Posts from — March 2006

March 21 – 24, 2006

Full Name : People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Capital City : Dhaka
Area : 143,998 sq km / 55,598 sq miles
Population : 138,448,210
Time Zone : GMT/UTC +6 ()
Languages : Bengali (official) English (other)
Religion : 83% Islam, 16% Hindu
Currency : Taka (Tk)
Electricity : 220V 50HzHz
Country Dialing Code : 880

Touched down in Dhaka at 10.35pm. Phew, almost missed my flight AGAIN! Hehehe…

Pretty slow flight. It was quite empty. Met lotsa people in the flight. I guess the industry is small and everyone is going to the same event.

Well, Dhaka – firstly, imigration was slow. Airport is pretty basic, yet clean.

Traveled about 20minutes to Dhaka Sheraton Hotel. Checking in was slow.

Hotel was ok but the bed was fantastica! Really comfy! Didn’t feel like waking up many mornings

A view of the city, Dhaka!

Traffic jam, traffic jam, traffic jam. Almost 24 hours of traffic jam, man!

Most popular common tranport – Baby Taxi!

Its everywhere…

A stall by the road side.

Pretty little girl.

And her friends came to join her!

And they laughed excitedly after I showed them their pictures.

And then, more kids came to join the fun!

I think they are really poor kids. Perhaps homeless? We couldn’t communicate as there was no common language except smiling and waving.

But they are lovely! And just happy the way they are! Playing playing playing all day long…

Lovely trees! Gives me a mellow swinging feel. See how the leaves are droopy.
(But somehow the picture doesn’t capture the right sense… sigh)

Yep, this is the steam-boat that we were gonna take. Cruising slowing down the-damn-huge-river – River Buriganga!

I call this a “sink-boat” – look as if the boat is sinking but in fact, its not!

Its used for transportation of sand, bricks, fruits… saw many bobbing along the river.

They are curious. Stared for a moment, then they started waving at us hehehe…

A lone boatman…

Good take eh!

After the long boat trip, we were back to land. While we were waiting for our bus to pick us up, a huge crowd formed and surrounded us. They were just staring and staring. I guess, pure curiousity! But it was indeed a sight!

A young boy making his living.

We took a Baby Taxi to the nearest shopping centre! I forgot the name :S

And it fitted 3 of us in perfectly!

A modern shopping centre.

Oh yea, I did some shopping. Couldn’t resist it! I bought 3 very nice shirts for me men! And a set “salwakamis” (think the spelling is err) for meself

Overall, people in Bangladesh gave me a very nice and warm feel. They are gentle and soft spoken. Country is still developing and still need lotsa development. And education for the people is a must,for a more rapid progression!

It was a short trip. Spent 3/4 of my time in the hotel attending meetings and conference.

But its was a nice glimpse of Bangladesh I had!

Ma ladee is too busy to write.

She says to have a good week all of you…

Woof, NaM

Dhaka – Capital of Bangladesh. Land of 140 mio people!

I am here for a week to attend GSMAP meeting. A technical tourist I am!

It’s not bad, lotsa people from the region attending… customers customers customers.

How’s Bangladesh? I guess, the people here makes a big difference. They are warm, friendly and pretty gentle people. Poverty is still amass. Kids peddling, begging, knocking on the windows of the cars passing by…

Gulp – I looked ahead, couldn’t look at them. If I start giving, it’ll be endless. Nevertheless, I can’t help hearing the plea, noticing the barefooted, the clothes that clads them BUT they do smile at times and those smiles are real!

Anyway, I’ll do a proper post of Bangladesh with pictures soon

I also learnt – Bollywood dance made simple :
1) Flying kite
2) Riding bike
3) Pumping a bicyle
4) Fixing the lightbulb (Kindly contributed by Siva!)

I’ll do a demo next time

Food? Mostly yellow in colour. My boss told me that they love the tamarine.

Ok, gotta catch some winks. Tomorrow we are going on a slow steam boat ride, down the river of Bangladesh…

Good nite!

Just had my job evaluation

And its very positive! That is INDEED a great source of encouragement!

As Ikeda Sensei always remind us, “Be indispensable wherever you are!” – and I’ve always remembered and worked with this phrase kept in mind.

For me, this is indeed proving Buddhism in my daily life! Yay!!!

Although, I know I can still do much better becuz there is the teeny lazy bit part of me that can’t help indulging into these little guilt-ridden fun during office hours :

- MSN-ing (until my IT dept blocked all possible access) but I still have my PDA. Using that stupid stylus give me finger cramps, so I gave up eventually!
- Updating my blog (can’t help it, when the ideees come, it comes!)
- Surfing the net for all sorts “fun” stuffs
- Reading “all-kind” of blogs
- Checking my hotmail, gmail
- Sending funnies to my friends
- Chatting via emails (Last resort!)
- And occasional drinkin binge in the office (with camouflaged wine glasses!)

Allez! Time to work now…

How was your weekend?

I went home to my parents @ Klang, my hometown where I grew up and have lotsa wonderful family, friends and major part of my sweetest memories was formed there.

It was a fabulous weekend, well spent but I am absolutely drained out!

Left work slightly earlier on Friday, got a ride with Cat and her hubby back to Klang. There was a unexpectedly heavy traffic at the causeway, so by the time we arrived in Klang it was almost midnite!

And all my friends have left to Sri Hartamas for Nihal’s birthday bash! So being a good friend as I am, I did a quickie makeover and drove myself up to Sri Hartamas. The drive kindda intimidated me because I had no idea of the twirling roads in KL. But anyhow, I survived and managed to give Nihal a nice sweet suprise.

I came without a birthday pressie though, so he shall have to make that up with my presence! Muahhahah…

Anyway, we partied till 5am! (Phew, I thought I am getting a little too old for these late-nite-outties!)

Next morn, my parents woke me up at 9am for breakfast! Hehe, being as a good daughter as I am, I dragged myself outta bed and went breakfast and ran some errands with em.

Attempted to be a line dancer entire afternoon at my ma’s studio but well, look more like a lost rodeo-girl. What a hilarious sight of myself! But I still aspire to be a dancer! In the evening, caught up with the girls for over 2 hours coffee chat and then attended a last-minute notice wedding dinner of the most beautiful couple, Mike and EH. (It was so last minute, I had to donne on my mom’s most stretchable dress and hell, she was grumbling because she said I will outstretch her dresses with my extra size heheheh)

Then, the supposedly quiet night that I planned (wanted to go to bed after wedding dinner), the girls was all dressed up and ready to go for some beers and boogies. So off again I am to Sri Hartamas (this time, being driven!) and partied till 4am!

Oh by the way, me bestbud, Ian is gonna star in the upcoming local production, Homecoming! Be sure to watch!