Not alone in my big apartment (MATT)

According to Wikipedia, Dhaka ranks among the “Top 10 Most Unlivable Cities in the World.” The reasons go on and on, but this is largely due to the extreme overpopulation, mass poverty, horrible pollution, unbearable weather, regular political unrest, sporadic religious extremism, vulnerability to natural disasters, unsafe roads, etc. (Bangladesh is one of only a handful of countries on my company’s “Restricted Travel List,” which meant I had to get special permission up to the Sr. VP level to authorize my trip.)

Accordingly, it was important that I found an apartment in a safe and semi-comfortable part of town, which meant either Gulshan or Baridhara. Catering to diplomats and other ex-pats, my new upscale neighborhood is full of embassies, international schools, and guys in camouflage patrolling the streets with very large guns. With my primary criterion being safety, the smallest furnished apartment I could find in a good part of town has four bedrooms and three full baths, and is about three times the size of my Manhattan digs. (If you count the maid’s quarters, it’s actually five bedrooms, three baths, plus a hole-in-the-ground toilet hidden away behind the kitchen.)

The place is huge and way more than I need, making it even tougher to look out my window each morning at the jam-packed slums directly surrounding my building. (That’s a separate story though…)

At any rate, I thought I might be a bit lonely in my spacious apartment, but I quickly found out that I have many (insect and reptile) friends living in my walls, under the beds, etc.

On my very first day in the apartment, I walked into the master bedroom to see a black L-shaped line on my floor. A large bug had died in the middle of the room, and a steady stream of black ants was racing from one wall to the dead bug, then at a 90 degree angle from the bug to another wall. Ayiyi… How would I get rid of (and preferably kill) all of these friggin’ ants?!

Seeing my unpacked bags leaning up against the wall, I reached into my bathroom kit and grabbed my lint roller – the perfect weapon to reclaim my bedroom!! In a matter of about two minutes, I must’ve rolled up 300 ants, switching to a fresh sheet a couple times in the process.

I was a bit disturbed by the whole thing, which got worse when I turned the other direction to notice a small (2”) lizard walking across my floor. As I was literally and figuratively “on a roll,” I didn’t think twice before grabbing the lint roller and quickly bulldozing the little bastard as well. Yuck…

A few hours later, I went to climb into bed for the very first time. As I lifted the pillow, a huge cockroach (3”) went running from under my sheets down the side of the bed. While I’m not especially afraid of bugs/reptiles, I figured that was enough for one day. I decided the room was cursed and I walked across the hallway to claim one of the other bedrooms.

Ahh, living in Dhaka – it doesn’t get much better, right?


UPDATE – Two things have changed since this first day: 1.) The apartment has been cleaned thoroughly and the bugs have largely disappeared, and 2.) I’ve actually become friends with the lizards. I have a medium-sized (5-6”) lizard that roams the kitchen, another medium-sized one hanging out in a spare bedroom, and a couple of small ones in the living room. I’ve learned that they actually do a good job keeping the bugs away and are fun “pets” to hang out with. Who said I wouldn’t make any friends here?