Scenes that let you know you're in another country

After being in another country awhile, what was at first exotic and fascinating, just kind of fades into the background noise of everyday life. But every once in awhile, something comes along and just smacks you right in the nose until your eyes begin to tear up, just to let you know you're still a pilgrim in a foreign land.

Cream
I'll give you one guess what this is for (and you're going to be wrong)...

Give up? For stomach pains. What a great pharmacy, you can even pick up items for your boss. Let me know if you want me to bring back a tube.

Village balloons/chewing gum
Wait a minute... since when did balloons come ribbed with a tip?

I guess I can see the attraction, they're probably strawberry flavored or something, and I'm willing to bet they don't burst too easily, hah! Might as well let the little kids play with them, 'cause if there are little kids running around it's probably too late anyways. They also double as chewing gum...

Animal tagging
When I first saw florescent colored animals, I thought this was the Bangladesh way of graffiting or something. Turns out, if you let all your animals roam about, the hot pink goats make them easy to pick out in a crowd. And what the hey, spray paint is probably a lot easier than branding!





School bus
Nope, not a paddy wagon rickshaw, although it wouldn't suprise me if they have such a thing. Not exactly the yellow school bus going 'round and 'round, but it gets the job done.



Bangladesh movies

Well, one night in sleepy Noakhali, Robin suggested taking in the Bangladesh cinema to round out my experience. Bollywood films in India are kind of a cross between Mentos commercials and Grease (basically everyone is smiling and singing and dancing), so I figured, sure, why not? How could I not be entertained? Well, apparently the movies are made mostly for the uneducated rickshaw pullers, and there are 2 versions of the film. One for the censor board and another for the layman. Well, needless to say you don't go for the plot, the acting, or the special effects. It's more like a worse version of kung fu theater, minus the kungfu. And to top if off, they splice in blue clips in the middle. They basically go something like this...

Scene 1: Bangladesh smiling guy and slightly plumpish girl start dancing Bollywood style. (Ok, innocent enough)
Scene 2: Bangladesh smiling guy and slightly plumpish girl start doing the Bangladesh version of the lambada, you know, the "forbidden dance" (just for the record, the guy is still grinning from ear to ear while facing the camera... just creepy).
Scene 3: Bangladesh smiling guy and slightly plumpish girl move horizontal and start doing the hookie pookie (while fully clothed of course)
Scene 4: Slightly plumpish girl sari mysteriously has disappeared (and it becomes pretty obvious that they hired a slightly plumpish girl for her "attributes") and smiling Bangladesh guy proceeds to demonstrate how he turns on the hot/cold shower knobs. Hah! What a turn on. Bet you can't you wait to see the sequel.