To paraphrase food and travel god Tony Bourdain: where the French have been, there is good food. In Luang Prabang, Laos, there is a French bakery that delivers.
Enjoy.
- Raisin whole wheat bread.
Indochine – the French Legacy in Asia
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Leave Your Shoes Outside to Pray
Every back street in Luang Prabang, Laos, is filled with something new to see. We heard a bell pealing and then saw a quiet flow of people, locals and tourists, making their way, not to one of the many temples, but to a little building squeezed between a shop and cafe. It was so low key that I’m sure we could have taken off our shoes and joined in.
Dating in the Desh
Bangladesh is a crowded country so getting away from the madding crowd for a quiet “date” with someone you are courting or being courted by… is somewhat a matter of real estate. Famous Lalbagh Fort, considered a mini Taj Mahal, looks quite different from what is shown on the Amazing Race TV show, but it is worth visiting. There is a mausoleum built by a grieving father, a harem with baths, sweet smelling flowers, and a 300-year-old pool. Interestingly, what makes the fort so attractive is not the tomb, pool, or harem. In a crowded country, the walkways and niches provide a private place in a public space for young Bangladeshi couples to court. This a romantic place and there must be something in the air.
Love rocks!
The Price of Tourism
Just as the end of a museum tour ends in the gift shop, a pit stop at a “model” resettlement village is sometimes the price to pay when traveling as a tourist. In Luang Prabang, Laos, we hired a tour guide for a day. He told us that we just need to make one stop along the way… a Hmong village.
The Hmong people had been resettled here and make a living selling crafts to tourists. There are many debates on the pros and cons about whether this life is better for these people. Some people react by becoming very sad. Others feel uncomfortable. Yet others give the cute kids money after they’ve taken their photos. Some buy the crafts for sale. In this village, there was no pretense. The path through the village was lined with tables and stalls selling wares. We made our forced tour as fast as possible but, from the Northface clothing hanging on the line, it was evident that one could pay to stay overnight at this “authentic” village.
Prelude to the Monsoon
I have longed to experience the monsoon. I watch with great joy. It’s so wet that photos are hard to capture.
I’m told that this is the end of the hot season. The monsoons have come early this year. The days are sunny and the temperature reaches only into the 90s F (35 Celsius). Every few days, the sky will darken, the winds whip the trees into a frenzy, and then the water descends from the sky in buckets.
Bucket list, indeed.
Wedding and Christmas Lights All Year Round
In Bangladesh there are many happy (and bittersweet) opportunities for decorating the house with lights. For a farewell party last week, professional lighting guys arrived in the morning and strung (and flung) lights on the trees, gate, and house.
There is a famous company here in Dhaka called Banani Decorators who charge around 6,000 Taka per day ($80) but my friend has a friend who knows a guy who is the guy… 3,500 Taka ($45) for the first day and 2,500 Taka for the second day. This price includes labor and lights. Always be friendly and ask around. Find out who the “nodes” of the social world and “get up and go” kind of people are… they will set you up. Plus, a proactive type personality will probably also help you with the music, logistics, etc… and even be a good friend.
Good times here in Dhaka.
Restaurants in Dhaka – Part One
Going out to eat is a hobby of mine (some people collect stamps; I collect restaurants)… in the next year, I hope to go to 100 restaurants in Dhaka.
Until there’s a website or app for restaurants in Dhaka, these are the ones I have been to (and my own rating system):
BBQ Tonight (11/13 stars): meat on stick, three kinds of fresh flat bread, Afghan/Bangla/Pakistani/Indian food – must try: the “rahmali” or “handkerchief” bread.
Thai Kitchen (8/13): Thai cooked by a Thai cook – must try: chicken dumplings steamed.
Dhaba (7/13): Bengali street food in a cafe – must try: “Phoughka” which are chick peas in dough shells.
Roll Express (8/13): Bangladeshi filled flat bread – must try: dhosa filled with potatoes.
Oh Calcutta (8/13): West Bengali food – must try: Luchi/puri = fried bread. Elegant interior and good for business clientele.
Bamboo Shoot (9/13): Chinese owned Chinese food. Must try: fried dumplings.
Spaghetti Jazz (7/13): Italian. Must try: homemade spaghetti with garlic and chili flakes.
Caspian (6/13): Persian. Must try: Baklava bites.
El Toro (3/13): Mexican. Must try: going on a night when they have avocados.
Soi 71 (7/13): Thai. Must try: the play room in the basement. Good for business clientele.
The Steakhouse (8/13): Steak. Must try: Australian beef medium rare.
Khazana (7/13): Indian. Must try: the naan? This place is the place recommended by Indian business clientele.
Heritage (7/13): Indian/Bangladeshi. Must try: the buffet lunch for 450 Taka? Also popular with business clientele.
Don Giovanni (4/13): Italian. Must try: fried cheese.
Wasabi at the Bellagio (5/13): Japanese. Must try: a drink at the bar. One of the few places with a liquor license. Popular with business clientele.
Le Souffle at the Bellagio (6/13): French. Must try: the red mirrored bathroom. One of the few places with a liquor license. Popular with business clientele. The most expensive restaurant in Dhaka. 5,000 Taka for dinner for one.
Arirang (3/13): Korean. Must try: some other place.
Koreana (7/13): Korean. Must try: jigae.
Sura (3/13): Korean. Must try: shabu shabu.
King’s Confectionery (6/13): Baked goods. Sells chicken with curry. Must try: Croissant filled with Nutella and cream.
Movenpick (6/13): Ice cream, Swiss style. Also serves one sandwich type. Must try: a waffle under your ice cream.
Northend Coffee Roasters (10/13): Coffee and baked goods. Must try: cinnamon buns warm from the oven.
Best Western (2/13): Hotel food. Must try: the smoky bar on the roof?
That’s it for now except for a few local places without names.
~ Food with friends tastes best. ~
St. Valentines in Bangladesh
I think this story will suffice.
To read more about love… read this wonderful blog by an exceptional person: beyondthecornfields.blogspot.com
Under Water Sushi
Dinner in Dhaka usually does not cost 5,000 Taka ($60) but there are a few places that will set you back thousands…
Wasabi at Bellagio, House 4C, Rd 71, Gulshan Avenue, is one of them. The Bellagio building houses Wasabi, a sushi restaurant with a liquor license, on the ground floor. If you sit in the bar, you can sit under a fountain of water as it gushes over the curved glass ceiling. Upstairs is a French restaurant called Le Souffle. That’s where the food gets pricy. The chef is imported from France via Bangkok (much like the style of cooking and the ingredients) and the food is good if you want fancy French portions. Bread and desserts are well done there. It is also the place with the red fancy toilet that I mentioned in another posting. The third floor of Bellagio is destined to be another fancy restaurant. All in all, the Bellagio restaurants are the kind that expats like… so much so that I had three (count ’em) events there in one week.
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.
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.
Going Out On a Limb
***updated October 2013 — also Prisma now does Internet and I would choose a package deal if I were doing this again as their Internet prices are much cheaper than what I have*** Ninety-one channels of cable TV arrived yesterday. I went with a recommendation and used a company called Prisma Digital (www.prisma.net.bd). The customer service guy spoke English (useful for me considering my Bangla consists of saying something akin to “Good garble-TV-yes-yes?”). An appointment was made. Forty minutes after the appointed time, a call from the customer service saying that they were late. Another appointment time made. Another hour passed. Another call. Late again. New appointment made. For ten minutes later. Twenty minutes later, they arrived with the guard escorting them up and checking with me that this was truly what “madame” (me) wanted. The two guys came in (not in their uniforms like I was told by the guy on the phone) but still the one guy was carrying a large roll of cable on his shoulder so I figured they were the right guys (or that guy has the strangest taste in neck ornamentation). They took their shoes off out in the stairway. Then they set to work.
Efficiently, they opened the balcony door, fed cable out down to the street, and disappeared out onto the street. Coiling the wire into a loose bunch, he threw the bunch over the first wire criss-crossing the street. He missed and the wire got caught. He pulled it back down. Coiled it up again. Threw it again. It went over. The other cable guy helped guide him. They do this ten times a day, every day of the year (but for ten holidays he gets off per year), so they know what they are doing. No doubt. Then, through some rock, paper, scissors system, decided who would shimmy up the telephone pole. Up he went, barefoot, pulling on wires for support. When he got high enough, he pulled on the plastic tube holding many of the wires… water came shooting out and poured onto the street. Unperturbed, the cable guy reached out for the cable junction. He couldn’t reach it. He climbed a little higher by grabbing hold of the wires. Rickshaws and cars honked and buzzed by on the street. The neighbors came out to talk. The cable guys conferred, one at street level, the other one dangling from a telephone pole (this level of agility and athleticism is not called parkour, base jumping, rock climbing or anything else fancy that involves helmets, safety lines, or club memberships). Then, it was done. They came running up. One guy climbed up the bars on the balcony and neatly attached the cable out of the way, then fed it along the wall so that it would be neatly hidden. When he got to the balcony door, he took pliers and efficiently “bit” off bits of the door frames so that he could feed the cable in. Then they plugged in the TV, set the channels, wrote a neat carbon paper bill, handed me a guide to the channels, showed me some of the choice channels (sport with cricket, Star movies, MTV Asia, and BBC), and left.
A word about the channels. Many of them are the same channel but in different languages. I have Bangladeshi, Indian, Chinese, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, American, British, Australian, etc. channels (TLC, Discovery, CNN, BBC, NG, HBO and so on). All with an Asian twist.
It was 300 Taka ($4.50) for the installation fee and 300 Taka per month with no contract***since 2012, it has cost 400 taka per month, of which I pay six months at a time so that they cable guy will not appear at my door every month***. The guys would not take a tip.