I can't believe it's September already. Back home everyone is enjoying the last weekend of summer and it's starting to cool down. College football season is starting - Go Badgers!! It's such a great time of year. Being away from all the things we're used to makes me sometimes feel like I'm in some sort of alternate universe. Oh wait, I kind of am!
I started last week in Dhaka, Bangladesh as you know. It was a quick trip and I was back in Hong Kong by Tuesday morning. How to describe Bangladesh? It was pretty much what I expected it to be. There is a large contrast between those who have money and those who don't. The airport is surrounded by a metal fence and men with large guns. Even though we arrived at almost midnight there were large crowds of people everywhere. Security at the hotel was tight. You had to go through a metal detector before going inside and put your belongings through an x-ray machine. I didn't sleep well that night due to my new surroundings and being in yet another time zone. And since Bangladesh is a Muslim country, I was awakened at 5 AM by loudspeakers putting out the call to prayer. This happened several times throughout the day.
This is the view from my hotel room early in the morning and then later in the day when things get going...
Here is the view from our office. The buildings in the forefront were described to me by the office manager as the wealthy area. Across the lake you can see what he called the slums.
As I mentioned in my last post, the traffic getting to the hotel was like nothing I've ever seen. When we were trying to get back to the hotel from the office, our car was surrounded by other vehicles going the other direction ON BOTH SIDES OF US! To try and escape this, our driver drove in reverse for about half a block. I thought we might go in reverse the whole way back at that point! When we were at the airport leaving, we saw several men who were all dressed in white robes. I was told that these men were making the trip to Mecca. The Hajj is the Islamic pilgrimage that every able-bodied Muslim must do at least once in their lifetime. During the Hajj, male pilgrims are required to dress only in the ihram, a garment consisting of two sheets of white un-hemmed cloth, with the top draped over the torso and the bottom secured by a white sash; plus a pair of sandals. Thank you Wikipedia!! All in all, it was a very interesting experience and the people I met were very gracious and welcoming.
Back in Hong Kong I spent the rest of the week working. We did get the good news that we can move into our apartment on Thursday. We are really excited to get out of the hotel and into our own place. We've been in the hotel for so long now, that many of the staff know us by name. Zack has become quite friendly with Andy who is basically in charge of everything on our floor and hooks us up with lots and lots of water bottles.
I had an interesting encounter with a taxi driver last Friday. Now, most taxi drivers here don't speak a lot of English. You give them a card with the address of where you are going, they say ok ok, and off you go. This particular driver was the first one I'd met who could speak English. Shortly after starting our journey we encountered a woman walking down the middle of the street, right in our way. The driver started making this "tsk tsk" sound and mumbling under his breath. He then proceeds to tell me this woman is "mainland Chinese" and how much he hates them, how stupid and disgusting they are. He goes on to tell me how everyone in the world hates them and that they have no regard for anyone else. I was pretty surprised at his open hostility but had previously been advised that there is a lot of tension between Hong Kongers and the mainland Chinese. There have been protests on both sides of the matter and people are very open about their feelings on the issue. This is an ad that was published earlier this year by a pro-Hong Kong group. Basically, this ad is comparing mainland Chinese to locusts who are taking over.
After he finished his verbal tirade, we then spent the rest of the trip talking about the apparel industry as he had spent many years working at Bugle Boy in the 80's. Remember them?? What a blast from the past!
Hope everyone had a nice Labor Day weekend!!
Love to all,
Carla
I started last week in Dhaka, Bangladesh as you know. It was a quick trip and I was back in Hong Kong by Tuesday morning. How to describe Bangladesh? It was pretty much what I expected it to be. There is a large contrast between those who have money and those who don't. The airport is surrounded by a metal fence and men with large guns. Even though we arrived at almost midnight there were large crowds of people everywhere. Security at the hotel was tight. You had to go through a metal detector before going inside and put your belongings through an x-ray machine. I didn't sleep well that night due to my new surroundings and being in yet another time zone. And since Bangladesh is a Muslim country, I was awakened at 5 AM by loudspeakers putting out the call to prayer. This happened several times throughout the day.
This is the view from my hotel room early in the morning and then later in the day when things get going...
Here is the view from our office. The buildings in the forefront were described to me by the office manager as the wealthy area. Across the lake you can see what he called the slums.
As I mentioned in my last post, the traffic getting to the hotel was like nothing I've ever seen. When we were trying to get back to the hotel from the office, our car was surrounded by other vehicles going the other direction ON BOTH SIDES OF US! To try and escape this, our driver drove in reverse for about half a block. I thought we might go in reverse the whole way back at that point! When we were at the airport leaving, we saw several men who were all dressed in white robes. I was told that these men were making the trip to Mecca. The Hajj is the Islamic pilgrimage that every able-bodied Muslim must do at least once in their lifetime. During the Hajj, male pilgrims are required to dress only in the ihram, a garment consisting of two sheets of white un-hemmed cloth, with the top draped over the torso and the bottom secured by a white sash; plus a pair of sandals. Thank you Wikipedia!! All in all, it was a very interesting experience and the people I met were very gracious and welcoming.
Back in Hong Kong I spent the rest of the week working. We did get the good news that we can move into our apartment on Thursday. We are really excited to get out of the hotel and into our own place. We've been in the hotel for so long now, that many of the staff know us by name. Zack has become quite friendly with Andy who is basically in charge of everything on our floor and hooks us up with lots and lots of water bottles.
I had an interesting encounter with a taxi driver last Friday. Now, most taxi drivers here don't speak a lot of English. You give them a card with the address of where you are going, they say ok ok, and off you go. This particular driver was the first one I'd met who could speak English. Shortly after starting our journey we encountered a woman walking down the middle of the street, right in our way. The driver started making this "tsk tsk" sound and mumbling under his breath. He then proceeds to tell me this woman is "mainland Chinese" and how much he hates them, how stupid and disgusting they are. He goes on to tell me how everyone in the world hates them and that they have no regard for anyone else. I was pretty surprised at his open hostility but had previously been advised that there is a lot of tension between Hong Kongers and the mainland Chinese. There have been protests on both sides of the matter and people are very open about their feelings on the issue. This is an ad that was published earlier this year by a pro-Hong Kong group. Basically, this ad is comparing mainland Chinese to locusts who are taking over.
After he finished his verbal tirade, we then spent the rest of the trip talking about the apparel industry as he had spent many years working at Bugle Boy in the 80's. Remember them?? What a blast from the past!
Hope everyone had a nice Labor Day weekend!!
Love to all,
Carla
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