Cruisin'

We’ve mentioned before that we’ve had a guest staying with us for the last month or so. She has been doing some research here in Bangladesh and we’ve had a nice time hosting her. We all decided we had been working way too much lately and that we needed a little break from Dhaka city. Not having a lot of energy or time to plan much of an adventure, we went full tourist mode and booked ourselves on one of the guided river cruises available from a bunch of different companies here in Dhaka. It was fantastic!

Sam had actually taken this same basic cruise before when she was here with the language program, but it was a different company (and not as good) and with a large group there is a totally different dynamic. The minimum for the tour is 6 people, and we were only 4, so we just paid the extra between us and got a totally private day out on a boat. Did we mention it was fantastic? Here’s how:

They set you up in every way because it is really marketed to people who are either only here for a short trip or who work for the embassies or whatever and don’t know how to do anything for themselves. First, they drove us out to the boat dock at Demra about an hour away from our house. Then we boarded the boat and had our tea and cake right away.

PHOTOS of the boat and tea

We began our journey down the river and took in the sights along the banks. It is always so relaxing and refreshing to get out of Dhaka and we spent the morning just looking at everything and taking photos. Here are some of them:

After about an hour and half, we docked at an old zamindar mansion that has been converted to a college. We noticed that the hindu temple was particularly pretty with the dark ominous clouds gathering behind it as we pulled to shore.

The clouds brought rain, obviously, so we ducked into a little tea stall to wait it out. Once the rain lightened a little, we took a stroll around the old mansion and took more photos. We had fun talking to the students and looking around (and listening to the sadly inaccurate historical information the tour guide provided). Once Atticus got mud on his leg and hands though, he was finished with it all and booked it back to the boat. Here are some photos from around the area:

We all followed and continued our little cruise down the river. We saw several river dolphins, but never quite caught one on camera- they jump up fast! Here is a tiny piece of one though:

They also provided us with an absolutely delicious vegetarian lunch. It was so great – traditional Bengali dal, all kinds of veggies, bread, rice - it was an excellent meal and to eat it while sailing down the river was just great.

Atticus followed up lunch by explaining to our guest in detail his issues with dry skin on his feet. She didn’t mind, but we plan on following up regarding his choice of pick up lines and tactics.

After lunch we cruised some more and Jon decided he really wanted to go for a swim. (He had been fully clothed for almost the entire day after all…). Sam had suggested that Jon bring his swim trunks along since they had told us at booking that we could swim if we wanted. Jon, however, had turned his nose up at the idea and decided not to bring along a swimsuit. Fortunately, the boat had a pair of trunks Jon could borrow.

And what a pair of trunks! While they were pretty great dry, the true awesomeness was revealed after they got wet.

Jon had fun swimming (Sam was not even remotely interested in entering the water after we had seen a big-ass snake in the water earlier and Atticus has an ear infection so he didn’t go in.) At first it seemed like Jon would be jumping in and swimming around alone, which was a little lame, but the call of the water soon got to the cook and the guide. The cook dove off the boat roof (which meant, of course, Jon had to do it too) and then the guide decided to join in. The swimming was fun, there were no snake attacks, and the mild industrial waste provided a nice exfoliating chemical treatment for Jon’s skin.

After our swim we docked at a little village spot and got to look at some weavers. We saw a little umbrella factory, and then had fun sitting with the weavers and chatting. This time around was especially fun for Sam because previously she had been with a big group and hadn’t really been able to talk to the weavers. This time, we were only four people and Sam’s bangla is better so it was nice to talk about their work and participate in the encounter a little more. Atticus, of course, was the big star though and he was pretty adorable as he worked with the weavers.

Afterwards the children all waved goodbye in true Bangladesh style and we headed back to the boat.

Just as we docked at the car though Sam had one more delightful moment in store. There was a man selling Tiler Kaja, which is a sesame candy that is the most delicious and wonderful thing ever created. Sam fell in love with it in 2007, but in 2008 and since it has been unavailable. You can only buy it from the street vendors, and Sam has always held out hope that soon it would come back, but we hadn’t seen it – until now. Sam delightedly bought up a bunch and we headed home.

The old package of the candy used to have an adorable little girl clutching the candy and smiling. Now it has some stern mustached guy instead, which is much less cute, so here is a fairly close approximation for those that missed the previous packaging.

Finally, upon arriving home, we all looked in the mirror and realized how ridiculously sunburned we all were (Atticus had been wearing sunscreen but not us!). It was also fun to see the perfect outline of all our shirt collars – Jon had a triangle, Sam had the sweetheart neckline, and our guest had the square. Hooray for funky tanlines!

All in all, a fun break from work and great day on the water. This picture of Atticus was technically taken on the boat but doesn’t really show anything about the cruise. Atticus looks so damned adorable though that we’ll end on this!

A Tree Grows In Dhaka

You may recall that back in September we bought some plants. In fact, we bought more than we had probably needed but we were happy with our purchases nonetheless. The multitude of plants brought a nice lively feel to our new apartment. Ever since day one we have had a hard time keeping the plants alive though. We aren’t exactly green thumbs. The first casualty was the plant whose name we never knew. Sam wrote a hard hitting expose (comment) about the plant's death on this blog last year. As the year progressed more plants perished despite (and possibly as a result of) our best efforts. In fact, Taborok always had suggestions on how to keep them alive and was always telling Jon he watered them too much. Jon took no heed however.

Christmas brought us a new opportunity to buy a plant so we got a small Christmas tree and decorated it. As the new year came and passed our plant population continued to decrease. Many of the plants that were kept outside got infested with Mealy bugs. These are disgusting little pests that form cottony balls to protect themselves from being cleaned off. The lime tree was hit especially hard by this pest. They destroyed the lime harvest (well that and the harsh chemical treatment Jon used on it). Jon fought a valiant battle against these pests. He saved the lime tree from near death by meticulously rubbing every square inch of the tree with rubbing alcohol (which is what some gardening websites recommended). Finally after several hours of pruning and cleaning with his bloodied hands (from the thorns) the mealy bug threat was defeated. Unfortunately, the victory was a bit hollow, as the chemical warfare had left the fruit of the lime tree inedible. In the end, the only plants that remained were the lime tree and Christmas tree and neither of them were in great shape. Jon slowly nursed them back to health.

After finally nurturing them back to (semi)health we had to make the emergency trip back to the US for Jon’s sister’s funeral. Of course we were too distraught to be thinking ‘who will take care of our plants while were in the US?' Previously when we traveled we would take them to the roof and the building guard would take care of them for us, but this time, we left in such a hurry we didn't make such accomodations. After returning from the US, Jon was sure that his plants would be dead. Miraculously, although they had gone weeks without water (or TLC) they were still alive! (No, Sam didn't do much for them even though she got back a week earlier than Jon. Only in a moment of weakness while missing Jon did she give them some water and put some coffee grounds in the lime tree pot. She wrote these plants off long ago..) Upon Jon's return they looked pretty pathetic, but after watering them for a few days and making sure they got plenty of sun they both started showing new growth. Now the two remaining plants are doing fine. Although they may not be as full and fruit bearing as they were before, they continue to show new signs of growth. These two plants have shown amazing resilience! They refuse to give up. Hopefully, we can one day eat a lime from the lime tree and we can literally enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Here are some photos of the glorious first day of our new plants and a picture of the lime tree today. It may not look like much, but the little guy’s got a lot of heart. Keep on fightin’ little lime tree!



Above are the limes that were on the lime tree when we bought it. These were mosty eaten by birds before we got to harvest them. The lime tree now:

Somewhat Simple Summer Days

Well, we have reached the end of an era. For the past year we have always had a full supply of Changi airport candies in our candy bowl (thanks to the enormous bag of candies the immigration guys gave Atticus while Sam was escorted though the airport by an armed policeman). It has been an ever-present reminder of our glorious and adventure-filled 18 hours in the Singapore airport. Today, we have only one left. How we will miss you Changi candy.


We’ve been filling the days of Summer vacation with keeping things fairly low key so far. Sam has finished up teaching her classes (a post on that experience will follow soon!) and we have been hosting a guest researcher here in our apartment for the last week. She is a fellow graduate student and doing some work on NGOs here in Dhaka. It is nice to have someone to share Dhaka with, and Atticus has really enjoyed learning about her home country Poland. Next week we are all going to make a vegetarian version of a traditional Polish meal together, which Atticus and Sam are especially excited for .

A nice thing about guests is that it gets you to re-visit the places you may have been forgetting. For example, since our guest had never had never eaten phushka (delicious Indian street snacks), we made a lunch trip over to get some from a little restaurant we hadn’t been to in a while. It is also across the street from Club Gelato, which is always fun! We ordered up a smorgasbord of delicious snacks and had fun remembering the delicious Dhaba phushka.

Of course, sometimes our guest leaves the house, and Atticus and Jon immediately lose their shirts and start with the rowdy fun. We had a Thursday afternoon dance party (afternoon dance parties are another long standing, but recently forgotten, tradition of Sam and Atticus actually)and Jon and Atticus worked on their air guitar moves. Jon also taught Atticus to skank, since Atticus has been into the ska lately.

Below is Sam’s favorite picture of the afternoon though, because A) Jon is concentrating so hard on his air guitar that he even has his tongue out and B) Atticus has crossed into angry punk rock mode in the background.

Other time fillers have included listening to Atticus sing off-key to the ipod while he wears headphones and staring wistfully out onto the horizon. At least this photo proves Jon does occasionally wear a shirt at home.

Getting Crafty!

(Alternative Title: Folkin' Awesome!)

Bangladesh has a very distinct style of folk art and we really enjoy it. As an artistic style, it overlaps with the style of painting on rickshaws, which we also like. A while ago we got some little cheap wooden stools to use as end tables and our plan was to paint them up folk-style.

The plan was really a rip-off of some furniture we saw at a shop geared toward foreigners. They were basic wooden tables decorated with rickshaw style art and they were charging an enormous price for them. We figured we could probably do just as well on the paint job and could manage it for about a tenth of what the fancy shop was charging. So that was the plan.

A few months ago, Jon went over to where you can buy cheap un-treated wood to get some end tables and a few other furniture items we needed. We never really got around to painting the stools though, so they have just been sitting around in raw form.

Just this past Friday we needed a few other table type things around the house. We think the realization that we’ve been here almost a year and that we’ve still got 6 months motivated us to finally get a few things we were putting off. We also have a visitor coming to stay with us, so we needed to get a few household matters together. Anyway, desperate for activities to fill the summer vacation hours, we took a family trip back over the raw-wood furniture area off a large road near Atticus’ school neighborhood .

It is a fun place to go actually, and everyone there always seems happy and generally surprised to help us. This isn’t high end stuff (it is the same place Taborok and his neighbors get furniture) but it is basic good wooden furniture and super cheap. (The stools were 150 taka each which is just a little over two US dollars!). We needed a table or desk for Atticus’ room and a little table next to our kitchen for that junk you always need a little table next to the kitchen for, and a couple more chairs.

It was especially fun this trip because in addition to excited helpful people, there were KITTENS! Little, adorable, only a few weeks old kittens just running around the furniture. Sam and Atticus immediately lost all focus on the furniture buying. Sam was delighted to get to pick one up (it was so tiny!) and everyone seemed to enjoy seeing our excitement over the kittens. The shopkeeper offered to give us one, but we couldn’t take it. It would be impractical and we are only here for a half a year more. (Not to mention that Sam has vowed to never own another cat.)
So we found our furniture and bought it. All in all, we got a desk, a table, and 2 chairs for about 16 US dollars. Not bad. We rode home on a rickshaw behind the rickshaw cart delivering our new bargains and discussed how we should really do our project of painting those stools.
So, we got home and decided to get our craft project going. Jon ran out and got our paint supplies. He got some spray paint to cover the wood for a base. Jon still has all his old skillz with a spray can and got them coated in no time.
Once the base was dry, it was time to get painting. We set up a makeshift studio in the corner and went to town. Atticus helped on some stripes here and there and Jon and Sam ended up each kind of designing their own table (we know, we know - we are all about collaboration, but the timing worked better this way). Anyway, Jon went for a more rickshaw art style, and based his flowery bench on the free-spirited painting style we see all around. He really captured a lot of the types of flowwers rickshaws are adorned with. Sam went for a more traditional Bangladeshi folk style and painted a pretty classically folk styled bird motif on hers. It was more like the art from Bengali revivalism, and which is found on the cultural programs and performance backgrounds here.

They turned out GREAT! We love them... so much that we took a bunch of pictures and are posting them for you to see. It was a fun little project and our benches did end up costing a fraction of the price and equally awesome. Hooray for DIY!

Here we are painting- we didn't want our clothes to get paint on them, which is the official response for why Jon and Atticus have so few clothes on in these pictures.

The finished products are below, with detail shots! Pretty great, huh?

Of course the crappy thing about DIY is the cleanup, but with enough turpentine fumes in the air, even that can be kind of fun.

General Strike (or Generally Unstriking)

Yesterday was the day of the hartal (general strike) which the main opposition party, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), called for to press their demands for something or another. The hartal has been planned for like a month and we’ve been interested to see how it would go. Actually, the newspapers reported that it was because the ruling party is trying to evict the chairman of the BNP from her house on the cantonment (military base) because of a “faulty lease,” (which it probably is since everything associated with politics seems to be tainted in some way or another). It was the first hartal in three years (well the first real one, loyal readers will recall there was a half-day hartal called waaay back in September by an obscure group with way to long of a name). At one point in time hartals were a pretty common tactic that the parties here used to undermine each other. In fact, part of the justification for the suspension of the government several years back was that the hartals over party-issues and petty grievances had gotten so obstructive the government couldn’t function. That is debatable, but certainly most people would agree that the political parties here are frustratingly un-functional and petty.

Although we generally enjoy when political parties are undermined we were admittedly a little torn with this one. As many of you may know, Jon and Sam are usually in support of mass and direct action to press for change because these types of actions can build revolutionary consciousness, empowerment, and a sense of struggle and solidarity. But on the other hand the hartal yesterday was called by the conservative businessmen and fundamentalist Islam party alliance, which you can probably figure out, we don’t generally support.

On the morning of the strike we decided that we would go ahead and send Atticus to school (despite his best efforts to stay home - maybe he is a BNP supporter) since his school was to remain open (though with reduced staff). This gave us a chance to go out and check things out. On the way to school Jon and Atticus commented that they were disappointed not to see any road blockades, pickets, burning cars, etc. In fact, most of the businesses were open that are usually open. The only major difference was the relative lack of cars on the roads. So after dropping Atticus off at a generally deserted school, Jon was feeling a little disappointed in the lack of civil strife in the diplomatic zone where Atticus’ school is and he came home and convinced Sam that we should take a stroll down to Gulshan 2, which is a main intersection and market area, to see if we could find any action. We had begun to wonder how much the strike was really being observed since so many businesses were open and even our landlord (who is the chairman of the local BNP arm!) still had his workers come in to continue the construction on the roof. Nevertheless we wanted to see for ourselves.

The walk to Gulshan 2 was much more pleasant than usual because there were so few cars on the roads. Once we got to Gulshan 2 we noticed that the circle at the intersection was open to rickshaws (it is usually closed because of wrongheaded anti-rickshaw policies) and they had free reign of it. We also noticed the forces of order were out in full strength (the papers said there were 12,000 cops out in the city for the strike). But overall, the usually highly congested area was very pleasant since there were so few cars. Everybody seemed to be in a great mood too since they didn’t have to dodge cars and buses especially the ricksaw-wallahs who slowly pedaled around casually looking for fares . Even the cops and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were in a good mood ( they are usually busy carrying out extrajudicial killings in so-called “crossfire” with “criminals,” but today they got to just kick back in their little truck). We didn’t really know what to do with ourselves once we got two Gulshan 2, but since it was so pleasant we felt compelled to hang around. We decided to go get some absurdly overpriced coffee at the Westin.

Below are some pics of Gulshan 2 and the rickshaw controlled streets as well as the some Happy RAB cops and beggar kids.







Finally, after hanging around and realizing that we weren’t going to see any street action we headed home. On the way home we got stuck in a downpour, but we had our umbrellas with us so we didn’t mind. We actually kind of enjoyed walking home in the empty, rain filled streets. So, while we didn’t necessarily support the parties that called for the hartal , we did appreciate the break from the urban craziness that it offered. Atticus also really enjoyed being one of only about a dozen kids at his school that day and got a kick out of how few of his classmates were there.

Although the papers reported that there were some clashes throughout Dhaka, ironically, we enjoyed this general strike for the peacefulness it brought to the streets rather than the strife. Hopefully next hartal will be for something important rather than petty and partisan. Anyway here is a picture of sam enjoying the rain.