Sad news from the zoo

We visited the zoo just a couple months ago, and were actually pretty impressed.  The cages seemed decent, reasonably large; the animals seemed to be doing OK.  We were impressed by the nice landscaping and by the informational sign about each animal – you know, like a real zoo!  (After a while here, your expectations start to slide.)  So it’s a real bummer to come across this article today:

Keepers suspended over deaths at Bangladesh zoo

(AFP) – 1 day ago

DHAKA — The Bangladesh government has suspended the head keepers of a state-run zoo after a giraffe died in the latest of a string of fatalities among the animals, officials said Wednesday.

The giraffe, which died of suspected intestinal complications, was one of 19 animals — including a tiger, a zebra and a tapir — to have died at the zoo since January, according to a government official who did not want to be named.

Last year the zoo spent 800,000 dollars bringing 38 animals, including the three-year-old giraffe, from South Africa.

Shomi, Toy Destroyer

Once upon a time, this toy was yellow:

Here, wait, I’ll show you:

Yes, same toy, just three months prior.

Actually, three months is pretty good around here. We’re going through toys so fast we can’t get them in the mail quick enough. This week, Shomi ate half a tennis ball. Not the fuzz, the actual rubber.  She chewed it up into little bits first. Yum.

In other news, is this not the cutest picture you’ve ever seen?

Kuala Lumpur part 2

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(Yes, that is M in the pool.  That was the main purpose of our trip.)

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We llooooooved Kuala Lumpur. Loved it. Loved. So clean and shiny. Sparkly even.  And so much food!  And shopping!  We spent a whole day in the mall.  It was six stories — can’t go to a mall like that and not see the whole thing, right??  It was all Coach and Versace and Gucci and such, so we didn’t actually buy anything.  But it was fantastic.

I feel like a new person.

Kuala Lumpur!

The (Deshi) Taj Majal!

Another long-time to-do in Bangladesh: visit the Bangladeshi Taj Mahal! Ever since this modern marvel opened in January it’s been high on our list of must-sees.

The backstory: a Bangladeshi film director with money to burn, apparently, decided to build a replica Taj Mahal in the middle of the rice fields so that Bangladeshis without the resources to make it to Agra can experience the wonder on a budget – only 50 taka for admission ($0.73 US). (See here for info.)

This was something we had to see. And see it, we did:

(As a sidenote, for being a tourist attraction, this was one of the more difficult things to find in Bangladesh – a rare distinction. You’d think that a tourist attraction would be conveniently located next to a main road, or at least be well-signed. You would be wrong. The replica Taj Mahal is a solid half-hour down the back roads through small villages and into the rice paddies.  As there was only one road, there was really no way to get lost, but we had to ask directions repeatedly just to be sure it could really be that far out in the middle of nowhere. And, like I said, no signs.)

Turns out, the not-so-real-thing is kind of small. And is quite pink:

The Bandgladeshi Taj Mahal.

How does this compare to the real thing?? Well, I haven’t actually been there, but the picture of the real Taj Mahal on wikipedia doesn’t look the least bit pink:

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India. Photo by Dhirad, edited by J. A. Knudsen. From wikipedia.

Hmmm.

Chittagong! and Ship Breaking

We spent last weekend in Chittagong – Bangladesh’s second city!  And while it rained the entire time we still did what we could to make the most of this mini-vacation.

Me, in the monsoon:

We visited the port, or the beach, or something. Anyways, there were lots of fishing boats:

We also visited the golf club, and the actual beach, but as you can see, it was raining.

A main goal of our trip was to visit the ship breaking yards. In a sense, it was much as you might think – they do, in fact, break ships (go here for more info). Still, it was amazing to see how huge the ships are, and how packed the beaches are – the ships were all piled up on top of each other, and they were enormous bulk carriers and such in different stages of being disassembled. We couldn’t really walk around on the beach, because it is an actual work site; they’re working in all different places simultaneously and the whole beach is quite crowded with big pieces of various ships. They were working away when we were there, pulling a huge piece off of one ship and welding apart (?) other pieces that were already further up on the beach.

The whole highway out of Chittagong is full of shops selling parts and pieces from the boats, and all the supplies the ships are carrying when they come in. They are, after all, working ships when they sail into the beach, and when they finish, they are nothing but scrap metal. So the shops have everything from the life rafts to the silverware and toilet paper that has been scavenged off the ships. It made for interesting browsing, but we didn’t buy anything in the end.

Packing our bags

We’re going on a trip!

Yay!

Around town