Things you miss most after moving back to Bangladesh

[HereWeGo]

Originally Posted by Zeeshan
That is more of an obligation instead of something arising naturally out of one's good heart.

So I disagree with your disagreement.

On topic: Miss the internet speed. I mean try watching a film there lol...lol...lol...

I disagree with your disagreement of my disagreement...
I don't think even in the West people do it consciously ....

[HereWeGo]

Originally Posted by MohammedC
Thanks everyone for your input. It is really tough to convince every member of the family to agree and move back. I initially planned to move back in 2012 but could not. But the day is getting closer and unavoidable.

@Rabz bhai when I moved back you are welcome to Sylhet.

I am sure u are making the correct decision.... Nijer desh shobshomoy nijer desh, I am sure In the long run u shall not regret your decision...

[iDumb]

Originally Posted by MohammedC
Not yet. But things are moving really fast in last few days. I was planning to move for a long time. Saved enough to live comfortably in Sylhet (Alhamdulillah). But been delaying moving for a unresolved situation.



]

hi chudhury bhai, hw much money needed to live comfortanly in sylhet. i need a retirement plan...

[MohammedC]

Originally Posted by iDumb
hi chudhury bhai, hw much money needed to live comfortanly in sylhet. i need a retirement plan...

That depends on your demand. My budget is 50000 TK per month that's well with in my income. No rent as the house belongs to me and has substantial rental income.

[MohammedC]

Expat possibly moving back to Bangladesh: question about work opportunities

I've been living in Dhaka for the last few years. Ask me anything

This two threads by Dhurr is also very useful.

[AsifTheManRahman]

Shob bujhlam, kintu MoC bhai apni Bangladeshe gele amader youtube e cricket video dekhabe ke? Amra etim howe jabo MoC bhai.

Posted via BC Mobile Edition (Blackberry)

[One World]

Freshness in outside is one thing totally lost in Dhaka. If you are a Sylheti and settling in the Surma town that would be better. It has cheaper but better living in terms of expenses, environment and closeness to nature. Roads are nice, new housings are well planned, lot of good fast food joints and close by places for outing which are best in BD.

I missed Chalupa, specially with Baja Sauce. Missed my friends at schools and work. Also missed Dr. Pepper. Now munching on some Tony's wings in a Best Western at Carolina, I guess the whole package could be missed.

[Dilscoop]

That 32 MBP in Bangladesh?!

[MohammedC]

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
Shob bujhlam, kintu MoC bhai apni Bangladeshe gele amader youtube e cricket video dekhabe ke? Amra etim howe jabo MoC bhai.

Posted via BC Mobile Edition (Blackberry)

Nadim is getting better. Shakibrulz does most of the performance by Shakib and lately has been making video of other players. There will always be someone.

[MohammedC]

Originally Posted by Dilscoop
That 32 MBP in Bangladesh?!

No that in UK but I will miss it. Sometime the speed goes up to 35. I can get 60 MBP for another £15 a month but don't need it.

[Sohel]

I'll turn 46 in July and I've spent the first 27 of those in the US with a couple of years in France. Spent 20 years in the San Francisco Bay Area (the City and Berkeley, NOT the burbs) and that will always be my home away from home. Having said that, Dhaka is very much my home now and despite some challenges, I belong here.

My parents were busy professionals living in neighborhoods with few to no Bangalis or Bangladeshis, and I grew up more American and multicultural than anything else. So my own language, culture and roots matter to me partially because I grew up away from it all, and never wanted to be anything other than Bangali and Bangladeshi.

Dhaka is different from rural Bangladesh. I love life in rural Bangladesh because people there still have their morals and values intact. Those things are highly relative here in the Big D.

Here's a list of what I miss:

1. Close friends and associates, 4th of July BBQs, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.

2. Books and music to buy, and yes that includes eCommerce as well as bookstores like Moe's (too bad Cody's closed for good) and City Lights, and music stores like Rasputin's and Amoeba.

3. Live Jazz, Classical and Alternative Rock like Dave Matthews Band, Calexico, Doyle Bramhall II, Erykah Badu, The National, Norah Jones and North Mississippi Allstars.

4. Great restaurants from authentic Taquerias in and around the Mission, Chinese, Cambodian, Vietnamese Pho/BBQ/Sandwich, Hot Dog, Burger and Hoff Brau joints to fine California, French and Japanese places (some of the Thai and Korean places in Dhaka are authentic enough). Also miss Whole Foods and great little cheese, wine and deli meat places. Miss the Berkeley Farmer's Market big time.

5. Movie theaters ranging from art house to more commercial Cineplexes.

6. Live hockey and baseball in the Bay Area and Detroit.

7. Motorcycle rides along Highway 1.

8. Resorts and getaways on Highway 1.

9. Surfing (though I'm not in shape to surf anymore, in fact sinking is a real possibility).

10. Democratic Party politics.

11. Quality Marijuana.

12. Decency and innocence, not to be confused with naivete. I see a lot of that outside Dhaka but not in it.

13. The desire to go out more often and meet new people.

14. Impromptu trips to other parts of California, Portland, Eugene, Seattle, Anchorage, Santa Fe, Vail, Detroit (hockey related), Oaxaca (Mexico) and Santiago (Chile). Nowadays, I can't seem to get away from Dhaka unless it's a business trip to China, Korea or Malaysia.

15. And yes, high speed Internet. I have a 2 MBPS connection now and will upgrade as soon as more speed is commercially available. The current situation is a dream compared to what it used to be and I'm optimistic. We'll catch up to the rest of Asia in 3 to 5 years max InshAllah.

[Zeeshan]

sohel da mcdonalds, sizzler, red lobster bollen na j?

[Sohel]

Originally Posted by Zeeshan
sohel da mcdonalds, sizzler, red lobster bollen na j?

Other than Starbucks, Haagen Dazs and Jamba Juice, never got into corporate chains bro. Prefer independently owned places for American comfort food.

[Rifat]

Originally Posted by Naimul_Hd
Things i miss in Bangladesh

1. Beaches and other natural beauties at beaches

Gotta love those seashells, beach turtles, calm natural breeze, sand, lobster...

[Zunaid]

What would I miss if I moved back?

High speed Internet.
High speed driving.
Great ethnic variety of food.
Real steaks.
Fresh seafood.
(PS: it's mostly all about food)
Transparent and working bureaucracy.
Tolerance.

[Sohel]

Originally Posted by Zunaid
What would I miss if I moved back?

High speed Internet.

We're no more than 3 to 5 years away from that.

High speed driving.

Won't happen in our lifetime unless you wanna kill yourself and take others with you.

Great ethnic variety of food.

Won't happen in our lifetime. Other than the scene in major Japanese cities, I cannot think of cities in a single Asian country where that particular scene is even remotely comparable to that of major cities in California (SD, LA & SF). Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei, KL, HK, Singapore, and Bangkok have come a long way but still have long ways to go.

Real steaks.

You can do it now but at home.

Fresh seafood.
(PS: it's mostly all about food)

Gotta move to the coastal belt and become tight with fishermen.

Transparent and working bureaucracy.

Not in our lifetime.

Tolerance.

Gotta move to rural Bangladesh for that, or stay around smart folks in and around the DU campus. Having said that, most Bangladeshis are extremely tolerant of all kinds of BS no matter where in the country they live.

[Zunaid]

I will agree with most of our comments except perhaps for Internet and steak. For the former, I'm spoiled at 20Mbps+ on 3G and 60Mbps via fibre at home. As for steak, I'm not impressed at the quality of meat even at the best butchers. It's choice quality at best let alone select or prime and for sure not restsurant quality.

I think there's another thread on things about Bangladesh I miss. I need to post there to balance my whinefest here.

[bujhee kom]

Bhais, me and wife just came back to the city, and first ride on the "A" train going uptown, this crazy woman drnking from a can in a bag, came on board from Canal, eventually started to fight with people and got close to us and our luggage and did her toilet --I mean number 2 and then got on Penn Station on 34th strret!!! Bhais and apus, we are mazarries sufies, I go to High Court MAzaar, because my amma used to go there, and I saw pagla babas doing their thing there before but this kind of constant battle on the subway with number 2 eventually add up and pile up and put a sever stress over your neck...I do not miss this back hoome in Dhaka, I thank Allah! I did see little children or people doing their thing on the side of the street and waterways but not right next you in the same care everyweek!!

[Dhurr]

The number 1 thing I miss is night life. Night life in Dhaka is nonexistent.

The second thing I miss is going out with my friends on weekends. There isn't a whole lot to do. Not too many art galleries. Hardly any concerts these days. Not much but heavy metal existed in the band scene in BD anyway. No movie theaters except for CinePlex (which shows 3-4 month old movies anyway). The only thing to do when you go out with your friends is addabaji in a restaurant/cafe. Gets boring after a while.

The third thing I miss in life is taking things for granted. In the US, I used to take uninterrupted electricity or water supply for granted. I never had to worry about my phone or cable line being out or my internet to stop working from 9 pm onwards. I could cross the street when I had right of way. I took sidewalks for granted; I never imagined that a sideWALK is for motorbikes, not for pedestrians. If I went to the DMV, I didn't need a middleman. If I went to pay my taxes, I didn't need to pay bribes. Yep, I miss taking things for granted. I miss not having an eye on the back of my head; having an eye on the back of your head is a MUST in Bangladesh.

I miss good steak. I miss real beaches where you could actually swim and then go back to the beach to have a beer and read a book while you lay down without people staring at you. I miss Twizzlers. I miss women in frilly skirts on hot summer days. I miss in n out burger. I miss the beef brisket and fried okra at Sonny Bryan's in Dallas. Sohel bhai, like you, I miss Jamba Juice too. I miss Mission street in San Francisco. I miss Ocean Drive and Washington Avenue in Miami. I miss the chicken and rice cart on 53rd and 6th in NYC. I miss living a street over from the Gottis. I miss partying in the Meatpacking district in NYC and coming home at 5 am. I miss Rolling Rock. I miss bookstores. I miss the addictive-like-crack sesame chicken from cheap *** chinese restaurants. I miss Fat Head's IPA.

Like everyone else in this thread, I miss politeness. I miss seeing smiles on people's faces. I miss hearing "thank you" when you hold a door open for someone, or when you let someone with a single item pass you in the checkout line at a grocery store. I miss watching good movies. We don't get indy movies in Bangladesh unless they get oscar nods.

I miss eating fresh fruit every day. I have stopped buying fruits in Bangladesh because they are dipped in formalin or sprayed with tons of chemicals/pesticides or, as is usually the case, both. The only time I eat fruits are when they are from orchards of friends/family/family friends etc.

All the shampoo, lotions, shower gels, deodorants you buy in Bangladesh are likely to be bhejal. You could get skin diseases, skin cancer, etc. Fun, huh?

I miss sitting in "traffic" that moves at 20 mph. In Dhaka, you would be lucky to drive at 20 mph constantly even on a midsummer noon on a weekend. On a weekday? At rush hour? Or even on a weekend evening? Fuggedaboutit!

I miss not being gossiped about. In Dhaka, it's all about gossip gossip gossip. Who went where? With who? He did WHAT? OH NOES! I miss having my privacy.

I miss decent public transportation. I miss not having to worry if tomorrow's a hartal or if somebody's gonna set me on fire or lob a bomb my way if I step foot outside my house. I miss not having to prepare contingency plans for 200+ people in case of last-minute announcements of hartals.

I think the thing I miss most is CHOICES or options. If I wanted to eat cereal for breakfast, I could choose from like dozens and dozens of options. Here, it's corn flakes or chocolate-flavored cereal. If I wanted eggs in a restaurant, I could have them made dozens of different ways. Here, it's "DIM POOCH", "DIM CHIDDO" or "MUMLET". If I wanted cheese, I could have a million different varieties of cheese. If I wanted to read books, I could buy a million different books from a thousand different genres. Here, it's hard to get books (or cheese) as it is; if you are thinking about options, FUGGEDABOUTIT! You want candy? Cadbury's it is. You want beer? Heineken/Tiger. You want whiskey? Passport and red label. Vodka'? How about Absolut and Smirnoff? Sports? Yeah, cricket and soccer. That's it. What about traveling? Cox's Bazaar, Sylhet and Bandarban. You want bread? White bread it is.

FML.

[Dhurr]

I miss Youtube.

[Dhurr]

Originally Posted by MohammedC
Calling Rabz bhai, Dhurr bhai, Sohel bhai and all those who moved back home after living abroad for a long while.

List things that you miss most. I will start.

1- Driving (safely)
2- Telecommunication

Mo bhai, don't come back this year. Let things settle down a bit. Come back after the elections are over. What's the point in coming back if you are gonna be stuck inside your house due to hartals all day?

[Dhurr]

Originally Posted by Blah
Bacon. (or rather BLT)

Good Steak.

Try the german butcher. AWESOMENESS.

Originally Posted by Blah
Quality, easily accessible coffee. (Yes there are some decent coffee, but I have to drive like 1 hour to go there in BD traffic.)

Have you tried North End? Near the US Embassy?

Any tips on places you like?

Originally Posted by Blah
Don't get me wrong, there are quite a few things I actually enjoy in BD or probably take it for granted. But this thread is for bitching/whining.

Haha. Yep. Got nostalgic about my life abroad after reading this thread but agree with your sentiments there.

[BengaliPagol]

Originally Posted by Zeeshan
On the other hand I miss BD, not the other way around but when I visit I miss the weed

bhai ami shunsilam ganja onik shosta. Akta gram = doshta taka. That would mean 500g = ONLY 5000 taka = US$63.90 cheaps as nails...

thought that stuff was pretty widespread in BD anyway so i dont think you would have had a problem.

EDIT: just realised that quality might not be good. But i'm unsure about that.

[Blah]

Originally Posted by Dhurr
Try the german butcher. AWESOMENESS.

Looks interesting, will check them out.

Have you tried North End? Near the US Embassy?

Any tips on places you like?

I haven't tried North End, but heard good things about them. I don't drink in coffee places anymore because of so many bad experiences, I forgot the names of the few I liked (I think one was in dhanmondi). I drink my coffee black, so I just make them at home.

[bujhee kom]

Personal space is very hard to come by back home (Bishesh korey amar family-tey, specifically in my family), in a very large greater family context, (and I mean, in my family when Brahman-baira, Feni and Dhaka all collide together you come across thousands of family members, and for example, me and my beloved wife, we have been married over 12-13 years and do not want children and fufus, chachis, khalas, old bhabis, dadis want to to send us for in-vitro f treatment and in open public, be it a Walima or a funeral wake. They ask what is wrong with us. They all gesture at my wife with an invisible baby in their arms and make my poor wife feel very uncomfortable and embarrassed. Ami bhai, raiga/chita jai, boli, arrey apnara Murdaar baritey ashcen, dua phoren, Dorud Sharif phaath khoren, ei shob ajaira baiccha kaicchar chinta + kotha baad den....