Well - it's official: I survived my first official week on the job! Hooray! I don't think I messed anything up too badly, either!
Friday was my first day off so I slept in a little bit, had a late breakfast and decided to go explore the neighborhood where my hotel is, Banani. Banani, you might be surprised to know, does not have a lot of bananas, I was sad to discover. :-)
One of my colleagues from the office lives in Banani and offered to walk me around the neighborhood a bit and show me what's there. Banani is one of the neighborhoods where we're looking to move, so I was also curious to get to know it better for that reason.
We started at one of the few places I did already know in Dhaka, a great place called Jatra. Jatra has beautiful handmade fixtures and artwork for the home. Last time I was here I visited it with my boss and was completely blown away by all the incredible things they had. So, it was a nice place to start. I ended up buying myself a local outfit, since their clothes are so nice (and affordable) and it seemed like a good thing to do.
From there we walked to the Banani market, a smellier but very lively version of Pike Place Market. Let's just say you wouldn't want any of your lovely new produce to fall on the floors there, though. Doesn't do much for the appetite. In addition to beautiful fresh veggies and fruits, there was a bloody array of chickens (the cackling and post-cackling type), goats and even cow heads. Yum! From there we walked over to the Banani Supermarket, a sort of multilevel mall with lots of great shops. Here you can buy any fabric you want and have a tailor turn it into whatever you want. Most nice things you see people wearing here were probably tailored. People take their clothing very seriously. I also visited Dhaka's latest department store, Uni-Mart, a Thai owned Fred Meyer or Walmart style grocery store with appliances and other electronics. It seems we can buy nearly everything there, so that should make getting set up a whole lot easier.
From there we found a few more fun shops and restaurants, such as the Australian and American stores as well as KFC and Pizza Hut. Apparently they have Domino's here too.
Then we walked down to Road 11 which is the fancier part of Banani. It's a stretch of great cafes, bakeries and restaurants. I saw Korean, Turkish, Indian and Italian places, as well as a Thai place called "Western Ireland" (??). Yeah. There was even a Mexican place called "Quesadilla" where we had lunch - and I have to say it was a damn good quesadilla! We stopped in some amazing bakeries and even found a great gelato place. Needless to say, I'm sure Road 11 is in our future!
Friday was my first day off so I slept in a little bit, had a late breakfast and decided to go explore the neighborhood where my hotel is, Banani. Banani, you might be surprised to know, does not have a lot of bananas, I was sad to discover. :-)
One of my colleagues from the office lives in Banani and offered to walk me around the neighborhood a bit and show me what's there. Banani is one of the neighborhoods where we're looking to move, so I was also curious to get to know it better for that reason.
We started at one of the few places I did already know in Dhaka, a great place called Jatra. Jatra has beautiful handmade fixtures and artwork for the home. Last time I was here I visited it with my boss and was completely blown away by all the incredible things they had. So, it was a nice place to start. I ended up buying myself a local outfit, since their clothes are so nice (and affordable) and it seemed like a good thing to do.
From there we walked to the Banani market, a smellier but very lively version of Pike Place Market. Let's just say you wouldn't want any of your lovely new produce to fall on the floors there, though. Doesn't do much for the appetite. In addition to beautiful fresh veggies and fruits, there was a bloody array of chickens (the cackling and post-cackling type), goats and even cow heads. Yum! From there we walked over to the Banani Supermarket, a sort of multilevel mall with lots of great shops. Here you can buy any fabric you want and have a tailor turn it into whatever you want. Most nice things you see people wearing here were probably tailored. People take their clothing very seriously. I also visited Dhaka's latest department store, Uni-Mart, a Thai owned Fred Meyer or Walmart style grocery store with appliances and other electronics. It seems we can buy nearly everything there, so that should make getting set up a whole lot easier.
From there we found a few more fun shops and restaurants, such as the Australian and American stores as well as KFC and Pizza Hut. Apparently they have Domino's here too.
Then we walked down to Road 11 which is the fancier part of Banani. It's a stretch of great cafes, bakeries and restaurants. I saw Korean, Turkish, Indian and Italian places, as well as a Thai place called "Western Ireland" (??). Yeah. There was even a Mexican place called "Quesadilla" where we had lunch - and I have to say it was a damn good quesadilla! We stopped in some amazing bakeries and even found a great gelato place. Needless to say, I'm sure Road 11 is in our future!
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