Livin' Large

Lest you all start getting the wrong idea about Bangladesh as simply poverty and natural beauty, we thought we would share with you our trip to Bashundhara City, the largest mall in South Asia (We’re pretty sure this still holds true even with Afghanistan now being considered part of South Asia). The presence of this mall and the current construction of the Jamuna mall not very far from it, which will rob Bashundhara City of its ‘largest in South Asia’ title, is a reminder that Bangladesh still creates a lot of wealth and with that wealth, a lot of rapacious consumers. There are actually a lot of indoor, mall like, shopping centers in Dhaka (because of the lack of space things seem to be building vertically rather than horizontally for a while now), but Bashundhara City is clearly designed with the idea of the ‘consumer experience’ in mind, whereas the other shopping centers are just sort of multi-story markets. To get a feel for the experience they are trying to create you can check out their website here: http://www.bashundharagroup.com/bc/main.html. (Fittingly for mall webistes worldwide, it seems, it has a very nice flash intro, but none of the actual pages within the website work)And for more extended information see the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashundhara_City.

We decided to go because we had heard a lot about it and we are desperately trying to find ways to entertain ourselves while Atticus is on break. The mall is really quite an experience. It is eight stories, with a grand atrium in the center, which is capped with a giant stained glass dome. It also has a full floor food court, movie theatres, and an amusement park. Here are some photos from the bottom looking up and the top looking down.




We decided that since we were going to a mall we had better have something in mind to buy so we came up with the goals of a pair of pants for Atticus and a camera battery. Once we were there we decided to start at the food court at the top and work our way down since we hadn’t eaten yet (and because what is cooler than the food court at the mall?). The food court consisted mainly of shops for fried chicken, Chinese food, pizza, Indian food, and ‘fast food’ either in combination or as separate shops. Atticus settled on pizza, while Jon and Sam decided they wanted some Indian food since they have missed getting Indian food while here (no, Bangladeshi food and Indian food are not the same thing). The place that Jon and Sam settled on, Delhi Darbar, served a combination of South Indian, Chinese and fast food (although we were tempted by the Indian food at Taco Belle). We particuarly liked the fact that so many cultures were all together in one place in the name of consumer convenience - the food was halal, it was indian food and called Delhi Darbar, it had chinese lanterns everywhere, they had coca-cola cups... it was a real multi-cultural extravaganza. We ordered two surprisingly delicious vegetarian Indian plates and some fushka. As you can see from the picture this is not your typical mall food and it was actually much more delicious than meals we've paid much more for (two plates like the one pictured plus a plate full of delicious fushka and two drinks was about $5 total!)

After we finished eating it was time for some shopping! Of course, as soon as we started walking past all of the shops we were reminded of other things we needed to buy (or were our desires cultivated by the environment?). Sam needed some glasses so we went and got her some glasses. Oh, and we had also been meaning to get some Bangladesh mugs (hadn’t we?). And, of course, Atticus needs a soccer ball and some shoes, right? We also decided that while we were there we should get some new movies, after all they are only a buck. We got several including Avatar, which we have heard is pretty good. We will see how good of a pirated copy it is. Finally, we made it to the ground floor and found some pants for Atticus. Not surprisingly they were more expensive at the mall than if we had bought them at the outdoor market, but hey, we're paying for the experience, right? By the time we got to the bottom floor we felt we had earned ourselves some ice cream so we headed back up to the top floor, taking the escalator instead of the elevator for some extra exercise!

The mall was, of course, still a 'deshi experience. Many people wanted to squeeze Atticus’ cheeks and know his name, and what country we are from. Jon also had to help a woman get on and off the escalator because she was nearly paralyzed with fear getting on it. And once we stepped out of the shiny glass mall with all of our nice new things we were confronted by the other half of the population, which lives on less than a dollar a day as they beg for what is to us mere pennies. These experiences are always unsettling. Not that we aren’t confronted with beggars every day, but in this situation it is much more unsettling to see the classes in such stark contrast.

Oh well, happy new years everybody! Here's a picture of Atticus in his new kicks. (and incidentally, in all the impulse shopping, we only achieved 1/2 of our daily goals: Atticus got pants, but we forgot about the camera battery. Oh well, truthfully, we didn't need to go to the mall for any of it!)