A day spent...

A tale of a saturday spent.

I got up this morning and took my time getting going. I finally worked up the motivation downstairs to the office to get on the internet. After perusing for awhile (I read up on the latest colts news and about the slug fest that has become the NBA playoffs this year.) I decided to go buy some pants and find someone to make me a shirt. First though, I decided a snack sounded good. I grabbed 2 shingura at the restaurant by the bus stand. By the time I managed to walk there I was already sweating. Did I mention it was crazy hot today? I hopped on a rickshaw and we were off. I had him take me to the clothes people by the train tracks (many of them literally right no the train tracks...). It was hot so I gave him a little extra. I started walking and looking for a pants stall. I noticed some sunglasses shops along the way but I've all but given up finding a pair that I like here. Finally, I finally found a shop that looked like it had potential. I struck out on the first guess but they were kind enough to point me down the road. The second guess was a success we began debating what I wanted. They pulled out some interesting colors (a nice light blue (think old man pants) was my favorite of the silly ones) but I chose a nice dark brown pair to direct my attentions to. I've learned that the most important thing to look for in pants here is how well they hide dirt. After looking them over thoroughly I decided I would try them on. So upon telling them of my intentions, I hopped up into their stand. As I was just about to drop my pants with my backside to the road they produced a lungi for me to wear over my pants while I changed. Handy little things those lungis are. It was crazy hot in the booth because it was made of blue plastic sheeting and a tin roof. I pulled the pants on and they looked and felt like they were all right. I managed to get them for 200 taka which is just under $3. I found out later that it wasn't a totally horrible price which pleased me greatly. I then turned around and started heading for where I supposed I might find cloth merchants and tailors to make me a shirt.

I got distracted on the way and ended up on a whim walking down a narrow alley way that ended up being the umbrella market. Eventually this brought me out to the large vegetable market and I proceeded back to where I had started my misadventure. I started asking where I might find fabric and a tailor. They told me inside another building across the street. I headed in and down the cooridors. Unfortunately, every time I stopped to ask the guys who had cloth about getting a shirt made they just pointed me further down the alley to some other place. Eventually I realized that even if I did manage to find someone who understood what I was getting at they would still probably mess something up because my bangla isn't all that great. So I gave up and started wandering. I soon remembered how hot it was and decided to find a shop with a cold bottle of water. After success in this adventure I hopped on another rickshaw and said something to the effect of, "Yo home to bel air!" He of course was one of the slower rickshaw pullers I've ever had the pleasure of using. It was frustrating only because I purposefully picked someone who looked younger so I would have a good breeze. I got back and was showing the guards my new pants only to just then find the default in them. It isn't very big though so I'm not so worried.

I lounged around some more and ate some soup for lunch. Nate and I then watched most of the first episode of star wars. We were constantly reminded about how bad the film actually is but kept watching anyway. Eventually though, the fact that he bought it in Bangladesh caught back up to us when we discovered that in the middle of the fight scene on Naboo between the Jedis and Darth Maul, the video loops back to the beginning while the sound continues to go on. We of course refused to continue just listening to the plot.

I then headed on my bike to the local 4 star hotel which for a small fee of $2 per hour will let us swim in their pool. Of course this is Bangladesh so they forgot to put a filtration system into their pool. So instead of constantly filtering out the nasties they just empty it every once in awhile and fill it completely again with fresh water. Today the water was pretty green (they haven't changed it very lately). I decided to swim anyway. I figured it can't be much worse than swimming in a pond. After a nice workout in the pool I did a little reading and then biked back to my place. I then spent the end of the day as I started it, on the internet.

Enjoy your nice boring blog post of the week.

Ta Ta