Chinese Pizza Hut

Last weekend I  decided to check out the Chinese Pizza Hut - they are everywhere here, and while I don't particularly like Pizza Hut in the States, I don't dislike it either, and I have been curious to see the differences between the same food chain here and at home.  Right away when I walked in I noticed a difference - it was huge!  The room was broad with high ceilings and was full of light and chattering people.  I don't think I've been to Pizza Hut in a long time, maybe since I was a child with free 'Personal Pans' for reading in elementary school, but my memory of it involves slight dimness and decided emptiness.  I also thought that we ordered at the counter and then sat down, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, in China, there is a HUGE menu, with about 30 pages, each with a title like 'Smoothies', 'Drinks', 'Pasta', 'Soups''Chinese', etc…'Pizza' (finally, way near the back, clever marketing there!).  I couldn't decide what to order, and I'd gone in intending to get pizza!  I did in the end, get a personal pan supreme pizza, which was less greasy than at home but did not have enough pizza sauce.  They apparently are aware of the problem of not enough sauce because they brought a bottle of ketchup to the table with the pizza - interesting!  It doesn't have quite the same appeal though, cold ketchup on top of the pizza versus steaming tomato sauce inside the pizza...I won't be going back, but now I have experienced the Chinese Pizza Hut!

I didn't take any pictures of the restaurant, because it wasn't that exciting, but on the way home I did pass a derelict mini-bus, randomly sitting on the sidewalk next to a public park.  It wasn't there the last time I walked home from the metro, but it didn't look like it was moving any time soon!  

Yunnan Research Trip

I've been so busy with India blogging that I haven't been able to write about my research trip back to Yunnan Province, to the same city that I visited with Adam and Dr. Qiao earlier this year.  Since I was there last, I have helped design the protocol and study report forms for a study of cervical neoplasia among HIV-infected women.  It will be a study with a year-long follow-up to try to determine the effects of antiretroviral therapy on CIN in HIV+ women.  This was our first data gathering trip, and we managed to screen 164 women whose cervixes had never seen the light of day! (By comparison, our western cervixes are quite sunburned I suppose ;) )  We will need to return at a later date and screen at least 136 more to reach our goal of 300 women.

The first night as soon as we arrived, we were confronted with proof we had changed climes: palm trees instead of snow!

We were taken to a restaurant to eat Yunnan-ese food, which is really different from food in northern China.  They have more fish and soups.  All of the soups have lots of things floating in them, but you are only supposed to drink the broth, the floaty things were to create flavor.  Most things taste good (like that fish in stage center) or at least interesting, but there is some sort of seasoning that smells and tastes RANCID to my nose and tongue.  Everyone else ate it merrily, so it must not taste like rotten carrion to them, but man, its one of the few things I've encountered that I can't swallow even for politeness' sake.  And the worst thing is that its a seasoning, not a specific dish, so I still don't know what it is!

In China, many low to medium price-range restaurants will have raw food in display cases, and customers select what they would like cooked.  

Sometimes the things on display are definitely different than what I would consider eating - at least in that form!

In Yunnan, the kitchens were very open, not hiding behind doors or anything.  Here is a kitchen in a restaurant, complete with cook picking his nose ;)

The next morning, we went straight to the Luxi County Women and Children's Hospital where we would be doing the screening. This is me with Dr. Zhang, the ob/gyn from Yunnan who had the idea for the study and has been the major force behind it all coming together.  We are in the courtyard of the hospital.

She brought a medical student, Xiao Fei with her to Mangshi.  It was great to have another student to talk to, and we had fun comparing Chinese and American medical education systems.  She also made 2 people that I could talk to for the 4 days I was there instead of one, since she also spoke english, unlike any of the students or personnel in Mangshi.

For 3 days, we did nothing but cervical exams on women all day long.  In China, many of the ideas about privacy we have in America don't exist, so its possible to screen 50 women in one morning, 2 in a room on the exam table with 2 waiting 'on deck' with their clothes already removed.  It was a bit strange at first, but it did facilitate rapid screening.  At first I served as the 'scrub tech' to Dr. Zhang, sitting behind her at the instrument table and handing her things that she needed during the exam.  By the end of the first day, I knew exactly what she would want before she asked for it, and I would have it waiting for her.  (Btw, my respect for real scrub techs in operating rooms has gone up, I could not deal with the peculiar mix of attention and boredom it involved).  On the second day, Dr. Zhang let me try a few of the simple procedures in the exam, and by the last day I could do the whole exam by myself!

We always took a break for lunch; here is me with Xiao Fei and Dr. Jiang, the Vice Director of the hospital, eating dumplings.  These are actually something I will miss about China when I leave, sooo good!

Finally, we were in Mangshi just at the tail end of the spring festival, which is not only celebrated by the Han majority (the people we normally think of as 'Chinese') but also by many minority peoples who live in China.  One night we went to a square and learned some traditional dances of the JingBo people.  It was fun, but I don't think we were dressed properly!

Overall it was a very successful trip and I really enjoy working with Dr. Zhang.  I wish I had her as my attending physician in the US!

India Signage

To complement my Funny Signs in China series, please check out these signs we saw in India!

I actually liked this sign, randomly in one of the forts we visited.

Very informative labels in a museum! Rare and old.

Truckers in India all decorate colorfully!

I don't think Kentucky is known for anything else, but we sure do get put on random menus around the world for chicken!

Of al the things I could imagine taking on a train, none of these really ever crossed my mind.   Dude its India?!

India pictures

Please click on this link to view my Picasa album of pictures from India!

Airport shenanigans

I guess with all the trouble I had getting INTO the country, it wouldn't have been right if there wasn't an adventure getting OUT.  It started with our taxi coming 30 minutes late, and then we had to walk about 30 minutes to get to the taxi, which ended up being a shared van with other random tourists, which was fine, just unexpected.  We still made it to the airport in plenty of time, and we thought great, we'll have time to chill out together before leaving…wrong.  Due to the last-minute cancellation and rebooking of flights that I had to do, I only had an e-ticket, with no print-out, since I'd booked the flight from our hostel.  In every airport I've ever flown in, that's no problem, you just present your passport and you can check in…not so in Delhi, however.

Apparently, you need printed proof of having a ticket before they will even let you IN the airport!  A stern policeman with a big gun frowned and said I couldn't get in, that I would need to buy a ticket.  I explained the situation and he just kept saying to go to the ticket counter.  I was getting frustrated after a few minutes - how ridiculous would it be to miss a flight because I couldn't get into the terminal?!  Finally he grudgingly told me to go to the other end of the terminal and someone would help.  We ended up going into the 'guest' side of the terminal (behind huge glass barriers from the terminal proper, asking several people for help, and eventually someone called my airline.  They then told me to go to yet another entry and wait for a representative who would have a list of certified passengers and they would let me in after that.

Whew!  My name was on the list and I thought we were golden…but then I turned around to find Max arguing with the policeman - they didn't want to let him in now - because it was too long before his flight!  He was coming with me (my flight at 11 pm) but his wasn't until 3 am, and apparently they don't let people in until 3 hours before.  They were going to make him go back to the guest lounge and camp out -- thankfully he frantically pointed at me and said we were together and I tried to look panicked and it worked.  We hadn't really said goodbye yet, and I hated to do it standing in limbo between the terminal glass doors surrounded by our luggage and being glared at by cops with guns.  

After all that, we only had about 20 minutes to say goodbye anyway, and then we parted ways, with me heading to the customs line and Max standing behind the glass window…but turns out they hadn't given me the right form at the check-in desk, so I came out once to get it and fill it out…and then again realized that I didn't have appropriately tagged 'Approved Carry-on Luggage' tags - this time Max brought the tags to me in line…and then the lady in the pat-down cubicle had never heard of the Chinese city I was flying to and I think she assumed I had a fake ticket because she took it out and checked with her supervisor.  When I finally made it through, I was not surprised to find that my flight was no longer on the computer screens - I had to ask a bunch of people, and it ended up leaving from a completely different side of the airport and was never on the screen.  Ridiculous!  Happily, however, I did make it on the plane, it was not cancelled, and it even made it to China earlier than scheduled.  Moral of the story: leave plenty of time for the Delhi airport!! (and maybe don't fly with me unless you're ready for anything to happen!)

Border Bravado

The last stop on our trip was Amritsar, a city of about 1.1 million in northwest India, about 30 km from the Pakistan border.  While the city is famous as a Sikh stronghold and is home to the holiest Sikh temple in the world, the Golden Temple, every tourist in the city also tries to make it to a border-closing ceremony while in Amritsar.  We squeezed into the tiniest van I have ever seen for a $1.50 roundtrip ride with 4 other tourists, and it was definitely worth it, it was one of the most hilarious things I have Ever. Seen.  Knowing the tense relationship between the two countries, I was slightly nervous about going, but the people at the hotel reassured me that this was not the place for a massive shoot-out or terrorist threat, and after seeing it, I think they were right.

We arrived and walked to a checkpoint where men and women were split into separate lines for a security pat-down.  They actually took my compass but left Max with his already opened water bottle, an interesting combination I thought. (I managed to get my compass back afterwards, thankfully).  Then we were ushered into the 'VIP' section because we had foreign passports, where we were patted down again before being allowed to take seats…in a huge stand of bleachers. Yes, they have ginormous bleachers at the border.  On both sides, sort of facing off, with a long corridor and a huge gate in the middle, with an Indian and a Pakistani flag waving.  The 15 minutes before the ceremony began reminded me of a high school party, or a drunken rave…there were lines of people waiting to run down the corridor in front of the Pakistanis waving an Indian flag…there were men selling propaganda videos…there was LOUD dance music…and a clump of dancing teenagers supervised by men in military uniforms with big plumed hats, complete with a few overweight women in saris grooving along to the beat.  It was surreal.

Once the ceremony started, it didn't get any less bizarre.  Soldiers on both sides of the border took turns puffing up their chests, barreling down the corridor with HUGE goose steps (I really thought their noses were in danger from their feet!), and stiffly saluting at the gate before lining up at the flagpoles.  There was a non-militarily dressed cheerleader man who in between soldiers goose-stepping, would mill around the soldiers, pepping them up, and leading the crowd in chanting 'Hindustan!  Hindustan!'  There was similar antics and crowd yelling on the Pakistani side.  There was also some sort of weird voice competition, where an officer on one side or the other took a deep breath and tried to yell for as long as possible into the microphone without breathing; as soon as he started, the one on the other side would join in, and it seemed to be a competition to see who could hold on the longest.  Whichever side was longer would induce instant mad cheering and flag waving by the home crowd.  The ceremony ended with a slow flag lowering (diplomatically at the same time) and a stirring CRASH of the border gates, and of course much saluting and goose stepping backwards.  The crowd was slow to leave, with many rushing to the gate to get a glimpse of the other side first.  And apparently this happens every day - I wonder what the soldiers think of the whole deal?!

ps. Video coming soon on YouTube

Delhi Metro

Here it comes…there is something worse than the Beijing metro!  No, I wouldn't have believed it either.  And yet, after getting bodily shoved and whacked in the head about 4 times in the span of 5 minutes on a Delhi metro train, I believe it.  They pack in just as tightly as in Beijing, which doesn't bother me anymore, but somehow the way they do it is worse.  There is an element of panic when getting on and off that isn't there in Beijing, which leads to wild shoving, flailing of arms, and absolute non-discrimination for who gets hurt.  I'd never thought about it, but it now seems to me that Chinese people shove at waste or mid-torso level, whereas Indian people shove at chest or shoulder level, which is more unbalancing and more dangerous I think.  Also, they absolutely don't move when you want to get off.  Even people who rushed on before you in China and plant themselves in front of you will wiggle or try to turn sideways if you say 'Xia che' (getting off the train) or start moving for the door - but not in India.  They just stand there, and we almost couldn't get off the metro a couple of times; once I had to reach in and pull Max from the outside, and once on a train, I had to use my suitcase as leverage to clear a path for myself.  (some people vocally didn't like that…oh well, I didn't like that i couldn't get off!)  So I think I actually prefer the Beijing metro, who thought I'd ever say that!

Back to India...school girls

Towards the end of our India trip, it must have been some sort of special school holiday week, because we started running into large school groups at all the museums and monuments we went to.  While this is less than ideal at a huge national museum with many classical works of art and long captions, it was also fun to watch the kids - either all girls or all boys, and all dressed in matching uniforms, caper around on a field trip.  We also ran into them at the Delhi gate, Amritsari Golden Temple, the craft museum in Delhi, and Hamayun's Tomb.  

At the places we ran into female students, I experienced something interesting - the girls - especially 10-14 year old ones, were fascinated with me.  They couldn't stop staring, giggling, laughing madly, whispering to each other, and then, inevitably, a brave one from a group would stop forward and introduce herself with palm thrust outward for a shake. At first I thought it was the two of us, but when Max walked away from me to take video, it became apparent that I was the fascinating one.  I'm not sure why…I don't even attract that much attention in China! …and we were in large cities where they should be used to seeing foreigners, so it was strange.  At the craft museum, a large pack of them started following me around the bazaars, stopping to look at what I inspected and generally just being close behind me.  Max thought it was hilarious of course, and I'm sure it was funny to watch, but it was a bit uncomfortable - I didn't know what to say or do, and they weren't exactly being rude or pushy so I didn't want to tell them to go away or be rude to them. Several times I tried to talk to them after they introduced themselves, which seemed to make them very flustered, blush, run away, or freeze in place.  It seemed like for the most part their English was not very good, which surprised me as well since English is the official language of India, but perhaps it was just the moment that overwhelmed them.  Anyone have any idea what caused this phenomenon?

Lantern Festival

I now interrupt this series of India blogs to comment on the Chinese Lantern Festival -- Chinese people are crazy about fireworks!!! I think I have discovered where the Beijing pollution comes from - simply all the fireworks that are set off during the 2-week spring festival, but particularly tonight, on Lantern Festival.   The Lantern Festival marks the first full moon of the year, and the end of the Spring Festival holiday, and after tonight many businesses that are still closed will reopen for business.  Many people left Beijing to go spend the holiday with their families, so the city has been quieter than usual.  I was actually a little sad that I would miss the New Year celebrations by going to India during this time, but little did I know about tonight!

Over the entirety of the festival, people have been setting off firecrackers in the day time and fireworks at night, but it has been pretty sporadic.  Since I returned to Beijing, however, the noises have been getting more intense, and today there were firecrackers going off all day long!  As soon as it got dark, the real craziness began, however, as I think every single person in Beijing is setting off fireworks at the same time.  Even if only a fifth of the people did, 1/5 of 22 million is quite a lot of fireworks for one night, and I would believe it!  There is a constant booming, banging, snapping, and whistling coming from outside, with a dull distant rush bringing the sound of further-away fireworks to me as well.  The buildings outside my apartment light up with flashes and sparks every 30 seconds or so, and I earlier I could see at least 4 large firework displays at once from my window.  I've even seen a few below me, in the courtyard below my 19th-story apartment!

I went to the nearby park to see if I could see any lanterns (turns out they're not celebrating there this year) but it was not a wasted trip because the park with its sparse winter tree cover and large open lake was the perfect firework-watching place.  I found a bench and camped out for over an hour, constantly turning around to the new booms and brilliant colors.  They have a HUGE array of fireworks here, most of them of the large variety we only see in city displays at home, and many different colors and designs I've never seen before.  Several of my favorites includes a green and red/orange one that reminded me of an apple, one with 45 degree flares framing an explosion in the middle, and one that looked like a tall fountain of water shooting up and falling down on itself, ending with a huge explosion of purple sparks.  There's something about the dazzling lights and designs that is so enthralling to me, and obviously the Chinese share my obsession - I've been home for 2 hours and the bangs and booms and lights are still going strong outside my window!  Happy New Year!

Udaipur

On our last day on tour, we stayed in a medium-sized town called Udaipur, in southern Rajasthan.  It was about a 5 hour drive from Jodhpur, our last stop, and on the way we stopped at a tiny hamlet called Ranathkpur that had an amazing Jain temple complex.  The largest temple was made completely out of white marble (a specialty of Rajasthan) so it was translucent in some places.  It was a massive bilding, with multiple trainglular shaped domes with intricate carving of symbols all the way to the top.  Further down on the outside of the building were rows and rows of deities and animales carved in relief.  Inside the building, there were wings flanking a central pavilion with idols on it; and about 1044 columns holding up the roof.  There was intricate carving everywhere - so impressive!  Despite there being other tourists with cameras, the atmosphere of the place was still quiet and spiritual.

Udaipur has a thriving tourist industry thanks to the artificial lake that was created by one of the Rajasthani maharajas several hundred years ago.  There are several branches of the lake, and all have flanking restaurants and hotels touting 'lake views' and 'indian, continental, and Chinese food'. The lake was amazingly bueatiful in parts, and we took a walk around the perimeter our first night.  The next day, we had a boat ride that was included in our tour cost, and it was really pleasant on the lake with a breeze and watching the life on the shores.  There is also a tiny island with a palace bthat was used for the James Bond film Octopussy, so we took several action photos ;_The lake was surrounded by mountains in the distance, which made the whole vista very beautiful.

The rest of Udaipur was kind of a let-down actually.  We were maybe just tired of seeing temples and city palaces by that point, but the City Palace seemed run-down and and not that impressive to begin with.  They had a much touted 'crystal gallery', a collection of cystal objects bought from London by one of the maharajas) who died before receiving it_ and it was impressive, but too small for the cost.  I have now seen a crystal bed however, something I have never imagined. How extravagant!  Other than that however, there was not much to see and do, and we were glad to leave our faithful driver and return to Delhi.

The Din

The noise in the street here is INCREDIBLE - its hard to think when you're walking in the street, and our hotel rom is practically on the street, the walls of the room do so little.  Why?  Why is it so loud?  I will describe to you everything I can hear right now, sitting in my hotel room...

"loud metallic hammering...english voices talking at the reception...a vendor of some sort walking up and down the street yelling 1 word over and over...a metal door being raised up as a shopkeeper opens his shop...the clattering of a cart on the stone street..the roar of a motorcycle and the sputter as it goes by in small spurts down the crowded street...clanking of money...car horns in the distance...a low hum of conversation with ocasional voices raised higher...shopkeepers yelling from one end of the street to the other...telepones ringing...a radio on full blast....little children screeming in laugheter as they run past....and i'm not sure if cows make noise as they lumber along, but they're in the mix too.  Whew!

Overnight Trains: India vs. China

We took an overnight sleeper journey from Udaipur back to Delhi at the end of our Rajasthan tour.  Max was a little nervous since he'd never been on an overnight sleeper journey before, but I felt pretty prepared after taking trips in the hard sleeper class in China, which are always mildly unpleasant but manageable.  I was pleasantly surprised by the differennces between the two countries' trains.

We were in a class called '2AC' which stands for air conditioned 2-tier sleepr.  When I was making the reesrvation, it was confusing because the classes do not really match up with Chinese train classes, so I was not exactly sure what we were getting.  In a chinese train, hard leeper means 3 tiers of bunks in an alcove off the hallway, with no door or curtain and a public bathroom.  Soft sleepr is 2-tier with an actual room and a door, with ventilation. This is nice because so many men in China smoke on the train that hard sleeper can be smelly and disgusting.  Here, the 2-tier was actually still 6 bunks per cube, since the Indian trains are wider, enabling the addition of a third set of bunks across the aisle. But, it was still possible to sit up on the top bunks, thanks to having only 2 stacked instead of 3. In addition, each bunk received 2 sheets instead of 1 like in China, and a clean pillow case whcih I saw placed on the pillow.  In China all the beding is already laid out on the bed, but the pillowcases are always rather suspect and I have learned to bring my own. Also, the cubicle had curtains which could be drawn across the entrance, so while it wasn't quite as good as a door, it did cut down on the hallway light and noise during the night. 

The cleanliness of the train was MUCH better than in China, which surprised me, since the streets are actually much dirtier in the cities than I have seen so far in China.  In China, the train bathroom quickly moves from not clean to absolutely disgusting, with excrement scattered everywhere, bits of paper, water, etc.  And the smell is awful. The indian train bathroom on the other hand, while still a squattie, was pristine the whole journey.  I don't understand - do Indians have better aim? And the actual train istelf just felt cleaner, and there was no nasty wafts of cigarette smoke, even though we didn't have a real door. So nice...Overall, it was a pleasant travel experience, which was good since we're doing it again in a day to go to Amritsar!

"No, we would not like a rickshaw"

"Excuse me, excuse me sir, would you like a taxi?"

"I said no...."

"Excuse me, where are you going?"

"Mumble mumble..."

(we are continuing to walk forward, and the autorickshaw is creeping along beside us)

"Excuse me, only 10 ruppes to the Parliament,  only 10 ruppees to national museum.  10 ruppees to shopping."

"We don't need a taxi, thank you"

"Sir, sir, your feet are looking tired.  And your wife (we got this constantly too) there, she looks tired.  You know you want a taxi"

"No, I don't"

"Oh, you are going to eat?  Where is your hotel?  I can wait for you to get done and then take you to your hotel"

"Please don't.  We don't need a taxi"

"Its a cheap ride, very cheap sir, best there is."

"I don't care.  Go aWay"

"sir, just get in, right here, door on the left"

"NO.  I do not want a taxi!!"

But sir, no need to be rude..."

(we now ignore tehe taxi driver and continue walking)

"sir...sir..."

This conversation demonstrates our typical interactions with autorickshaw drivers in Delhi, which happen about every 2 minutes or less walking down the street. Most conversations don't go through the whole gamut, but do have at least a part of it.  We also have learned to start ignoring them much earlier in the conversation, which eventually always works. Its also interesting that the drivers very rarely talk to me, only to Max - I guess they assume he's in charge and/or has the money. Needless to say, having this brief, frustrating conversation over and over gets pretty annoying, and has made us averse to taking autorickshaws even when we really do need it.

Udaipur tidbits

Random thoughts that have been floating through my head recently during our trip:

--Women can really carry amazing loads on their heads! Without holding on!

--Alison, my mom, and I thought that split pants for babies in China were bad...but with much warmer climate, why have any pants on children below the age of 5 at all?!  Most of the little children I've seen here run around with only shirts.

--The fruit and vegetable vendors here all sell on little carts or tables in the street, as opposed to in China, where they sell actually on the sidewalk/road. At first I was puzzled by this but then realized that with all the cows walking around and the consequent cow poo everywhere, plus the open sewers, noone would want to eat anything that had been on the ground!

--Speaking of cows, there are seriously a lot of them! They are EVERYWHERE....and its completely fine for them to wander wherever they please, although Max and I did note that we didn't see any at the maharaja's private palace (is it against the law to 'steer' (haha) them away from somewhere?)

--Every single non-indian person I've seen has been driven in some sort of vehicle that says 'Tourist' on it in big letters.  I asked our driver if that was mandatory to be in labeled cars like that but he didn't understand my question.

--Trucks on the other hand, all say 'Registered in Such-and-such State' for 'x transportation'.  Other than that, they are decorated much more lavishly than trucks at home - colorful geometric and swirfly designs, bright orange and purple lettering, bright peacocks and tigers...you name it.  Just what I want to see barrelling down on me when we're on the wrong side of the highway passing a cow. ;)

--And really, there are no rules on the road.  The first person to do something has the right of way, including driving on the wrong side of the road and expecting the other person to move.  As a tourist bus did to us earlier - luckily there was a shoulder!

--And just for the record, the countryside around Udaipur is truly beautiful, with rolling hills, mountains in the distance, occasional palm trees, terraced levels of verdant crops...amazing.

Update from Jodhpur

This morning we gave our dirty clothes to the hotel for laundering, as we only each brought enough clothes for 1 week.They promised they would be ready by 5 pm.  When we arrived back at the hotel just after 5, they told us that it would actually be 7...ok, grumble grumble, but no big deal...and at 7 pm, a bellboy comes knocking on our door with 2 bags of laundry - excellent, right?  Well...mostly - Max began sorting the clothes and quickly discovered that his socks and underwear were not among those returned.  His immediate reaction was panic - where was he going to find underclothes big enough to fit him here if they were actually gone?!  He is heaps taller than most Indian men.  A vist to the front desk, however, showed his bag of underthings still safely behind the hotel desk, and the concierge told us that they had forgotten to take it, but they were going to try to do it that evening.  This was just after 7 pm...not likely. We were confused, because the bag wasn't exactly hidden, and surely they noticed that it was still lurking behind the hotel check-in desk long before we noticed that it was not returned...but there are just some mysteries in life that we will never solve I guess. After dinner, we stopped back by the desk, and the man informed us that they would not be able to wash them in time for our early departure tomorrow...so as I write this, Max is in the bathroom handwashing all his underwear and socks in a bucket.  There is going to be interesting drapery in our hotel room tonight!

Eastern Rajasthan

So far in India, Max and I have spent one day in New Delhi, 1 day in Agra, and then several days in the eastern part of the northwestern state of Rajasthan.  We are currently in a town called Jodhpur, which is famous for saffron lassis (a yoghurt drink - sooooo good!) as well as for appearing 'blue' from the mountains surrounding (not so sure about that). We have not done much in this town as we just arrived this afternoon, but we have grand plans for tomorrow.

The Taj

Highlights of our trip so far have been the Taj Mahal (which I wrote about in my last post), and the views from the fort as well as the famous 'pink (old) city' of Jaipur.  The city was painted pink in 1876 by the then raja to welcome the Prince of Wales on a state visit, and it has been the law ever since!  The entire old city was a range of salmon-pink-rose that was really amazing!  From Jaipur we drove to Ajmer where we saw the ruins of an old mosque and a modern Jain temple complete with a HUGE model of the Jain universe.  It was a large room filled with golden buildings, processions of camels, elephants, tigers, etc, pavilions, people playing instruments, and flying boats driven by animals with praying people inside.  There were glittering jewels and mirrors everywhere, it was very impressive.  Last night, we stayed in the small town of Pushkar, which has a sacred lake with bathing pools, or 'ghats' for Hindu  pilgrims who come to worship at the famous Brahma temple.  There are only a few Brahma temples in the world, so even though Pushkar has only 14,000 permanent inhabitants, it sees a constant flux of religious tourists.

The Hawa Mahal in the pink city of Jaipur

My impressions of India to this point are that it is a beautiful, smelly, chaotic, very spiritual country, but at the same time filled with people trying to cheat you.  I'm sure that the white skin and the tourist guide book don't help with that ;)  and there are people in every country willing to take advantage of the unwary, so it doesn't bother me too much. The traffic here is actually worse than in China (who could have thought!); there are even fewer road rules and the flow is disrupted by running children, motorcycles, autorickshaws, horse and camel-drawn carts and trucks...you name it. Also hygiene seems to be worse, at least than in Beijing, but admittedly I haven't spent much time in smaller Chinese cities.  There are running open sewers in many places we've been which I'm sure doesn't help people stay healthy!  However, the food that I've had so far I've enjoyed immensely :) and I'm looking forward to more.  I'm not sure I'll be happy with foreign Indian food when I return home!  We have had several welcoming, very personable guides and mostly everyone has been really nice. The scenery and monuments/religious buildings are really detailed, beautiful, and amazing, and the markets are fascinating. There is so much to see and I feel like I understand so little!

Keep on the lookout for albums of pictures to be posted later.

As Beautiful as Rumored

Max and I have just finished our second day of our tour in Rajasthan, a part of northeast India east of Delhi.  We actually started in another region called Uttar Pradesh and went to Agra, the town with the Taj Mahal.  I don't have pictures uploaded yet to show you, but I wanted to share that it really is as beautiful as everyone says, possibly the most beautiful building I have ever seen.  The gardens and gates into the complex are grand but not overwhelming, there are fountains and flowers and greenspace, and actually not that many tourists (maybe my concept of 'many tourists' is skewed by living in Beijing!).  The building itself was pristine white marble, with lovely scalloping on the ceiling of the arches.  There are inlaid semi-precious gems of every color all over the inside and intricate carving in the marble everywhere.  The tombs were solemn without being depressing, and everything has perfect symmetry. There is also a few of the 2nd sacred river in India, the Yamuna, from the back of the Taj.  I didn't want to leave!!