I spent most of yesterday working on a post about the last few months at SFLS. Just as I was in my last paragraph, I realized that I am missing some pretty crucial photos from the Drama Festival. Now, I usually wouldn’t let something like that stop me from publishing, but the Drama Festival was my baby this year, so until I get those photos (I did track them down! They’re on someone else’s camera!!), I’m going to leave that post in my ‘drafts’ folder and move onto something I’ve been working on for ages…
A sneak peak of my IGCSE play
A few months back, I published a poll asking my readers what they’d like to see next. It was a 4 way tie, so I made the decision to write about Suzhou…the beautiful city where I live. I’ve spent the last 3 months seeing more of the city and taking photos for the post and wound up with so much material that I’ve decided it’s going to be two posts.
Trust me…Suzhou is worth 2 posts!
Post #1 – So, You’re Visiting Suzhou
My first post will be about all the famous landmarks there are to see in Suzhou. The focus will be on the top places to visit if you travel to this lovely city. The scope will be broader and more geared toward my family and friends back home who we HOPE will be encouraged to come out and visit us š
We have a lovely spare room for anyone who wants to come for a visit š
Post #2 – So, you’re Moving to Suzhou
The second post will be more focused on the different areas of the city and the things anyone who is moving here should know. There is a huge expat population in Suzhou and every year there are new teachers who arrive, so that post is going to be focused on helping those teachers get to know the city and helping them get settled. If you enjoyed my ‘so you’re moving to China’ posts…you’ll enjoy what I have planned for that one.
Auchan is the Carrefour of SIP…there is a love-hate relationship here….
So stay tuned, friends, family and internet people! I’ll be back before you know it….
It’s been ages since I’ve posted about life out here in China, so I thought it was time for an update. Going through my pictures last night, though, I realized that it’s going to have to be a 2-parter! There’s just been way too much going on!
Many things have not changed, to be fair. We are still going to After Hours so much that our waitress knows our order and where we like to sit…
April and May were busy and filled with birthday parties and ‘just because’ parties. We had several mini holidays in those months and we made the most of them getting together with friends and cruising around on the Ebikes (I got lots of pictures of Suzhou, so expect a post about Suzhou Must-sees later this week!)
A sneak-peek
Dave and I also bought a barbecue this spring and had a barbecue party during our May holiday. We haven’t been able to use it as much as we’d hoped because it’s been raining so much lately (it’s the wet season in Suzhou), but in August and September we should be able to enjoy our grill a lot more!
We had a Barbecue at the beginning of May. It was a blast!
Celebrating Jeff’s Birthday was quite the event back in April
Jeff and I š
Dave and I
Fun on the Balcony
I made my deviled eggs for Jeff’s Mexican Themed birthday
Sadly, as the semester winds down, we must once more grow accustomed to one of the less enjoyable aspects of expat life: many of our friends are moving on or moving away. For a number of reasons, turnover was high at the school this year and more than half of the people I work with are moving on to different schools or different countries. Still, we’ve made the most of our time together and I’m looking forward to all the people I’ll meet next year.
Cheetar, Adam and Karsten living it up at KTV
KTV bars are so swank! lol
Dinner on Japan Street where you can get all you can eat sushi and tepanyaki + all you can drink beer for about $35 Canadian
In other news, Hugo and Poe have been wonderful, as always, but we recently ran into some trouble with Hugo’s amputated leg. What turned out to be an ingrown hair caused him 2 months of pain. Our original vet (Beck and Stone…I would NOT recommend these guys!) told us that Hugo had an infection when we brought him in (we were worried about a wound that had developed in his stump). They prescribed an anti-fungal ointment and sent us on our way. Well, it turns out that the ointment they prescribed is designed specifically for injuries that need to stay open…so instead of this wound closing, it kept getting bigger.
At first, he didn’t mind the cone so much
After another trip to the same vet and no improvement we decided to get a second opinion. That’s when we found out about the medication…and it turned out at that point Hugo needed surgery to clean the wound out and stitch it back up. He was home for about 5 days after that before he split open his stitches and had to have the surgery redone. When he came home a week later, the same thing happened again and he needed the surgery done a 3rd time. He’s home now, but he spent a total of 6 weeks in a cone, 3 weeks in a cage at the vet (basically on bed rest so he couldn’t tear out his stitches) and he’s turned back into a bit of a grumpy boy in the process. I’ve trained him to be gentle before, and I know I can do it again, but still…I feel awful that he went through all of this. All because of an ingrown hair (he never even had an infection), a bad veterinarian and his clumsy disposition (it was jumping off of furniture that kept causing his stitches to tear).
He’s back home now, more handsome than ever
Poe’s been working very hard to keep our spirits up
They had to shave Hugo’s entire stump…the poor guy must be itchy as it’s growing back!
Poe being cute
When we went to visit him during his hospital stay, he clung to me like glue
The moral of my story is: Just because a vet is shiny and western looking (Beck and Stone looks pristine and very professional), doesn’t mean that it’s actually your best option. The vet we are seeing now (Simon Pet Healthcare Center down near Zhongnan Jie station and Aeon Mall) is far more low tech and has a very simple set up, but they are FANTASTIC. They love animals and work to rehome animals that have been surrendered by their owners. They took such good care of Hugo and cost less than half as much as Beck and Stone did. I highly recommend them if you are looking for a vet in Suzhou!
So life has been busy between work (which will be its own separate post), birthdays and parties and taking care of our furry family, but nothing has kept me as busy as my new project. In May I began singing with a band. We go by many different names (there are 12 of us in total I think and depending on who’s playing, our band name changes) but I’m officially a vocalist and I perform pretty much every weekend!
My first gig at Maestre Brau
I always close my eyes when I’m singing!!!! gah!!!
My dear friend Li who comes to every show that she can.
This little girl loved my voice. She asked her mom to put a stool in front of the stage so she could watch me…..melted my heart!
The most exciting gig for me so far was a music festival last weekend called Suzhoubury. The Bookworm is a popular expat hang-out in Suzhou and they throw this festival annually. It’s free and people LOVE it! Usually I sing at restaurants and bars, where we’re sort of background noise, but at Suzhoubury, people were there to hear us perform! It was a tonne of fun and I got to sing my two favourites: Rolling in the Deep and Summer of 69. The wonderfully talented Christina Peters took the pictures below of our event.
We were moved inside because of some rain, but the show went on!
A great group! We even got asked to do an encore!
Me and our bassist, Dennis. This guy is multi talented…he also plays guitar and does vocals for one of the mini bands. Great guy
A very cool shot
So that’s been life as of late. My plan is to write 5 blog posts this week….I was hit by an ebike last night on our way to dinner, and my leg is pretty damaged, so I figure it’s a good week to stay off my feet and blog a little!
Be careful driving in China! This guy was entering the street from a back alley and didn’t so much as slow down when entering the road where we were driving. He drove straight into my leg (I was riding on the back of the scooter). The worst part is that when I stood up and was checking to see if anything was broken, he had the nerve of saying it was OUR fault…didn’t even apologize….jerk!
As promised, I am back with part 2 of my post! 5. Kiss Comfort Goodbye
Whether you’re in your apartment or at a restaurant, the standards of comfort in China are very different from out west. Beds are often rock hard, couches are frequently nothing more than a wooden bench, and restaurants (in certain areas of the country) forgo purchasing conventional tables and chairs, and have everyone sitting at child-sized tables, with plastic stools.
Our couch in Guiyang. My butt would go numb within about 10 minutes.One of our favourite hot pot places….not exactly the most comfortable restaurant…
And it’s not only your butt that will miss the comfort. People here have a different idea of what ‘public space’ means. I frequently see people watching movies on their tablets in public spaces (in the metro…at Starbucks…in restaurants…), without using ear buds. When you have several people doing this in the same space, the room becomes so cluttered with noise that it’s difficult to think.
After taking this picture, and posting it online, I saw someone post an article about how it’s wrong to take photos of strangers. I agree…except for in cases when those individuals have forsaken their rights to privacy by taking away my right to focusing on my blog…
Smoking is also common place here, and you will see it everywhere you go. Restaurants, shopping malls and even some schools all allow smoking and although Beijing and several other cities are beginning to make smoking illegal in public spaces, China still has a long way to go before you can enjoy a meal without choking on someone else’s cigarettes.
Without reinforcement, signs like this don’t actually do very much. There are ‘no smoking ‘ signs in most elevators, after all…it doesn’t stop people from lighting up in them…
And even in private spaces, China finds it’s way in. People in our apartment building frequently leave their front doors open to air out their personal spaces….this often results in my own apartment smelling like cigarettes. Our neighbours across the hall have apparently run out of room in their apartment, so they’ve begun storing personal items outside of their door, in the hallway…They are currently keeping their baby stroller and several other objects (including open umbrellas…) right outside of our door.
And Fireworks….The Chinese use them to ward of evil spirits and the following events all merit their use:
Weddings
Funerals
Birthdays
New Businesses Opening
Festivals
Holidays
Just because they like to make noise…
Fireworks are a constant here. When you live on one of the higher floors of a building, you’ll wake up to the sound of these things going off right outside your windows. One day, when we were living in Guiyang, our apartment got smoked out when a new business had opened up downstairs. We’d had our windows open…
Even babies don’t get any break from the discomfort of living in China. I can’t help but wonder what this sort of thing means for this poor kid’s neck muscles…
6. Traffic Laws are Non-Existent…and Mayhem most Definitely Ensues…
It’s rare that you will see a police officer pulling people over for bad driving. It’s so rare, in fact, that the only time I can remember it happening was in Guiyang, when police officers caught on that they could get bribe money from e-bike drivers who aren’t wearing helmets.
Take Note: There are no drivers in many of these cars. In Suzhou, people frequently park in the areas meant for uturns….because… why not? Sidewalks are another very popular place to park and double parking is common. There’s no end in sight for this behaviour, because nobody gets ticketed for these types of things. It’s beyond me…
The results of this lack of enforcement are terrifying. In Suzhou, the driving isn’t TOO bad. There are e-bike lanes and for the most part, people pay attention to stop lights and stay in 1 lane at a time…Well, ok, that might be a little generous…
I don’t have many pictures of this stuff, because, I’m usually trying to jump out of the way of drivers who are busy taking selfies instead of watching the road, but this video that I took in Guiyang should give you a pretty good idea of what it’s like driving, or ever walking, in China…
7. You’ll Begin to Appreciate the Most Surprising things…
The most mundane things in Canada become the most appreciated in China. Something as simple as Shake n’ Bake chicken is the cure to culture shock and bad days. Although I was never really big on Deviled Eggs back home, I’ve grown to love them in China, because they remind me of Christmas and Thanksgiving.
One of the best things is getting care packages from home. Getting Coffee Crisps, clothes that fit and western spices is such a great event! It’s like the best Christmas gift you can imagine!! I especially love getting letters from my nieces and nephews, though it’s common that China Post loses those. I’ve had countless letters mailed to me over the past 2 years, but I’ve only every actually received 2. Most of our family and friends have given up sending things, and I can’t say I blame them. Canada Post charges an exorbitant fee to send packages overseas, and when they likely won’t even make it to us…what’s the point?
China Post workers going through their mail deliveries…this could be why so many packages go missing….
On the subject of ‘stuff from home’, I realized something amazing about myself while I was finding pictures to use for these posts. I apparently have a need to photograph any western-brand sign I see. It must be the excitement of seeing something from Canada or America IN China…
8. Signs: The Good, The Bad and The Incomprehensible
This category doesn’t need much explaining….Let’s start with the good…
The Bad…
And, of course, the ones we can barely understand…
9. Things are Just Done Differently Here… (Part 2)
Of course, there are a few things I forgot to write in this section of my last post, so here they are…
Public space is used differently here…Below is a photo of a man shaving. In the metro. On his way to work…
Advertisements are weird. These women are serving pie…in a glass cage..to promote a new restaurant. They’re white…and it was weird…so people stopped.
Products are also weird. The grossest one I’ve seen are the facial creams that are supposedly made of human placenta. They have a rejuvenating quality to them….yeah….no thanks….
Crowds….crowds like you have never experienced…
Chinese medicine can be questionable. I have tried acupuncture here and it did not go well. I wound up passing out and I think the guy did more damage than good. I’m a pretty firm believer in scientifically backed treatments, but if you want to try eastern remedies, I do urge you to seek out professionals. Cupping is one of the most popular thing for westerners to try out. It’s pretty harmless, and it leaves some pretty wicked (temporary) scars that you can show off. Every Chinese person I’ve asked swears that it does wonders…
A friend of mine, after a Cupping session. The welts go away after about a month…
Some Final Tips for your Time in China
Buy clothing and shoes before coming to the country. Even petite girls can have a difficult time finding clothing here, because generally there is NO ROOM for curves in Chinese clothing. If you’re busty…shop at home accordingly, because you will not find anything above a B cup here. Similarly, it’s difficult to find shoes bigger than a lady’s size 6 or 7 (36 or 37 in European sizes).
While the Chinese are perfectly ok wearing mini skirts where you can actually see their bums when they bend over, cleavage is a nay nay…Be prepared to have pretty high cropped shirts here, ladies. It’s inappropriate to show off your goods (on the upper part of your body anyway…)
Learn how to use Tao Bao! It is truly a life saver. You can use Bing Translate or google translate if you have a VPN. ***Tip: Translate whatever it is you want to buy into Chinese (Google Translate works very well). The prices are much lower if you search in Mandarin.
Buy bedding foam. There’s very little worse than having a bad sleep. The first time I lived in China, I was able to get used to the hard beds, but now…I find it unbearable. There are all sorts of foam mattresses you can buy (Tao Bao is your best bet!) to soften up your bed. They are invaluable and I HIGHLY recommend buying one!
Find a local store that carries western goods. Metro, Carrefour, Walmart, Decathelon and Euromart are some of the best. Tao Bao also carries a wide range of western brands, so that’s always an option as well. It’s amazing how comforting it can be to find taco seasoning or salty popcorn when you have had a bad week.
Get a VPN (preferably before you enter the country)! I couldn’t blog or keep in touch with anyone on Facebook if it weren’t for my VPN. For $100 a year you can get set up with Astrill or Express, and both are reliable and fast. The government does sometimes crack down on that stuff, so expect the occasional glitch in service, but for the most part, I feel that they do pretty well.
My last piece of advice before ending this post: surround yourself with positive people. There’s nothing worse than spending time with people who do nothing but complain about the culture and the country. Of course, it’s inevitable that you will need to rant now and then, and that’s totally okay. But I’ve met so many foreigners who spend their time abroad angry that the people here won’t conform to what THEY think it normal. Those types of Lao Wai kinda suck…so don’t be like them. Remember that there are good things and bad things in EVERY culture, and you don’t come from a perfect country any more than the Chinese do. Be tolerant, and when it gets REALLY bad…grab some western bevies (because Chinese beer is pretty terrible) and chill out with people who are going through the same things you are.
Having a positive group of friends is key to surviving overseas. I can’t claim that we’re all positive all the time, but we all count ourselves lucky to be having this incredible experience, and when all else fails, beers at Euromart, or a night out at KTV can go a long, long way for the spirit!!
That’s it for today! My next post will be an update on life in Suzhou! I’ll have pictures from my first gigs (I’m singing in a band :)), the Drama Festival at my school and all the stuff that’s been keeping me busy and away from my blog!
I can’t believe it’s been a month since I got around to blogging! Life has been nutty here again…but I’ll have more on that in my next post.
I also haven’t forgotten about my poll. It was a 3 way tie, so I’m going with ‘The Best of Suzhou’. I’ve been collecting material for weeks
Tonight, after realizing that I had bit of spare time, I decided to write a post I’ve been considering for a long time. This particular post was inspired by an old friend of mine who’s thinking of moving to China. I was giving her advice this morning and it got me thinking about all the crazy stuff that I’ve gotten used to dealing with living in this strange country.
So here it is…a list of all the stuff that you should know if you’re moving to China! 1.) The Food is Amazing…and Amazingly Weird….
Item #1 on my list isn’t a shocker. Chinese food is popular around the world, so there has to be something good about it! I love Chinese food and I doubt I’ll ever tire of it. There are many different varieties, depending on the regions of origin. In Sichuan province, you’ll get spicy hot pot, for example. On the east coast, you’re more likely to get sweet sea food. No matter where you go in China, the local cuisine is worth a try because WOW…there are some amazing things to eat out here!
Hot pot is probably our most regular food in China.
Peking Duck is a MUST try!
Dumplings are a regular for anyone living in China
Then again, when you say you’ll try a local delicacy, you might get more than you bargained for…
I think most of the world is aware that people in China will eat anything and everything. From chicken feet to pig face, and everything in between…nothing is off-limits in this country. I can proudly say I’ve tried everything that’s been offered to me since I got here (still no dog…that may be the one I turn down…), and some of it isn’t bad.
Strangely enough, I enjoy barbecued chicken feet. There isn’t a whole lot of meat on them, but they’re alright. I also like chicken tail a lot. They get nice and crispy on the barbecue. Organ meat has become far more normal for me to eat as well and I’ve become particularly fond of liver, though brain still grosses me out and chicken gizzards seem pointless and rubbery.
Pig feet aren’t too bad. They are really fatty though, so probably not great for the heart…
It’s quite shocking how quickly I became used to eating animals whole. This is a fish and pepper dish, where you eat whole little river fish…bones and all. Having my food look up at me doesn’t even phase me anymore
Most of it, however, I simply don’t ‘get’. I can understand how a starving person might think that pig intestines are the most delicious thing they’ve ever eaten, but for me…they’re kinda gross. There isn’t much meat in them, and every time I’ve had them…they always faintly taste like poop….maybe it’s in my head…but I swear I taste it. So I now avoid them when I see them on the menu.
2. Sanitary Standards are VERY Different in China
Currently, I’m teaching a Food and Nutrition class at my school. It’s basically home economics, but I mostly just teach the students how to cook. The biggest challenge for me has been teaching them about bacteria, food poisoning and basic sanitation. It isn’t as easy as it may sound…
There’s no hot water in our kitchens (a norm in China) and I had to teach them to boil water for doing dishes. When classes other than my own work in the kitchen, the dishes are left a bit oily because cold water just doesn’t clean that stuff off, and soap is often an after-thought…
Teaching them about meat safety has also been a huge issue. In China, meat is frequently left out, unrefrigerated and uncovered. Even in the western type stores, like Carrefour and Metro (if you are new to China, seek out those two stores! They are a must-have for anyone living abroad), you’ll frequently see questionable meat sitting out on the counters.
Meat hanging out of an apartment
Chickens drying in the sun
Meat sitting out on shelves at Carrefour
More Carrefour meat
Dried pig face…I couldn’t decide which section to put this in: strange food, or hygiene
some VERY questionable meat, sitting in a crate…
Similarly, the ideas about personal hygiene are different here. By the time you are finished your first (of many) colds here in China, you will grow very tired of people telling you to ‘drink hot water’. It seems to be the cure to everything here in China, while preventative measures, like hand washing, are never discussed.
Throwing rubbish in the drain….no problem. Cold water….TERRIBLE idea!At the gym, cold water isn’t even an option. The best you can get is ‘warm’ water (which is still pretty hot), because apparently, cold water is bad for your health…
There are also some pretty nasty habits here, that I have never grown used to. Spitting, for one, still grosses me out. People don’t like to swallow their saliva here, so they just spit it out. This is especially true in poorer areas (where people are less educated regarding the spreading of germs) and with the older generations. Similarly, Chinese people think that sitting on a toilet seat is dirty, so they will often hop up on top of the seat and squat over top of the toilet, when an actual squatter isn’t around. The result is usually that urine ends up everywhere (because sit-down toilets aren’t made to be squatted over), which, to me anyway, seems a lot less hygienic than sitting on a toilet seat!
Furthermore…flushing your toilet paper here is a no-no. The sewage systems can’t handle the tissue, so public restrooms always smell because of the tp sitting in bins…
3. Be Prepared for Pollution and Pollution Related Illnesses
Everyone knows that China has a pollution problem. It’s a topic frequently discussed out here, and Chinese citizens are really starting to pressure their government to regulate factories better for the sake of the air. In Canada, I’d never really experienced pollution before, and until I moved to Suzhou, I’d never really given air quality a second thought. Here, students actually know the names of the different air pollutants and what they can do to your lungs. For example, I had a 13-year-old girl tell me that the PM2.5 levels were very high one day, and that I should wear a special kind of mask so that the particles don’t end up in my lungs. PM2.5, she informed me, is the most worrisome pollutant because your body doesn’t have any way of flushing it out…the particles stay trapped in your lungs for years.
When I was 13…pollution was hardly a concept I’d ever even considered!
A smoggy day in Suzhou
I don’t know a single teacher that doesn’t catch at least 1 or 2 terrible colds per term here. I was so sick back in March that I had to be put on oxygen after a short walk to the a nearby clinic. They put me on 5 different medications to combat the viral infection I had in my lungs and I was honestly really scared because I’d never had such trouble breathing in my entire life! Even pneumonia hadn’t been as bad as that lung infection was…
My many meds
4. Things are Done Differently Here
If health hazards are shrugged off here, I don’t even know how to explain how people here feel about safety. Workers frequently wear minimal or no equipment went doing construction, and I don’t even want to think about the repetitive strain injuries that some of those people suffer. I’ve seen women in their 40s and 50s hauling broken concrete out of demolition sights in wicker baskets hanging off their backs…
All of this was hauled out of the building by hand…on the backs of manual laborers…
And those are just some of the long-term consequences of having no standardized regulations for safety in the workplace. Sometimes the consequences are much more current…
In funnier instances, some things just don’t seem to make sense here. Such as:
Our hot water tank being right above our washing machine…but our washing machine wasn’t connected.
Escalators being built outside, instead of under the roofed area…causing them electrical damage every time it rains.
Having air conditioners in every room at a school, but forbidding anyone to turn them on because the cold (or hot…they do heating in the winter) air is bad for your health…
At the school, we use paper so thin that the students have dubbed it ‘toilet paper’. It’s done because they are trying to use less paper and save the environment…yet no one sees anything wrong with having between 20 and 30 flyers left in your e-bike every week
The government telling employees to smoke more to boost the economy…
I can’t stress enough: Cold Water = Bad……transporting food in dirty-cut-up-old containers…FINE!!!
Well, that’s all I have time for tonight! It looks like this one is going to be a 2-parter! Come back soon to see the rest of my list which will include:
Thank you all for reading up on my adventures in India! This last post was the last of my stories about that 28 day trip, and now itās time to move onto other things! Some posts I have planned:
About China
About Hong Kong, Victoria Peak and Victoria Harbour
Kunming: Chinaās Spring City
The Best of Suzhou (Gardens, SIP and Watertowns)
Tips for moving to China
About North America
Glacier Park and Highway to the Sun
Yellowstone Park
Our Rocky Mountain Road Trip
South East Asia
Should I visit Cambodia? (An Overview of the best and worst Cambodia has to offer)
Should I visit Thailand? (An Overview)
Should I visit China? (An Overview)
I am hoping to eventually write about all of these topics, but for now, Iād love to hear from you! Following this post, Iāll be adding a poll to my blog page. You can click on whichever topic youād like to see me post next! Iāll base my next posting on what you want to see! Pretty cool, hey? Iām getting used to this blogging stuff!
Iāll leave the poll open for a week! Let me know what you think! Thanks!!!
It’s difficult to imagine a country more diverse than India. With 22 official languages, 6 major religions and countless traditions and cultures, your experiences in India will depend greatly on the areas you visit. Of the places we visited, Rajasthan was the most flaunting of their customs and traditions, and no matter where you travel there, you get a taste of the individual cultures that make up this desert state.
Rajasthan is a state located in north-western India. Although it is mostly famous because of its Thar Desert, Rajasthan has much more going on than just sand. We visited 5 cities (and could have doubled that number if we’d had the time) and had some pretty awesome experiences. Here are some of the highlights of Rajesthan.
Palaces and Forts
Prior to its independence from England in 1947, India didn’t look the way it does today. Although it is now a democratic country, India used to be made up of several small city states, run by kings. As a result, there is an abundance of history in Rajasthan and if you like seeing antiques and learning about the past, the palaces and forts in Rajasthan are excellent ways to spend your afternoons.
Rajasthan’s forts speak volumes about India’s past. The different colours seen here are because these two areas were built in different times and of different materials
The fees to get into some of these palaces were quite high, and from what I heard from other tourists, not always worth the money. In Udaipur, we opted to skip the palace because of the high camera fee. We were relieved to hear from a couple later on that it had been wise to skip it; there was little more than a few paintings to see. In other places, like Jodpur for example, the forts (and attached palaces), are well worth your time and money.
There are often museums in the forts. They are a great place to learn about pre-colonial culture in India
A cradle for young Jodpur princes
Ornate rooms where Kings met with royalty from other parts of the country
one of the innner rooms in the palace
Our hotel in Jodpur sat right under the fort
Built over the course of hundreds of years, you can actually see that the newer parts of the fort have been built on top of the older parts
Cannons for protecting the city
Damage to the fort from neighboring Udaipur’s army
Many of the hotels in Rajasthan are actually old palaces and government buildings from past rulers. We stayed in several of these buildings, known as Havelis, while in Rajesthan…each had beautiful architecture and interesting rooms.
The lobby in our hotel/haveli in Pushkar
Ornate walls in our Jodpur hotel
The grounds at these hotels were also beautiful
Architecture
Each city we visited in Rajasthan seemed to have a nickname. Jaipur is ‘The Pink City’. Udaipur is ‘The Lake City’, Pushkar is ‘The Pilgrimage City’, Jaisalmer ‘The Golden City’ and Jodpur ‘The Blue City’. Each of these nicknames comes from the unique architecture and geography in the area.
The Pink City, where citizens paint their homes pink to honour a special historical visit of kings
The Pilgrimage City (this is considered a holy lake)
The Golden City, where everything is made of sandstone.
A view of The Blue City from Jodpur fort. Similar to Jaipur, citizens paint their homes blue in the old part of town.
Jaisalmer impressed me the most with its beautiful sandstone carvings. Not only is the golden colour of the sandstone beautiful, but the intricate detail found all around the city is a photographer’s dream.
A stable in Jaisalmer
Similarly, Udaipur’s gorgeous hotels built along the lake are a sight to see. The white buildings reflect on the lake, giving the city a serene atmosphere.
And if the cities themselves aren’t beautiful enough for you, the temples and other landmarks in India are also sights to behold. After all, the Taj Mahal is just one of India’s famed buildings…there are many, many more!!
A garden of temples in Jodpur
A stable in Jaisalmer
A temple outside Jodpur
A restaurant in Jaisalmer: Saffon. VERY worth stopping in!
More parks
Markets
If shopping is your favourite pass-time during travel, Rajasthan is for you! Every city we visited had markets where you can check out Rajasthan’s unique textiles. And, for a state famous for its desert, you wouldn’t believe the colour you’ll see in these markets!!
What many of the stores look like once you’re inside.
Traditional Rajasthani stitching
The market in Pushkar
The market in Pushkar
One of a hundred shops in Udaipur
Among the best cities for shopping were Pushkar and Udaipur. While the shopkeepers in Jodpur and Jaipur were pushy and known to chase you down the street…Pushkar and Udaipur had a much calmer feel to them. There was an abundance of art and textiles (bedding, scarves, clothing etc…) to see everywhere we visited in Rajesthan, you could only really peacefully visit shops in these two smaller cities. We bought the majority of our souvenirs in Pushkar, where the prices were fair and where I was given the chance to try things on without people grabbing my arms and trying to drag me into different stores (a frequent experience in Jodpur!)
The salesmen here were EXTREMELY pushy! Several tried grabbing us by the arms. One convinced me to ‘follow him upstairs…where he had the kind of shirts I was looking for’. He didn’t. He had button up t-shirts…They were for men…
The clock tower, where all the action is at in Jodpur proper
Of course, you do need to be careful when shopping in Rajasthan. The prices aren’t nearly as inflated as they are in the Golden Triangle, but you will still be ripped off if someone sees the opportunity. Pushkar specifically had an interesting scam that involved locals trying to push you into paying for flowers that are originally presented as being free. A rule of thumb in Pushkar…people are really nice…just DON’T BUY THE FLOWERS!!!! And, of course, be weary of anyone telling you that their products are 100% Kashmir or Pashmina…they most likely aren’t. I paid 1000 rupees for a scarf that I saw for 400 rupees only a few days later in one of the smaller cities. Be skeptical of initial prices and BARGAIN HARD! (even when they try and make you feel like you’re ripping them off…it’s part of their shtick)
I saw these table clothes for 500 rupees in the market. We ended up buying 3 of them from a gentleman in Jaisalmer, who was selling them for some of the women living out of the city. We paid only 100 rupees each and we knew he was STILL making good money on our purchases.
Wildlife and Landscape
Rajasthan is THE place to visit if you are interested in diverse landscapes and wildlife. From monkeys to cows, there won’t be a day you don’t see an animal while in India. And because Rajasthan covers such a large area, the landscapes change a great deal as you travel around the state.
Eastern Rajasthan
Western Rajasthan
Rural Rajasthan
The farm life within the cities is astounding. Not only cows roam the streets of Jaipur and Jaisalmer, but also goats, sheep, pigs and chickens…
Some goats being herded near Pushkar
A goat in Jaisalmer
Some cows munching on garbage in Udaipur
There are monkeys all over the place in Rajasthan! I’m always afraid of being bitten because monkeys can be so aggressive, but the zoom on my camera made it easy to get some good close ups of these cool little dudes…
Mama monkey in Jaipur
Baby monkey in Pushkar
Monkeys running along a building in Jaipur
Rural black monkeys on our way to Jaisalmer
And of course, I can’t forget about the friends we made in the desert…
The most remarkable animals we saw in Rajasthan were the famed Demoiselle Cranes we saw outside of Udaipur. These cranes are famous because they have the most difficult migration of any bird on earth. Not only do they need to fly over the Himalayan mountains to get to their breeding grounds in India…but they get attacked and eaten by Golden Eagles along the way! Don’t believe me? Watch Planet Earth! We watched the episode about Mountain Landscapes after we got home, just to see the cranes that we’d been lucky enough to see up close in Rajasthan!
These cranes nest in India by the thousands
The area where you can stop and watch the birds1
A sweet close up with my camera allowed us to see these birds up close
Some Cautionary Tales
There are far more ups than downs visiting Rajasthan. For Dave and I, the biggest downer was our driver, who was strange and actually pretty terrible at his job. Look around for drivers that have good reviews before booking because you’ll be spending 35+ hours in a car with that person…and trust me…you don’t want a guy who plays the same 5 minute Ohm on repeat the entire time! It can really ruin a trip!
Additionally…it’s a good idea to book ahead of time. While it’s often better to book tours once you’re IN a country, you will be overwhelmed with the number of tour guides trying to sell you packages once you’re in New Delhi. Many of them will lie to you to get your business (ours assured us that they were government run…they were not!) and they will all try and rip you off. Check Trip Adviser before you get tied in with anyone in India.
Also…make sure you’ll be being driven around in a decent car. This was our driver and car…the driver was ok…the car was nice. I can’t imagine how horrible it would have been to spend 35 hours in something without proper suspension!
Aside from drivers…make sure to look around before buying things so you get a feel for what prices are in markets. Don’t believe anyone who tells you their scarves are 100% anything…they are lovely, and I wouldn’t discourage you from buying 1 (or 3…), but I would caution you to limit how much you spend. Most of the time, the Kashmir or Pashmina scarf they’re selling you is mostly silk or even polyester.
And, of course, I highly recommend that you make purchases at places like Belissima…shops that specialize in art and textiles being made by people in need…This particular shop helps women who have been widowed or who were never married. (it’s located in Jaisalmer fort…there are signs everywhere so it shouldn’t take long to find!!)
So there you have it…Rajasthan is chalk full of things for every type of tourist. From gorgeous landscapes to intricate architecture, you’ll find something interesting at every stop you make. If I could do things differently, I would have taken 3 of the days we had in New Delhi and added them to our time in Rajasthan so we could have seen Bikaner or Rathambore. Perhaps some day I’ll get the chance…
It’s been over a month now, since Dave and I returned from our 29 days in India. I’ve written 12 blog posts about our trip and have spent countless hours going through photos and videos. I filled a journal with anecdotes and airplane tickets and have reminisced a great deal about our time in that crazy country. So now, before my memory gets too fuzzy on the details, is the perfect time to dole out some advice for my fellow travelers. Is India worth the trip? Let’s take a look at the facts (according to my own experiences anyway!) Golden Triangle Tours
The Golden Triangle is THE tourist circuit in India. Tours typically begin in New Delhi, then head to Agra and finish in Jaipur. These 3 stops can be done in a short amount of time (3 days is easily doable), making them popular for foreigners who don’t have a long stay in India. And, because the Golden Triangle covers so many of India’s ‘must-sees’ (The Taj Mahal, The Pink City, etc…), you will not have difficulty finding tour operators or drivers for a trip around India’s most popular tourist circuit.
Let’s break it down… The Good
Beginning in New Delhi, you will experience the country’s capital, for better or for worse. There is a great deal of history there, which is great if you’re interested in India’s past (both modern and ancient).
India has an incredibly multicultural history. Between it’s time under Hindu, Muslim and Brittish rule, the diversity in Delhi’s historic sights is well worth mentioning
There is also plenty to see in terms of more modern events. Visiting Gandhi’s memorial was an educational stop
Visiting the National Museum gave me a real view into just how old Indian society really is.
In addition to the historical sights in Delhi, the Zoo was surprisingly impressive. The animals seemed to be well cared-for and the park where the Zoo is located is a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Agra has a great deal to offer tourists as well. The Taj Mahal and Agra Fort alone are enough reason to make the 4 hour drive from New Delhi. Best of all, if you leave New Delhi early enough and are okay with a long day, you can see Agra’s most famous sights and then head onto Jaipur for dinner.
The Taj Mahal is a wonder to behold
Agra Fort
Jaipur is the final stop in the Golden Triangle, and it’s a nice little introduction to the state of Rajasthan. Dubbed ‘The Pink City’, Jaipur is full of markets, historical sites and, of course, several forts. It’s a lovely place to spend a day or two, especially if you’re tight on time and want to see Rajesthan, but can’t make it to one of the other cities I’ll be writing about later on this list.
The Pink City, where citizens paint their homes pink to honour a special historical visit of kings
selling peas in the market
Tiger Fort
New Delhi, Agra and Jaipur can surely offer you some insight into the rest of the country and are a great place to start if you have limited time to spend in India. I can see what attracts people to these 3 places, but if I’m going to be honest, there were a lot more drawbacks than selling-points for me during my time in the Golden Triangle…
The Bad
I’ll begin with the most trivial problem on my list, though it IS the most relevant for the average traveler. If you are traveling to New Delhi, prepare yourself for scammers! There are an unbelievable number of people out on the streets at any given time trying to get into your pockets and take you for as much as they can. Some of my favourites:
Taxi drivers who tell you that your hotel is closed/full/doesn’t exist, who offer to take you to a hotel that their cousin/brother/friend owns. The hotel they bring you to is invariably be cheap and dirty but the prices for the room will be jacked up, because the taxi driver is making commission. You will face this type of scam right at the airport, so beware!
Travel agents who claim to be ‘government owned’. They might give you a tour, but I estimate we paid about 30%-40% more than we should have when we signed up for our tour. That’s nothing compared to what some people face…
Tuk Tuk drivers who charge 5, 10 or 50X the price they should for taking you places.
Tuk Tuk drivers who say they’ve met you…and then try to make you feel bad for not remembering them. These guys will guilt you into letting them take you to an ’emporium’, where everything is massively over priced and where they are given a commission.
Counterfeit everything! Don’t buy scarves, or anything for that matter, from any emporium. Once you get out of Delhi, the ‘hand painted post cards’ that the nice painter made in the Emporium go from 350 rupees to 35 rupees…you also discover pretty quickly that they aren’t hand painted…Silk is another big one…most people can’t tell the difference between Cashmere, silk and polyester, so do yourself a favour and skip buying any expensive scarves.
You will be told all sorts of things about how you can tell that a person’s scarves are ‘the real deal’….the one I fell for was the ‘burning hair’ routine. They will tell you that burning cashmere smells like burning hair…it does…but so does any silk (low-grade or high-grade), which is a MUCH cheaper material
These are just some of the scams Dave and I experienced (and in most cases…evaded) while in Delhi. It’s honestly an exhausting experience being in Delhi, because you feel as though you can’t ever trust anyone; a feeling I really dislike. Furthermore, Delhi isn’t the only place where you’ll experience these scams. India’s tourism industry is filled with dishonesty, and you’ll deal with this in all of the big tourist destinations (Delhi, Agra, Mumbai and Varanasi are the worst)
This is the tour company that scammed us. It’s located right ouside of Connought Place, and they overcharged us by an indecent amount.
We were lucky because at least they prepared a decent tour. Many tour operators will take your money and leave you in unsafe buildings with bedbugs…
The next problem on my list: the pollution!! New Delhi holds the record for being the most polluted city in the world. While everyone talks about Beijing’s pollution problems, China’s capital got to about 500 points on the Air Quality Index this winter (making big news!), whereas in New Delhi, this has been happening for years. They had to actually expand their AQI scale because the city was so often blowing past the highest number ON the scale! New Delhi’s pollution is estimated to cause 1.5 million deaths every year and is causing massive issues for the country’s healthcare system.
From a tourist’s perspective, the pollution is little more than an inconvenience. Staying in New Delhi for a few days isn’t going to kill you, but it WILL make you appreciate the clean air back home!
Sight seeing our first few days in India
Fog is also a problem in New Delhi and it feels like condensation sticks to the pollution, making it very difficult to breath
In addition to the air pollution, New Delhi is also very dirty. You’re told by everyone who’s ever been to India to expect it…but there’s really no way to prepare for some of the things you see. The garbage bins that exist hardly seem to be in use, and people mostly just throw their trash onto the ground. Later on, a cow or dog will come along and eat anything edible…everything else gets burned at the end of the day. Sadly, from what I saw, burning garbage isn’t solely done to eliminate trash…it’s also done for warmth…
Not taken by me….but we saw things like this often. There are countless stray dogs roaming the streets of New Delhi, and they rely on garbage for survival.
To say that Delhi is poor is a gross understatement. More than 50% of the population lives in the slums. For those of you who have had the fortune of being born in a 1st world country, where slums of this degree don’t exist, I will paint a picture…
An Indian man sleeps on the roof of his house at a shanty area in New Delhi, India, Monday, April 20, 2015. . (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Slums are basically groups of makeshift houses, built in areas that can’t technically hold buildings (near rivers that are prone to flooding, for example). The poorest of the poor live here, where there is often no electricity or running wate, and therefore, no toilets. People mostly defecate in the streets, creating sanitary issues. Without clean water, children and adults both die of parasites and something as common as a bad case of diarrhea is a death sentence for many of these people.
Once more, I cannot make claim to this picture, but Dave and I did see countless naked children running around the streets of New Delhi. His belly is most definitely not large because he’s full…parasites are a big problem in India.
It sickens me to say that you can actually pay people to go on tours of these slums, in both Delhi and Mumbai. The idea of gawking at the poor, who already live with so little dignity, bothers me a lot. There are many organizations out there that are trying to help these people, but it’s too big of a problem to be going away any time soon…
People filling jugs with clean water brought to them by a relief group. This clean water is vital for their survival
So…if I’m going to sum it up…I wouldn’t visit the Golden Triangle again. The Taj Mahal was VERY cool and I highly recommend a visit, but if I were planning our trip again, I would be spending as little time in New Delhi as possible. There are plenty of other places in India that ARE worth a visit, and next I’ll be outlining the pros and cons of travel in Rajasthan. Thanks for checking in!
I have about 10 blog posts planned at the moment, but have had so little free time that they’ve all just been sitting in my head Spring term has been a little bit crazy, and when you add in holidays, birthdays and regular life into the mix…finding downtime can be tricky! So, I thought an update on all my projects was a good idea…
Life since we returned from India has been eventful in both good and bad ways. When we got back to Suzhou, I started going to the gym again, but realized that I didn’t have anywhere near the energy I should have. I was actually feeling all around pretty terrible…by the time my lung infection hit full force, my body was having difficulty getting enough oxygen. I ended up at the Sing Medical walk-in clinic in SIP (the area of Suzhou where we live), where I was put on 5 different medication and told to stay in bed for the next week…
The doctor wasn’t sure if it was a bacterial or viral lung infection, but he was fairly sure that it had been building up for some time…I think it began in India…but it might have even been before that.
Since that necessary ‘mini vacation’, life hasn’t really stopped. I’ve been put in charge of the yearbook committee and the drama festival this term (two huge projects!) and I’ve also been helping out with some grade 8 exam preparation and of course, I have all my regular classes as well. It’s been a busy few months!
Brain Storming for the school yearbook. Yearbooks aren’t a ‘thing’ in China, so this is SUPER exciting for the students!
My favourite project has definitely been the Drama Festival. 4/5 of the classes that are participating in the event are taught by yours truly, so I’ve had my hands full preparing sets and props, teaching the students how to write a play, and of course, actually writing the plays. This festival has actually given me the chance to teach the students a whole set of new skills, and I really feel that they’ve gotten a lot out of these projects.
From there, I taught them about plot line and then gave them 2 weeks to prepare a presentation for the class about the play their group thought up
They all took the presentations very seriously and when each group had presented their idea to the class, we voted and chose the best play.
Now we are preparing the play that they chose as a group and they will perform it in the drama festival on April 22nd
Of course, when it came down to actually writing the plays, that was mostly left up to me. So working with their plot lines and character profiles, I got to put my creative writing skills to use! It was a tonne of fun and although it meant spending my long weekend holiday at Starbucks, it was well worth my time and efforts! I am SO looking forward to seeing what these plays look like up on stage on April 22nd!
This project has also given an opportunity to develop leadership skills in many of the stronger students.
Drama has been a blast this semester, and I have to say that Food and Nutrition has been on an upswing as well! Last term, and at the very beginning of this term, I was struggling with keeping the kitchen up to an acceptable standard of cleanliness. My students do alright, but students from the high school were using the kitchen in their free time and leaving quite a few messes to clean up.
This is my favourite class to take to the kitchen. They are learning to be so neat and organized!
I love coming in and seeing that they’ve put their vegetables in bowls instead of just having them all over the counter, like they used to do.
Making spaghetti and meatballs!
This class has been doing so well I actually took them to the kitchen for an extra week.
They LOVED the Jaimaican deviled eggs we made last term, so this term I decided to make some special Easter eggs with them
And when we were finished early (because it doesn’t take 90 minutes to make deviled eggs lol!), we got to work on our play for the drama festival!
And, in addition to the regular challenges you’d expect to face in a Home Economics-type class, there are some serious differences in culture when it comes to health and safety. It’s been quite the battle trying to teach the students about mold and bacteria. While in the past, it’s been perfectly acceptable to just stack up wet dishes into the cupboards (that aren’t finished…they have raw wood inside), the mold problem I faced in September made me determined to teach them the value of properly cleaning up. My students learned these skills pretty quickly, but as I mentioned earlier, I share the kitchen with other classes, and not all of the other classes were so quick to catch on.
Notice the sign?? At least they didn’t put them in the cupboard! lol!!
The worst is when I come in after being out of the kitchen for a week…students often leave behind things like this and they begin to rot. The worst is when I find open bags of bags of pasta sauce or open tubes of mayonnaise sitting on the counter…
My writing class continues to be one of the most rewarding things I do at the school. I love teaching those kids and they’re so engaged and interested in my lessons that they are making leaps and bounds as far as their writing is concerned. My biggest success has been a student named Jared, who went from getting 30-40% on his homework last term, to 75-80% this term! Something clicked for him and now he’s finishing 3rd place in the class on tests! That’s huge for a mainland kid, because it means that he beat kids from Singapore and Malaysia, who have been learning English most of their lives. I’m very proud of him.
A classroom selfie. I very much look forward to Friday mornings, when I get my 80 minutes with these 13 year olds š
And of course, in addition to being an incredibly hard-working group of students, they’re funny too! They played a very cute trick on me on April Fools day!
I came into the classroom and this is what I saw! They had all put their hoodies on backwards and were sitting backwards in their seats. Little Tom was also hiding in the teacher’s desk and he jumped out at me as soon as I started teaching! I screamed and jumped about 3 feet in the air. I’m pretty sure I added about a year onto these kids’ lives with laughter!!
Life outside of the school has been busy too. With both Dave and I having birthdays in April, it’s already usually a busy month. As it turns out, our good friend, Jeff, also has a birthday in April and his friends Matt and Lisa came out for a visit as well, so we’ve been having lots of parties as of late!
Dave and I, reading for the Kempinski
At the Kempinski with some lovely friends!
I made a friend that night…this is my friend Eric’s son, Alex. Such a cute kid!!!
I’ve gotta say though, the best part so far was the one we had last night. I turned the big three oh, and some of my favourite people took me out to Beijiang (a Chinese Muslim restaurant with INCREDIBLE food!) and then to KTV! It was such a great night! I can hardly talk today because my voice is so tired from singing…but it felt so good to be out! I have met some awesome people in Suzhou and last night I felt incredibly lucky to be out with them.
Our dinner group…Jeff is incapable of taking a nice picture :p
Dave and I! Dave did such an amazing job making my birthday special this year! I’m spending 2 hours at the Kempinski spa tomorrow as a birthday gift!
My GORGEOUS birthday cake! It taste even better than it looks!!!
Michael, Karsten and I. Karsten’s rendition of ‘I will Survive’ suited his German accent so well! It is officially my new favourite version of that song!
I don’t know what I was singing here..probably Gaga…I did a lot of Gaga last night lol!
Lizz, Jeff, Dave and Piyush! Some of my favorite people in Suzhou!
Fun picture!
Katie killing it rapping!!!
Dave killing it doing AC/DC! lol
So that’s been life lately….it’s been full and awesome and 50 shades of crazy! Oh, one last thing…I already got Dave his birthday present! I found them for sale on the Suzhou Buy and Sell and I’m SOOO happy I did!!!
Meet Bonnie…
and Clyde!
I’ll be back soon…though I’m not sure if I’ll be around again before the drama festival on the 22nd. As always…thanks for reading!
Often, when it comes to traveling, I am underwhelmed by ‘must see’ sights that everyone else seems to love. At Yellow Stone, I didn’t find Old Faithful to be particularly punctual or impressive. In Cambodia, I preferred several temples over Angkor Wat. Even in Thailand, I preferred Elephant Nature Park and Ayuttaya over the crowded beaches. Agra, however, was the exception to that rule…Although I arrived at the Taj Mahal expecting to be underwhelmed, within minutes, I realized I had underestimated India’s most iconic building.
We traveled for hours in a thick fog and Dave and I were both very worried that the visibility was so bad that we wouldn’t even be able to see the building. Luckily, as the sun climbed in the sky, the fog dissipated and we arrived at Taj Mahal’s front gate with beautiful blue sky above us.
India’s pollution problems + Winter fog = poor visibility for some tourists! We were so glad the sky cleared by the time we made it to the front gate.
We were provided with a tour guide while we were in Agra. I don’t typically like guides, because they can take so much away from the experience (I hate being shuttled around) but this one was pretty good. He offered a lot of information about the structures themselves, although we did find out later that some of his facts weren’t exactly true (more on that later). The things that were true, though, made it worthwhile having a guide at this particular attraction.
I doubt he liked us very much, though. He learned quickly that we weren’t big spenders when we opted out of the 1/2 km carriage ride to the Taj Mahal. The weather was nice and so was the walk š
Now, about the the building and grounds themselves…
In 1631, the Mughal emperor of India, Shah Jahan, lost his beloved wife during the birth of their 14th child. After spending a year in secluded mourning, the emperor hired an architect to design a beautiful building both to commemorate his late wife, and to act as her final resting place. The architect did his job well and today, thousands of tourists flock to the Taj Mahal to visit the burial sight of Emperor Jehan and his wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
Now that you have some history, I should explain why this UNESCO World Heritage Sight is so renown. I like lists, so let’s do it that way… #1 – The Optical Illusions
When you are (finally) done with security and have bought your tickets and paid for your camera fees, you make it through the front entrance. This is when you first see the Taj Mahal. It looks enormous and very close, and you can’t quite figure out why you hadn’t seen it behind the front gate.
When you first see the building, you realize that photos could never possibly do it justice.
But as soon as you step through that doorway, you realize that there is quite a bit more walking to do before you actually get TO the building itself. The doorway just makes it look closer than it really is.
The view from the other side of the gate
There are also optical illusions on the building itself. For example:
This pillar does not actually have points everywhere. It only looks like it is because of the way the stones are inlay-ed (we’ll get to that…)
More interesting yet, depending which time of day you visit the hall, it changes colours! I had always seen the Taj Mahal in pictures during sun sets, so it surprised me a lot when I saw that it is white! The entire building is made of high quality marble. The material is actually partially translucent, so it reflects light in some very interesting ways.
During the Day
The same shot at sunset
With a really beautiful sunrise or sunset, the building actually turns pink
This marble is very valuable and delicate, so India has come up with an interesting cleaning regiment for their famous landmark. Instead of washing dust and dirt off with a pressure washer (or a harsh equivalent) they cover parts of the building with mud, and then gently wipe it away by hand. The mud helps to delicately scrub away any built up pollutants on the Taj Mahal’s pristine facade. They were working on 2 of the towers when we were visiting.
#2 – The Symmetry
Every aspect of this building is symmetrical genius. From the trees, to the pools to the mausoleums that stand on either side of the main building, the Taj Mahal is balanced. As you walk through the gate, you are met by a long pool that leads up to the Taj Mahal itself. The line in the middle of that pool runs directly to the center of the main building, making for perfect picture taking. Even the most amateur photographer can get a straight picture if they know where to look.
And everything from the trees to the stone steps to the pools on either side are mirrors of themselves. It’s really quite impressive because as long as we were with our guide, he never seemed to run out of things to show us that were perfect mirrors of one another. Both inside and outside of the building, everything from the art to the pillars to the shape of each room is a perfect reflection of the other side.
Obviously I didn’t take this picture, but it shows that no matter which side of the Taj Mahal you are standing on…you see the same thing!Similarly, the pools are designed to reflect the Taj Mahal perfectly and there is a mosque built on either side of the main building. Each of those mosques are also perfectly balanced.
But wait! I’ve saved the best for last!!!
#3 – The Inlay Art
What impressed me the most about this incredible structure wasn’t the symmetry or the marble. It was actually the art and how that art was made.
A close up of one of the entrances.
Now, the Islamic writing around the arches is painted on…but all of the other art you see…the flowers and vines…that’s not paint!
Every piece of those flowers and vines are actually made of precious and semi-precious gems. Here’s how it’s done…
The high quality marble that was used to make the Taj Mahal was carved into by artists. The designs were chosen ahead of time, and gems were brought from as far away as China and Egypt to complete the task. The gems were sanded down to fit into the holes in the marble and then glued into place. So instead of having paint all over the Taj Mahal…you have incredibly detailed inlay work.
All symmetrical and all inlay-ed precious stones
We went to a factory where this form of art is still being practiced.
Here you can see the carved-out marble
Here you can see the small pieces of stone that have been put into the marble.
Lastly, it’s all sanded down with very fine sanding paper so that if you touch it…you can’t even tell that it isn’t just paint!
Some of the art we saw at the factory was absolutely incredible
I could easily have gone broke here!
This form of art is called Parchin Kari in India or Pietra Dura elsewhere. In order to decorate the Taj Mahal, Emperor Jahan had Jade brought from China, Sapphire brought from Sri Lanka and even Turquoise from Tibet. The results are magnificent. Not only is the art beautiful, but when the light hits certain gems just right…the whole building sparkles!!!
It is a bit difficult to catch on camera, but you can sort of see it in a few places here.
Sadly, because this building is so famous, it gets a lot of attention from thieves. Repair work is almost always being done on the building because tourists try and remove stones and are sometimes even successful!
Myth vs Facts
India has worked hard to protect this building, and during the second world war and wars with Pakistan special measures were taken to keep the building from being bombed.
Although only partially covered in bamboo here, it is believed that India covered the entire building during WW2, to keep the Nazi and Japanese forces from recognizing and bombing their most famous landmark.
Of course, this is one of the more interesting TRUE stories about the Taj Mahal. I learned later on that some of the other interesting stories our guide told us are completely fabricated. For example, there were never plans to build a second BLACK Taj Mahal across the river. It is a myth being perpetuated by tour guides in India.
Another myth that has added interest in the Taj Mahal states that the Indian Government had plans to demolish the building and to sell the marble. This story has no more truth to it than the black Taj story does, but it continues to be told because it increases interest in the famous landmark.
To me, I think the building is fascinating enough WITHOUT fabricating additional stories. But hey…I suppose they know what they’re doing…there’s no such thing as bad press, right?
After visiting the Taj Mahal we also went down to Agra Fort, which was built during the same period for the same emperor’s family. It wasn’t as interesting as the Taj Mahal itself, but it was still pretty neat and definitely worth some photos! (click on the photos for captions and explanations)
Agra Fort
The big bowl in front of the building is actually a bath
Here are the steps going into the massive bath
Beautiful architecture!
This was one of the princess’s bathrooms. There were mirrors inlayed into the marble to reflect light and brighten the room
More neat architecture
I have 1 last post that I’m still working on for India. I hope to have it up soon!
If you found this blog post interesting, please feel free to share with your friends. As always, comments and likes are always appreciated (and make me feel a little less like I’m talking to myself;) )
I love my life in Suzhou. Iāve made some incredible friends and adopted some awesome cats. Iām working at a great school in a well-run department where I am respected and valued. I have opportunity for growth here in Suzhou, both professionally and personally and Iāve even been able to focus more on my health here, going to the gym and being more careful with my diet. Iāll be 30 soon and I need to stay healthy so that my 30s are as rockinā as my 20s were. Still, today Iām not feeling much love for the Venice of Asia. Perhaps itās the smoggy weather or maybe I didnāt sleep very, but China is getting on my nerves today!
It didn’t feel great being outside today. I took an underground tunnel most of the way home
This morning Dave and I met a friend for breakfast, and as is often the case with Michael, we got into a discussion about what itās like living in China. Michaelās still on his first year here and he is still noticing some of the things that Dave and I have learned to ignore and his perspective on life here always reminds me of the things that foreigners live with on a day to day basis out here in the orient.
A Frequent theme in my blog
And all things considered, there really isnāt very much that we need to worry about. China is safe and the people here are kind and friendly, the countryside in this country is diverse and stunningly beautiful and the expat community is quite large so itās easy to make friends in Suzhou. But, as is the case anywhere, China (and Suzhou) has its problemsā¦
The Great Wall of China
Gardens in Suzhou
Rural Guizhou
The Li River, Guangxi China
The LongJi Rice fields in Guangxi
The Sun and Moon Pagodas in Guilin
As I mentioned earlier in this post, Iāve been going to the gym. Iāve been pretty good about going 3 days per week and although I havenāt lost much in the way of weight (I think Iām building muscle), Iām becoming noticeably more toned and Iāve been slimming down. Iām very proud of the way Iāve been looking lately and I feel good about doing something positive for a body that has treated me pretty well so far in my 29 years. But Iāve gotta sayā¦as much as I love working out and feeling energized, it is EXTREMELY difficult to love Chinese gyms!! Where should I start?.
I discovered, while writing this blog post, that Powerhouse is a chain outside of just China.
The Equipment: Although there are about 20 treadmills at Power House, they only have 6 eliptical machines, 1 stair master, 10 bikes and some weight side to side machines that kind of make you feel like youāre skating. Now, I have no problems with the treadmillsā¦there are more than enough and they are in good shapeā¦but I also donāt use treadmills very often because they kill my knees. So that leaves 20 cardio machines that I CAN useā¦except 8 or 9 of them are almost always broken. The ones that ARENāT broken are such poor quality that they always feel like theyāre about to fall apart underneath you. Out of all the elliptical machines, only 1 of them accurately tracks distance and caloriesā¦1!!! Itās the same with the weights and the resistance machines. Many of them are missing pins so you canāt adjust the resistance without first hunting down a pin from some other machine. Plus, nobody puts their equipment away after they use them, so there are random weights just hanging around on the floor…a little bit dangerousā¦
Standard Operating Practices…
There are 4 machines down just in this shot alone…
Sanitation: This is a big one. There are no towels or spray bottles anywhere at Power House so people donāt clean their equipment like they do in Canada. I canāt tell you how often I get onto an elliptical and realize that the handles are covered in someone elseās sticky sweat. I bring my Norwex towel with me to help with that kind of thing, but itās still pretty gross. The bathrooms are also pretty dirty. People donāt flush their dirty toilet paper in China (something about the sewage systems not being able to handle it), so the garbage cans are full of that dirty toilet paper. It smells awful and the cans get emptied so rarely that the entire hallway around the bathrooms and change rooms stinks like urine.Ā Ā Not pleasantā¦
The biggest problem with squatters themselves is that it’s sometimes hard to control where your pee ends up….so most of the time, it ends up on (at least) the bottom of your shoes, and you end up tracking it out of the bathroom…
The People: This is the worst part of going to the gym. I canāt even tell you how many times I havenāt been able to finish my work out because someone is sitting on a machine I need, texting or checking their WeChat accountsā¦itās infuriating but I often feel like Iām the only person who cares. This kind of thing was especially bad in January and February, when all the New Years resolution memberships started up. Girls (the worst offenders) would hop on a treadmill and spend 10-15 minutes going back and forth between stretching (on the machine!!) and taking selfies to post on WeChat. This isnāt a huge gym, and while there are plenty of treadmills, that canāt be said about any other machine in the building. Yesterday I gave up after waiting 5 minutes for a guy to get off the crunch machine I wanted to use to target my upper abs. And that one elliptical machine that worksā¦the one I mentioned beforeā¦people hog that machine for 50+ minutesā¦some of them hardly even breaking a sweat they are going so slowly because they are too busy enjoying their favourite TV show on their cell phones.
And most of the time, people aren’t just taking short breaks between sets…they literally use the equipment like public benches…
And this is where the title of this post comes inā¦a lot of these problems are annoying but forgivable. After all, I know my standards are highā¦Iām lucky and I was born in a wealthy country where I have the luxury of having problems as shallow as ānot having cold enough waterā. I also know that the sewage issues in China are complicated and that not everywhere in the world is as sterile as North America (itās weird coming home for visits by the wayā¦everything feels too cleanā¦the whole country feels like a hospital).Ā There are absolutely things that can be explained by pointing out cultural differences…and foreigners who have been here for a while are always quick to point out that you’re being judgmental for getting upset about some of the things we deal with here in China.Ā I always feel bad when someone says that to me, because I try very hard to be understanding of cultural differences…
A picture depicting the difference between line ups in North America, vs the way it’s done in China…I even learned to embrace this in Guiyang and Xiamen (it’s not to bad in Suzhou).Ā I put aside my Canadian upbringing and learned to push my way to the front, just like everyone else…
But this morning, when we were having breakfast with Michael, he said something that really rang true with me during my work out today: When can we stop pretending that EVERYTHING is about culture? How many things can we blame on cultural differences, really?? When does Culture become an excuse?
The Chinese think that drinking cold water is bad for your stomach…so even at the gym, you can only find hot water, or room temperature.Ā At Power House, one of the options is suppose to be cold, but it comes out warm enough to steam up my bottle, sooo…
I donāt think that the selfie taking at the gym is forgivable just because Iām in China and āthings are different hereā. I also donāt think people have to leave their equipment all over the place for others to trip on. And I definitely donāt think that a gym like Power House, who claims to be the āwestern gymā and charges western prices, has any excuses as far as buying terrible equipment is concerned. None of these things are culturalā¦theyāre just people being inconsiderate of others. And maybe itās my Canadian backgroundā¦maybe itās just my upbringingā¦but I really have very little patience for inconsiderate people. Wouldnāt the world be a better place if everyone just paid attention to other peopleās needs and tried to be more aware of the world around them?
Another example of this behaviour..some one took off with the school kitchen’s mop over the holiday.Ā There was a water issue in the kitchen and the only way I could get the water out of the mop they left behind, was to take it outside and step on the mop to get the water out…People take things from that kitchen all the time and leave messes as well.Ā I don’t know if they just don’t realize that SOMEONE has to clean it (that someone being me), or if they just straight up don’t care…
So those are my thoughts today. Living overseas can be very hard some days, and although itās gotten ions easier for me since moving to Suzhou, there are still thing here that tick me off. I guess I still have not succeeded in becoming the Super Wizard that I long to beā¦ a Super Wizard who is annoyed by nothing and can aparate to Canada any time she wants to go to the gym or meet her gorgeous new nephew, Zachary.
Thank goodness I have these 3 to keep me sane!
Thereās still more about India on its way! Thanks for checking in!!!
