Drive Through Tupperware Sales
City Life in Dhaka
How to Get Tailor Made Clothes in Dhaka
One of the splendid things about life in Bangladesh is having clothes tailor-made.
You can select every detail of the clothing and they can make it for you (or better yet, give the tailor a sample to copy). Or if you want to be on the cusp of fashion, you can shop from a fashion designer.
Buy the cloth. Let them tell you how much you’ll need. Take the cloth home and wash it to allow for shrinking. Buy decorations, edging, trim which is called “ribbon” here.
Take to your favorite tailor and have them sew it for it. If you take a sample of something you would like copied or a print out from the computer, the tailors will have an easier time of copying your design. Some can turn it around in a week. Others take four. Keep trying out different tailors or stick to one that you like. It costs (for an expat/foreigner) about 600 Taka ($8) for the tailoring. The cost of the cloth depends on what you buy. For a business style shirt (like at Banana Republic or Ann Taylor) of high grade cotton from India, it would cost around 800 Taka ($10) for the material itself.
So, economically speaking, you can buy cheaper clothes (even here) ready made. But it’s much more fun to design the clothes yourself!
In another posting, I will show more of what expats are wearing here in Dhaka.
The Emperor Who Lost His Empire – the Phouska Maker
The tale is one told many times over. Once upon a time, his family owned the whole neighborhood. Then, due to a Shakespearean turn of luck or plain greed, his family lost everything but the tiny phouska business.
The shop is located in a typical Dhaka locale. Off a main road, down another smaller street (alley is how some would describe it), and then left onto yet an even smaller street.
Phouska are the traditional golf ball sized fried shells filled with chick pea (garbanzo) and spices appetizer/snack served at weddings and street corners. The way to eat them is to make an indent into the chick pea filling, pour the tamarind and chili sauce into the hole you’ve made, and use your hand to pop the phouska into your mouth.
The phouska seller was so pleased that my colleague had come back to his shop (he had had him cater to his wedding), that he didn’t want him to pay for our food. But, fortunately, my colleague paid for it (20 Taka/25 cents per plate).
Drinks were bought at another store while we waited. We ate quickly and ate a second round quickly as the mosquitoes were swarming around our ankles making us all do the tappy dance with our feet while we ate.
We will be back (with bug sprayed feet).
Kerosene Rickshaw
The night in Dhaka arrives around 6 pm. It is pitch dark on some streets (the potholes and dogs are only some of the obstacles). In Baridhara, the rickshaws are required to have a light on their rickshaw at night. Currently, they use open flame kerosene lanterns attached underneath the seat of the rickshaw…
I wish that they would be retrofitted with pedal power LED lights… maybe there is an organization out there with this plan? Also, since rickshaws are extremely decorated, it would be nice to have reflective material used as part of the decoration. Just a thought.
Architecture in Dhaka
From the bump and whizz of a car, it has been hard to get a good photo of the famous national assembly building designed by Louis Kahn. Here is my best shot so far. I will take a closer look at some point.
Outdoor Toilette and Toilet of Televisions
Bangladesh is full of contrasts.
The “wash rooms” range from a bucket or oil drum of water — to those with plumbing and seated toilets. And then there is more — In one of the fancy new restaurants, there is a fully-mirrored toilet with two flat screen televisions embedded into the walls over the sink…
Bangladeshi Fashion Designer
Another reason I’m enjoying Dhaka is because I get to see things that make for great stories (and blog postings). Getting a tour of a fashion house was an unexpected surprise!
I had my Holud saree made by Sharmin, a fashion designer who has her own house of fashion, Kahon, Story of Stitch. I met Sharmin at a bazaar. She made my saree solely based on my verbal instructions. She finished it in time, emailed me that it was ready for pickup… but I could not get to her shop in time… because it was so important that I get my saree on time, she delivered it to my house! She even brought one of her tailors with her in case last minute adjustments needed to be made. What service!
Then she offered that I should come visit her “shop” in Tejgaon, the industrial park. (she has since moved her store upmarket:Â Dhanmondi-27, House-41, 3rd floor. Opposite the Dhaka bank. Her shop is in a building set back a bit from the main road) My friend offered to take me there. We handed the phone to the driver who listened to the complex directions and then we set off. Tejgaon is an area that can only really be visited on a Friday when the traffic is lighter (think Sunday in the US). We got to the area via a major road and then started down a road only big enough for rickshaws. Then we turned down a warren of streets and stopped at a gate. We had arrived.
We saw no sign but once we got the guard to open the gate, then we were led past the guards’ room (a flat bed tucked in under the stairs), we entered the fashion house. We were greeted warmly by Sharmin and her family. We were lead into the salesroom past the hallway with four or five rooms filled with the hum of workers. Sewing machines lined the hallway ready for a surge during wedding season. Almost everything is made in Sharmin’s shop. She designs the applique pieces and stamps for block prints before designing the fashions (via computer) which are then cut and sewn by her team of tailors.
We chose many clothes and Sharmin took the time for us (demanding) customers even though she was also in the middle of delivering to the stalls are the International Trade Fair. She sells some clothes under her own brand, Kahon, while much of her clothing is sold (and marked up!) by other shops in Dhaka. We were excited to buy from the source and get some of the fashions even before the style was launched (very exciting for one fashionista moment). Many thanks to Sharmin and her husband for being so friendly.
Once I’ve taken some photos, I’ll post more on clothes and fashion in Dhaka.
To Market; To Market!
A local market in Gulshan (warning: some of the photos may be “raw” to some people) is hidden down an alley. One of my friends took me there knowing that this place provides blogworthy photo opportunities. Someone told me that if the fish do not have flies on them, then you should be worried because those are the fish that are soaked in formaldehyde to keep them “fresh” looking…
While the market provided some really glamorous photo-ops, it also was a place where you do not want to wear low-dragging slacks, bellbottoms, or skirt. Also, this is not the place for those sensitive to “market” smells. The prices at the market can be good ($2 for a bunch of lettuce) and the variety is fairly similar to some places in the US, the shopping basket is very different (large and carried on head by your errand boy). Make sure to pay him. This is his workplace too.
The Good Realities of Life in Dhaka
Now that I wrote about the “realities” of life in Dhaka, I’ll tell you some of the “good realities” of life here in Dhaka.
Industriousness: Everywhere. Every time the car slows down, three or four hawkers will come tap on the window and try to get you to buy their wares. Some of the most common items for sale are poster-size laminated maps of Dhaka, the counties, and Bangladesh… flowers, and plastic food containers. Everywhere you look, you will see people doing something. Of course, there are beggars lying on the side of the road, but mostly, you’ll feel the hum and buzz of millions of boys, girls, and adults trying to sell you something. When you park your car, there will be someone there “guarding” your car — sometimes a boy trying to earn 20 Taka (25 cents).
Help: Household help is inexpensive. A full-time nanny costs $100-200 (per month). People are eager to work and they specialize in their field so some families employ the following specialized employees: cook, nanny (ayah), cleaner, bearer (someone who bears/carries things like tea), driver, gardener, and an assortment of combinations of these.
Commerce: Tailor-made clothing is easily at hand. $7 for a shirt. There are tailors all over. Some even come to your house. You can get manicures and massages in the convenience of your own home for very little money. Art supplies like oil paint cost about a fifth of the price in the US. Canvasses (which can be made to order) for painting are a tenth of the price ($5 for a large canvas that costs $50 in the US). Local fruits and vegetables are inexpensive if you shop where the locals shop and haggle like a local.
City life: I’m eating my way through the restaurants of Dhaka. There are many. This is a mega-city in a surge of rapid growth. If you like cities, dirty warts and all, then this is for you.
Adrenaline junkies: Driving in Dhaka is like being in a video game.
Bloggers and National Geographic types: At any moment something will happen that your audience might find a photo-worthy moment. I try to sit with my camera in my lap on almost every car ride. There are no dull days here. Today, I saw a small fluffy dog being walked from a rickshaw… if only I’d had my camera out then…
Smiles: There are 15 million people in Dhaka so you might get 500 smiles a day. Not everyone smiles, but if you smile at them… they might smile at you.
The Realities of Daily Life in Dhaka
***September 2013*** This blog posting continues to get read, so I thought I’d make sure it was still up to date. It is. Still “same, same” as those t-shirts in Cambodia and Thailand keep saying, saying.
I thoroughly enjoy Dhaka, but it occurred to me that some of you might want to know the “realities” of life in Dhaka for an expat like me. So here are some of the “different” things I’ve noticed so far:
I already mentioned the ever pervasive groupies called mosquitoes so we’ll skip those this time.
Otherwise, black snot. Terrible pollution (some get a constant cough). Tepid showers. Dirt. Dust. Hawking (phlegm being brought up). Public urination (and more). Mind boggling traffic. Scrapes to your car. Car crashes. Lack of safety rules. Beggars. Constant hassling when you go out. Staring. Wild dogs roving the streets. Feral cats too. Inflated “foreigner” prices. No traffic rules. No right of way (well, yours, or biggest goes first). No speed limit signs. Addresses known by the house’s name and not number. Lots of cussing (from foreigners driving). Funky smells every day. Bugs. Piles of dirt. Constant noise.
And more on the “huh, hadn’t thought of that!” sort of category… there are no cookie sheets here (since they use tandoor ovens so the cookies would have to be slapped on the sides like naan). Buttons are expensive (50 cents/button). In terms of imported foods, for example, you can buy tomato paste here… but instead of Costco’s price of $5 for six mini cans, it’ll be $4 for one large can. Celery is imported from Thailand and costs $12! Mushrooms are hard to find. ***much has changed in 18 months and some things are easier to find.***
Also, another thing that is different… although it seems odd to think that you would need lots of laundry detergent or plastic garbage bags etc, the actual reason that you would need so many things is that your household help will go through the stuff EVERY day… like literally a plastic trash bag every single day! You can try to teach them not to do this…
So, many of these “realities” are chandelier problems (as in “which chandelier shall I buy?”) but depending on the person, these can be big issues. Not to me. But, perhaps, I am in still in the honeymoon phase of my Bangladeshi experience… ***no longer in the honeymoon phase but all these truths are true.***
The King’s Bread is Buttered
Flaky, buttery, doughy, stretchy bread makes me happy… and today I found my European-style bread source in Dhaka.
King’s Confectionery is on Road 11 in Banani. Once a day at 7:30 in the morning, the bread truck arrives and delivers freshly baked French bread… and so much more. When you go inside, you take a round teak tray and tongs to choose your baked goods. You can take the croissants, breads, quiches, etc. home or eat it here. There is a seating area inside (spare and sparse) and a pleasant looking garden courtyard. They serve fresh brewed espresso (we’ll try that another time). I was so excited by the smells and array that I started taking photos… until I was told that no photography was allowed… so enjoy the photos (or go to the store yourself)!