3 Singaporeans
Quip of the week:
"No, we don't have Tiger beer... Do you want Elephant?"
Must be wondering why Gwen's talking about beer right? Don't worry... I'm still teetotal...
Let me explain...
Jessica's boyfriend just arrived at Dhaka two days ago and we'd all been going out... They are really funny to hang out with... I haven't spoken that much Singlish in a long long time! I mean, Jess & I do speak it... But it's just more dynamic with Darren around now... Cos he talks really fast and has a very quirky sense of humour... (I didn't say that... Jess did...) It is a very interesting feeling when you can talk using a little bit of dialect here and there, throw in some chinese and malay into the sentence... and EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS... It's a real first...
First day he arrived, we all went to Elephant road and bought saris.. Jess bought 2... I bought 1... (Mine cost Tk400! Unbelievably cheap... Jess' was even cheaper... But oh well... ) When the couple talks, it sounds like they are arguing... But really... They're just having fun! And it's really amusing to watch them...
Last night, we went to have dinner at Bar-B-Q Tonight. It's a strange place... But not in the way you'd think....We have meals out in the open... In their courtyard... Which is good... But everytime we go there, we'd end up getting very badly stared at and laughed at... Good thing it wasn't like that yesterday...
The people there didn't notice us much... The waiter was a little grumpy at first... Until he started noticing that we were speaking bangla... And then he was so amazed that he praised us for it... He wore a smile for the rest of the evening... =) The food is nice... But i've decided never to get that beef I ordered yesterday ever again... It's a beef patty minced with chilli and chilli seeds... It's really really hot... I had to get 2 lassis to get it down... Phew!
After dinner we saw a naked man sitting at the side of the road... Reminded me of this one incident, days before that, of another woman who wasn't wearing anything.. According to Rajiv, who took pictures of the entire event, she had taken off her clothes and thrown them away... Jess & I saw her sitting at Road 32 with only paper to cover herself... Rajiv told us that many women had come by and tried to give her clothes to put on... But she refused them and chased them away.... Later on, she came near Pathshala and Jess ran to give her old sari... Only it was Zaid who actually offered it to her... He looked the most gentle of all of us... And she accepted it! She put on the sari very very quickly... Much faster than Jess & I ever could...
Ok... Back from the sidetrack...
We decided to go to Peacock... An underground bar... Jess & Darren wanted to get some beer... I just wanted to see what the place was like... It's in a small alley... Near a Peacock Restaurant and Peacock Hotel... It looks like a long room with curtained windows and doors on one side... No lights on the inside... Save for some small red bulbs.... Zaid said that the idea was that no one can see your face from the next table... (But that did not stop some strange guy in the next table from asking us... "Your country?") And no a/c either... Just fans... And bad music... It's just a place to drink and leave... No atmosphere whatsoever... I found it rather interesting though... It just seemed like such a candestine affair... Haha...
Good thing Zaid came along... He helped us from getting ripped off by the waiters... (Ok, not really us... I didn't buy anything at all...) Jess was saying... "For someone who doesn't smoke or drink, you are really hanging out a lot with us..." Haha! She was slightly high at that point... She only had one can of Heineken... But being the first one in 3 months... It might as well have been vodka...
Okok.... Now, where does that strange quip come from then?
See, Jess & Darren ordered Heineken... Then they saw an anchor logo somewhere... And decided to try their luck at getting Tiger Beer... So they asked the waiter for Tiger... The guy had no idea and went to the kitchen to find out... After a while, he came back and said...
"No, we don't have Tiger beer... Do you want Elephant?"
Must be wondering why Gwen's talking about beer right? Don't worry... I'm still teetotal...
Let me explain...
Jessica's boyfriend just arrived at Dhaka two days ago and we'd all been going out... They are really funny to hang out with... I haven't spoken that much Singlish in a long long time! I mean, Jess & I do speak it... But it's just more dynamic with Darren around now... Cos he talks really fast and has a very quirky sense of humour... (I didn't say that... Jess did...) It is a very interesting feeling when you can talk using a little bit of dialect here and there, throw in some chinese and malay into the sentence... and EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS... It's a real first...
First day he arrived, we all went to Elephant road and bought saris.. Jess bought 2... I bought 1... (Mine cost Tk400! Unbelievably cheap... Jess' was even cheaper... But oh well... ) When the couple talks, it sounds like they are arguing... But really... They're just having fun! And it's really amusing to watch them...
Last night, we went to have dinner at Bar-B-Q Tonight. It's a strange place... But not in the way you'd think....We have meals out in the open... In their courtyard... Which is good... But everytime we go there, we'd end up getting very badly stared at and laughed at... Good thing it wasn't like that yesterday...
The people there didn't notice us much... The waiter was a little grumpy at first... Until he started noticing that we were speaking bangla... And then he was so amazed that he praised us for it... He wore a smile for the rest of the evening... =) The food is nice... But i've decided never to get that beef I ordered yesterday ever again... It's a beef patty minced with chilli and chilli seeds... It's really really hot... I had to get 2 lassis to get it down... Phew!
After dinner we saw a naked man sitting at the side of the road... Reminded me of this one incident, days before that, of another woman who wasn't wearing anything.. According to Rajiv, who took pictures of the entire event, she had taken off her clothes and thrown them away... Jess & I saw her sitting at Road 32 with only paper to cover herself... Rajiv told us that many women had come by and tried to give her clothes to put on... But she refused them and chased them away.... Later on, she came near Pathshala and Jess ran to give her old sari... Only it was Zaid who actually offered it to her... He looked the most gentle of all of us... And she accepted it! She put on the sari very very quickly... Much faster than Jess & I ever could...
Ok... Back from the sidetrack...
We decided to go to Peacock... An underground bar... Jess & Darren wanted to get some beer... I just wanted to see what the place was like... It's in a small alley... Near a Peacock Restaurant and Peacock Hotel... It looks like a long room with curtained windows and doors on one side... No lights on the inside... Save for some small red bulbs.... Zaid said that the idea was that no one can see your face from the next table... (But that did not stop some strange guy in the next table from asking us... "Your country?") And no a/c either... Just fans... And bad music... It's just a place to drink and leave... No atmosphere whatsoever... I found it rather interesting though... It just seemed like such a candestine affair... Haha...
Good thing Zaid came along... He helped us from getting ripped off by the waiters... (Ok, not really us... I didn't buy anything at all...) Jess was saying... "For someone who doesn't smoke or drink, you are really hanging out a lot with us..." Haha! She was slightly high at that point... She only had one can of Heineken... But being the first one in 3 months... It might as well have been vodka...
Okok.... Now, where does that strange quip come from then?
See, Jess & Darren ordered Heineken... Then they saw an anchor logo somewhere... And decided to try their luck at getting Tiger Beer... So they asked the waiter for Tiger... The guy had no idea and went to the kitchen to find out... After a while, he came back and said...
"No, we don't have Tiger beer... Do you want Elephant?"
Darren started laughing! Until he realized that the guy was dead serious....
Just makes us wonder... What exactly is Elephant beer anyway?
posted by thebemusedphotog @ 5:00 PM
3 Comments:
Hi,
This is rajib. I live in Atlanta, USA. I was born in Bangladesh and lived there until I was 16 before my family moved to the USA. Your website came up in a random search. I went through your photo albums. The pictures are really nice…..made me miss home. I got the impression, from reading your blog, that you want to become a professional photographer. That is really great. My youngest uncle is a professional photographer. He takes really good pictures.
I really don’t mean to sound rude when I say this….but you still have to work very hard if you want to take profession pictures. One can do great photography with poverty. I have seen them. An overenthusiastic tourist who went to a poor county for the first time probably would have taken same pictures that you took. There are lots of good professional pictures about poverty in Bangladesh and I think you should make use of them.
I really didn’t mean to sound like some type of a snob. I am being mean to you so next time when I visit your website I will get to see some better pictures of home :)
--rajib
PS: You room looks very cool! I am not joking. I like it.
yup... you're right... Most of the pictures aren't good... In fact, many of them should be edited out... But I wanted to show my folks back home what this place looks like... thus the tourist snapshots... I'm not a very good photographer either... I only started to pick up photography last june actually... So yeah... I will try to take some better pictures... =)
okay...
elephant is a strong beer by carlsberg, and jess & daren should have tried that instead of heineken. if heiniken acted like vodka, i wonder what elephant would have done.
so you totally got the wrong idea about peacock. its actually one of the better bars in town. remember i had arrived after you were already seated, and i was walking past you people going straight into the main building, when you called out to me.... hmmm, you were actually in the 'outer' sitting area. there is a proper bar inside, with ac, and televisions. a little brighter, but still pretty dark.
whats an underground bar? i dont think peacock would be the answer. just the sitting area you were in was shady. they even have private quarters upstairs for when the bar is over packed hehehe, and that is reeeeaaaaallllly shady.
anyway, i dont know why i'm being so friendly here on your blog, which i wasnt even aware existed. i really shouldnt be, specially after how you have dissapeared from my life when i waved goodbye to you at zia airport...when was it... two months ago???
out of sight out of mind, eh?!
i was so worried about the creature i helped sedate. and neither of you bothered to let me know anything. i had taken for granted that it was dead and that both of you were in prison.... until three days later when i called topu and enquired.
from the looks of this blog (which i have just discovered and havent really looked around) it seems that it will be quite some time before you find this entry, that is if you ever return here. i wanted to email both jess and you a number of times, but i dont know why i still havent.
this comment is becoming longer than your original entry. i think its time for me to split.
tata
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