restrictions on alcohol won't stop kids from doing what they do on the Discovery channel. So, why have those restrictions in the first place? It's not like we or the upper echelon of the Bdeshi society don't have access to booze in the first place. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, I don't mean to offend any Bdeshis with my rant. Whatever I post here are my views and opinions based on what I've experienced during my stay in Bdesh.

Did you all here in Bdesh have a good start to your work week? I hope so. I also hope that you all back at home had a fun weekend.

Dhaka University, plus some more blogs I follow

It's been hella busy but boring lately. I haven't had a whole lot of time to travel. Anyway, on Friday, I finally got the opportunity to visit Dhaka University. I've heard a lot about it, about how it's like a public Ivy. In fact, some people have told me that it's the best university in the country. On Friday, I took a rickshaw ride through the university, and I thought I'd share some of my observations with you all.

Dhaka University is hella nice; it really is. It's almost like an oasis of calm in the middle of the ever crazy-busy Dhaka. Despite being so close to the business district, it's a lot less frenetic in there than the rest of the city. The buildings look "colonial", for lack of a better word. If you like old architecture, you'd probably love this place. While we were inside the university, we noticed an entire street lined with stores that sell earthenware. That stuff looked pretty neat, but I decided to stay off shopper mode for the day. There was another street where the entire street (and that street was at least three blocks long) was lined with couples, just sitting on the sidewalk and chatting away, sipping tea and eating street food. It's the first time I've seen a man and a woman holding hands in Dhaka. No lie.

It's easy to think that Dhaka, for being such a socially conservative city, is very gay-friendly, because no matter where you go, you will see men holding hands and walking down the street. I've even seen two men who were dressed alike holding hands and walking down the street; so it's easy to come to the conclusion that homosexuality is accepted in this society. It isn't. Men don't hold each other's hands because they are into each other; I don't know why they do it but supposedly, it's a cultural thing. Anyway, the point is that wherever you are in Dhaka, you won't see couples holding hands or expressing affection, except when you come to Dhaka University. Every expat wonders where the Bdeshi women are, because there's such a huge gender disparity when you go through the streets or malls or wherever in this city. In Dhaka university, I didn't notice that gender imbalance. There was an equal number of women as men in that place.

In my last blog post, Peachy asked me how I've fared in Dhaka so far. Peachy, my answer would pretty much reflects what Lonely Planet says about Dhaka.

Dhaka is more than just a city, it is a giant whirlpool that sucks in anything and anyone foolish enough to come within its furious grasp. (…) A day spent alternating between the filthy river banks of Old Dhaka and the swish restaurants of Gulshan is a day spent seeing the haves and have-nots of the world in crystal clarity. We can’t guarantee you’ll fall for Dhaka’s many charms, but sooner or later you will start to move to its beat and when that happens Dhaka stops being a terrifying ride and starts becoming a cauldron of art and intellect, passion and poverty, love and hate. Whatever happens, this is one fairground ride you’ll never forget.

I think I have finally started to move to the beat of Dhaka. It took another blogger, Eveline, about a week to do the same thing. I am not sure if there's a need to rush this whole adjustment process, since most expats take a lot longer than I do. I spent the entire 4th of July weekend hearing countless fellow countrymen (and women) bitching about how they could NEVER get used to living in Dhaka. Most of them have lived here a lot longer than I have; so, I don't think I needed to rush this getting-used-to phase. Anyway, speaking of expats, there aren't very many of them in Dhaka; apparently, Dhaka is the least expat-friendly city in Asia, according to some study done in 2007, or so another expat told me the other day. If it's true, I can understand why, but I think if you are gonna live in Dhaka, whether it's for a day or a year or a lifetime, you need to start moving to the beat of this city.

There are two new entries to my list of blogs about living in Bdesh/Dhaka. Both of them are chock full of information. First is Poliphili's blog. I wanted to link two of her picture essays about Dhaka(go here and here), mainly because I haven't been able to upload any of my Dhaka pictures yet. I already told you about Eveline's blog (go here). She works for the UN, I believe, and is working in Africa now. The posts about Dhaka (and Bdesh in general) give you a very vivid picture of what this place is like. Anyway, I would highly recommend both the blogs to you, whether you are looking for more information about this place or you just need some light reading.

Anyway, it's a quarter to eleven and although I'm bored and want a drink, I need to go do some work. I hope you all had a fun weekend.

Pita bread, monsoon rain and random thoughts

Where can I find pita bread in Dhaka? I found a pita lookalike in a local supermarket the other day; it's a local bread called the naan. There are a few supermarkets near where I live, but I usually go to Nandan and when I want some cheese or maraschino cherries, I go to Agora (about an hour away but that's only because of the Dhaka traffic). Guess what I found in Agora the other day? MANGOSTEENS!!! They were only about $4/lb, which is a steal considering the price is about 8-10 times that back in the US. I prefer these supermarkets to the street vendors or roadside markets because a) all the products are labeled, b) the prices are on the labels and c) I don't have to haggle to get a good deal. On my first trip to Nandan, I got some pasta, olive oil, mushrooms, a can opener and some pistacio ice cream, all for about $11. Not bad, right?

It's been raining a lot for the last three or four days. It's monsoon season here, and I am expecting a lot of rain over the next couple of months. There was a terrible heat wave during my first couple of weeks in Dhaka, but thanks to this torrential rain, it's not suffocatingly hot any more. It rains sideways here; I think I mentioned this before but it's true.

Last night, I watched No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. It was the Vancouver episode, not one of my favorites. If you are interested, the show is on Food & Living (or whatever that channel is called), and it's on at 1:00 am (I think? Could have been 12:30 am for all I know) local time.

Anyway, on to random thoughts:

- Ron Artest to the Lakers: terrible move. Artest is no longer the defender he used to be, and he shoots too many ill-advised 3s for my liking. Look, if you are gonna give an MLE deal to someone, give it to someone who's already shown he can do it for you (i.e. Ariza) and not a headcase who's created problems for every team he's ever played for. Btw, Ariza is a lot younger than RonRon; thought Kupcake might want to know that.

- Don't complain about rush hour traffic until you've lived in Dhaka.

- There's no greater joy than eating a tropical fruit right off a tree. True story.

- Maybe the DST shenanigans worked; maybe it's because the heat wave is no longer here; anyway, the rolling blackouts aren't as bad or as frequent as they used to be during my first couple of weeks here. Or maybe Donny is right and I just got used to those darn blackouts.

- Eating popcorn while you are stuck in traffic: who woulda thunk it? Apparently, some pretty smart Dhaka entrepreneurs did. Teenagers (mostly boys) walk through the maze of vehicles stuck in Dhaka traffic and sell popcorn, water, gossip magazines and trinklets.


That's all for now. I hope you all enjoy the weekend.