Dear Family and Friends,
Once again I apologise for the lack of photos but will fix as soon as I can.
Shane drove me to the Bashindara Shopping Mall on my second day in Dhaka. I was dying to go after his description of it being around 8 or so stories high with stained glass ceiling and just hundreds and hundreds of stores. I was excited about buying some really cheap shoes and Bata Shoes are actually made here in Bangladesh. All good....or so I thought...
Firstly, to my utter disappointment, I didn't fit any of the shoes due to my clodhopper sized feet (Bata go up to size 7 and I need size 9 or 10 depending on the make) and all the private shoe retailers that sold imported shoes (I went into about four shoe shops) had nothing close to my size either. I now know how Cindarella's ugly step sisters must have felt when desparately trying to get the magic shoe to fit but I repeated this excrutiating exercise in four shoe shops determined as I was that this situation could not be happening! I wanted those shoes dammit! What was really annoying was that the men who served me in each and every shoe shop insisted I buy the shoe that was the closest fit; not the correct fit mind you, just the closest fit. So that was my introduction to 'shopping Bangladesh style'.
Mostly, all the Bangladeshi shop owners are men with male employees and a smattering of women. OK so I know I sound unwordly and untravelled (a serious greenhorn to be sure to be sure)... but the men are really pushy so in an open space between two lines of shops in the Bashindara Shopping Complex (or any shops anywhere), they are standing outside the entrance of their stores incessantly urging you to come in. OMG it is so not relaxing and you cannot wander where ever your nose fancies with all the noise and desire by total strangers to get your attention. GO AWAY. GRRRrrrrr. Even when inside the shops, the men stand over you like real standover merchants; they follow you around, invade your personal space and your thoughts and manage to kill any desire to actually spend money. To be fair the Bangladeshi women also do the same thing, but more from an acceptable distance. You can garuantee that you'll come out more tense than you went in. Maybe they've got some deal going with massuers in the city?
In the Bashindara Shopping Mall all the lingerie shops also had males working in the shops who were calling out to me. Eeeek! What woman wants a bra fitted by a male, or does it just not happen and you just hope you've bought the right size? I don't think I'll be finding out in a hurry and I was suddenly thankful that I had bought a whole tonne of new underwear before I came, especially bras. I voiced my disdain about the whole men in womens' lingerie shops thing to Shane who explained that the ready made garment (RMG - I learnt that today) industry in Dhaka is huge and dominated by men (no shit). So I made up my mind that I would not return in a hurry to Bashindara Shopping Mall let alone spend my money on any lingerie shop where I would be served by a male as the feminist in me just wouldn't allow it.
As soon as Shane went back to work (in the first week) I got out and about because I knew if I didn't make myself, it would never happen. So I went down to Gulshan 2 Circle shops nearby and had a similar experience to the Bashindara Shopping Mall. Not good. The next day I made up my mind to head off again but to find a way to enjoy it and to seek out the shops I really wanted to see (mainly the art galleries) and to not let anyone spoil my experience (that being the traders). I finally found the stairs to get up to the first floor of DTT 2 shopping area (trust me, it was only hard for me). I made a point of taking only one step inside any shop that took my fancy and saying firmly, "OK if I LOOK?" It seemed to work for the most part; it gave me some control by establishing my intentions up front and the men kept their distance each time. Awesome. I really enjoyed the art galleries that day. Gail if you read this, there's some awesome peices you could hang in your beautiful home, tell Chris, cheap, very cheap! :), However, just when my confidence was high, I made a dick of myself by tripping up over a one inch raised floor in this fab shop that had Bangladeshi handcraft items but still managed to get out my holy mantra of "OK if I look" whilst flying through the shop doorway and simultaneously trying to recover my decorum (heh heh, that was nearly the name of the shop too, Decorium).
After that shop, there was this young Bangladeshi guy outside a jewellery cum antiques store that I tried to walk past because I was not interested in any of it; looked like junk to me. But in a moment of weakness I allowed him to lure me in because he'd indulged in some humourous banter with me. As soon as I got in he pulled out pearls for me to view, so, so much for being allowed to 'just look' as I had insisted and he had agreed to in our banter outside his store. In the end, he was appalled that I was going to leave without even a 'lend' of a medallion where I would be allowed to take the jewellery item away with me and owe him him the money without even a deposit (yep I'd just love to owe money to one of these guys, NOT). How that arrangement would work I don't know, I wasn't hanging round to ask either so the very last thing this guy did, was give me his business card because he couldn't bear the thought of having lost a sale and that maybe I'd come back but would forget what his store was called. Jeez mate, I don't like your store, clean it up! All in all, I felt I had been about 90% successful in getting the store workers to BACK OFF that day. So in summary, browsing shops in Bangladesh is nothing short of interesting and eventful and you need to have your wits and your energy because 'just looking' is not Bangladeshi shopping culture.
Whilst talking about Bangladeshi store owners and employees, particularly male Bangladeshi shop staff, I had Shane's gmail account open (hard to explain) but we are sharing one PC at the moment and having to logout/login of each others' gmail accounts when we want to email. I had just read a story online (NT News) about the King of Saudi Arabia decreeing that all lingerie store owners have 6 months to lay off their male staff and to employ only women so that Saudi women feel comfortable when buying under garments. Apparently it is a real win for Saudi women on a number of fronts (employment and most importantly, feeling comfortable when they shop). I got really excited because all this reminded me of how I felt in the Bashindara Shopping Mall and I thought I'd send the link to Shane at work. Small problem, I used Shane's email account and doubly, I accidently typed his secretary's name into the 'To' field instead of Shane's name as they both start with 'Sh'. So in effect, Shane sent one of his Bangladeshi female employees an email from his personal email account on a rather inappropriate subject! :) I tried to explain to him what had occured when he came home from work; that perhaps this required his immediate attention and that there could be issues...and finally, when he actually listened, he nearly had a heart attack! Hah hah, I couldn't stop laughing :). Shane is fortunate that his secretary actually understood his explanation and took it all with good humour the next day at work. But she also told Shane that she wished they would do the same in Bangladesh. See, I knew I was onto something! I'll start an anti-ligerie movement or something whilst I'm here, NOT! Hmmm, maybe we could all go bra-less, that would get a large section of the community offside heh heh...
Ciao everyone,
Lett
Once again I apologise for the lack of photos but will fix as soon as I can.
Shane drove me to the Bashindara Shopping Mall on my second day in Dhaka. I was dying to go after his description of it being around 8 or so stories high with stained glass ceiling and just hundreds and hundreds of stores. I was excited about buying some really cheap shoes and Bata Shoes are actually made here in Bangladesh. All good....or so I thought...
Firstly, to my utter disappointment, I didn't fit any of the shoes due to my clodhopper sized feet (Bata go up to size 7 and I need size 9 or 10 depending on the make) and all the private shoe retailers that sold imported shoes (I went into about four shoe shops) had nothing close to my size either. I now know how Cindarella's ugly step sisters must have felt when desparately trying to get the magic shoe to fit but I repeated this excrutiating exercise in four shoe shops determined as I was that this situation could not be happening! I wanted those shoes dammit! What was really annoying was that the men who served me in each and every shoe shop insisted I buy the shoe that was the closest fit; not the correct fit mind you, just the closest fit. So that was my introduction to 'shopping Bangladesh style'.
Mostly, all the Bangladeshi shop owners are men with male employees and a smattering of women. OK so I know I sound unwordly and untravelled (a serious greenhorn to be sure to be sure)... but the men are really pushy so in an open space between two lines of shops in the Bashindara Shopping Complex (or any shops anywhere), they are standing outside the entrance of their stores incessantly urging you to come in. OMG it is so not relaxing and you cannot wander where ever your nose fancies with all the noise and desire by total strangers to get your attention. GO AWAY. GRRRrrrrr. Even when inside the shops, the men stand over you like real standover merchants; they follow you around, invade your personal space and your thoughts and manage to kill any desire to actually spend money. To be fair the Bangladeshi women also do the same thing, but more from an acceptable distance. You can garuantee that you'll come out more tense than you went in. Maybe they've got some deal going with massuers in the city?
In the Bashindara Shopping Mall all the lingerie shops also had males working in the shops who were calling out to me. Eeeek! What woman wants a bra fitted by a male, or does it just not happen and you just hope you've bought the right size? I don't think I'll be finding out in a hurry and I was suddenly thankful that I had bought a whole tonne of new underwear before I came, especially bras. I voiced my disdain about the whole men in womens' lingerie shops thing to Shane who explained that the ready made garment (RMG - I learnt that today) industry in Dhaka is huge and dominated by men (no shit). So I made up my mind that I would not return in a hurry to Bashindara Shopping Mall let alone spend my money on any lingerie shop where I would be served by a male as the feminist in me just wouldn't allow it.
As soon as Shane went back to work (in the first week) I got out and about because I knew if I didn't make myself, it would never happen. So I went down to Gulshan 2 Circle shops nearby and had a similar experience to the Bashindara Shopping Mall. Not good. The next day I made up my mind to head off again but to find a way to enjoy it and to seek out the shops I really wanted to see (mainly the art galleries) and to not let anyone spoil my experience (that being the traders). I finally found the stairs to get up to the first floor of DTT 2 shopping area (trust me, it was only hard for me). I made a point of taking only one step inside any shop that took my fancy and saying firmly, "OK if I LOOK?" It seemed to work for the most part; it gave me some control by establishing my intentions up front and the men kept their distance each time. Awesome. I really enjoyed the art galleries that day. Gail if you read this, there's some awesome peices you could hang in your beautiful home, tell Chris, cheap, very cheap! :), However, just when my confidence was high, I made a dick of myself by tripping up over a one inch raised floor in this fab shop that had Bangladeshi handcraft items but still managed to get out my holy mantra of "OK if I look" whilst flying through the shop doorway and simultaneously trying to recover my decorum (heh heh, that was nearly the name of the shop too, Decorium).
After that shop, there was this young Bangladeshi guy outside a jewellery cum antiques store that I tried to walk past because I was not interested in any of it; looked like junk to me. But in a moment of weakness I allowed him to lure me in because he'd indulged in some humourous banter with me. As soon as I got in he pulled out pearls for me to view, so, so much for being allowed to 'just look' as I had insisted and he had agreed to in our banter outside his store. In the end, he was appalled that I was going to leave without even a 'lend' of a medallion where I would be allowed to take the jewellery item away with me and owe him him the money without even a deposit (yep I'd just love to owe money to one of these guys, NOT). How that arrangement would work I don't know, I wasn't hanging round to ask either so the very last thing this guy did, was give me his business card because he couldn't bear the thought of having lost a sale and that maybe I'd come back but would forget what his store was called. Jeez mate, I don't like your store, clean it up! All in all, I felt I had been about 90% successful in getting the store workers to BACK OFF that day. So in summary, browsing shops in Bangladesh is nothing short of interesting and eventful and you need to have your wits and your energy because 'just looking' is not Bangladeshi shopping culture.
Whilst talking about Bangladeshi store owners and employees, particularly male Bangladeshi shop staff, I had Shane's gmail account open (hard to explain) but we are sharing one PC at the moment and having to logout/login of each others' gmail accounts when we want to email. I had just read a story online (NT News) about the King of Saudi Arabia decreeing that all lingerie store owners have 6 months to lay off their male staff and to employ only women so that Saudi women feel comfortable when buying under garments. Apparently it is a real win for Saudi women on a number of fronts (employment and most importantly, feeling comfortable when they shop). I got really excited because all this reminded me of how I felt in the Bashindara Shopping Mall and I thought I'd send the link to Shane at work. Small problem, I used Shane's email account and doubly, I accidently typed his secretary's name into the 'To' field instead of Shane's name as they both start with 'Sh'. So in effect, Shane sent one of his Bangladeshi female employees an email from his personal email account on a rather inappropriate subject! :) I tried to explain to him what had occured when he came home from work; that perhaps this required his immediate attention and that there could be issues...and finally, when he actually listened, he nearly had a heart attack! Hah hah, I couldn't stop laughing :). Shane is fortunate that his secretary actually understood his explanation and took it all with good humour the next day at work. But she also told Shane that she wished they would do the same in Bangladesh. See, I knew I was onto something! I'll start an anti-ligerie movement or something whilst I'm here, NOT! Hmmm, maybe we could all go bra-less, that would get a large section of the community offside heh heh...
Ciao everyone,
Lett
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