A day in Macau

The day after Christmas, I went to Macau for a day trip from Hong Kong.

Knowing it had been a Portugese colony and now a casino haven, I was expecting it be a good mix of a quaint town with opulent luxury. Which was true and it was a great city to visit. Catching a ferry from Hong-Kong to Macau, I boarded on what seemed like a luxury jet and entered Macau at the ferry terminal. It was the first time I did immigration on a sea port ! The nice thing about Macau were free buses by the casinos. I decided to first check out the old Central square also known as Senado square.



It was very festive and there were Christmas decorations everywhere. The square itself is charming with its undulating cobblestone paths and old architecture. An Indian family talked to me on the bus (probably concerned that I was traveling alone) and offered me to tag along.They were nice, but I lost track of them soon after when I was at St. Dominic's Church taking pictures.



The square was crowded and you had to fight crowds to get to the ruins of St. Paul's and that was quite a sight. Only having the facade and the entire building destroyed, gave it an interesting look, almost 2 dimensional when looked at with one eye and at a particular angle. I couldn't capture that shot, so instead here is a standard picture !



There were a lot of tourists, but the best part was watching wedding pictures being taken in front of the ruins - the photographer lying on the ground and his assistants hovering around asking people to move and shouting out poses for the couple.



Having had my fill of people watching, I headed to nearby Mount Fortress from where you could view almost all of Macau.



After chilling on the fort, I went on one of the parallel streets and away from the crowds. Suddenly, the place was deserted. Antique shops and art galleries lined the small cobblestone streets with compact cars parked on the side. I ended up reaching a garden where locals were exercising, watching construction and not selling things to tourists.

In the evening, decided to take a bus to one of the casinos to check it out. I ended up getting off at the Fisherman's wharf  to take some pictures.

 Sands casino happened to be close by and I walked in there. It was grand. Granted, I have never been to Vegas but this place could probably compare to Vegas (minus the throngs of Asian crowds and serving chocolate milk at casinos). Regardless, very entertaining and opulent. I then went to the Venetian (yay for free bus rides across islands) and that resort was extravagant. Similar to The Venetian at Vegas, there was a canal, gondola rides, upscale shopping etc right inside the resort. I was tight on time, but to tour all the casinos would probably be a day trip in itself.

On the way back, I stood in a stand by line for an hour before boarding a not so nice ferry back. I am prone to motion sickness and the ferry ride was not fun. Add to that 4 people barfing around me, and the crew walking around collecting barf bags and handing out new ones. With my headphones on full blast and keeping my eyes closed, I warded of sea sickness successfully and was back in Hong Kong at night.

It was an adventurous day but I wish I had more time to spend in Macau. And maybe money like some of those Chinese women on the slot machines, whose credit showed 50,000 HKD...on a slot machine.

Beijing photo walk

I love my DSLR. I wish I could use it better and own a wide-angle lens for touristy photography, but still, I absolutely love my camera.

And luckily I found a photo-walk group in Beijing. It is just a group of cool people who like taking pictures, and get together to walk around and take some pictures. And the Beijing group is pretty awesome. I only went on one of the events due to time/travel issues but that day I met people from France, Canada, UK, US, China and a couple of other countries that I am forgetting. They were expats, people with short-term projects in China, students etc. It was a fun group of budding (and some pro) photographers.

I skipped going to one of the temples but was able to go to the mosque - Niu Jie and Fayuan Si (Temple of the Origin of the Dharma), which is the oldest Buddhist temple in Beijing. I was prepared for another Chinese mosque after being to the one at Xi'an. It looked pretty similar in Chinese architecture as with other temples.

And it being China, every tourist attraction has to be accompanied with a silly, confusing but completely amusing sign. This one was green !

However, this being a photo-walk, goal was to get some out of the ordinary pictures. I think I did well with the grill behind a grill (reminds me of dream within a dream from Inception)

And I happened to like the lines created by the construction material lying in one of the mosque corners.

The temple was more colorful and had an air of liveliness to it. There was a giant fish, fake flowers put in plants and super sharp talons on the momma lion.

In China, it is common to see two lions at the entrance. One of them is the momma lion playing with its cub and the other is a male lion with a ball. However, at Fayuan Si, both the lions had sharp claws. No one knew the answer as to why, but the cracked ball looked ominous compared to the other versions I have seen.

Lion on left looks much less menacing...

Hopefully I can find a photo-walk group in Atlanta but I doubt it would be as diverse as the one from Beijing !

Things I will miss when I leave China

Seems that the Chinese gods got upset at my last blog post and hence, it has been windier than usual and my throat is scratchy. To appease them, I am going to write about the things I will miss once I leave China:
   

1. Pandas/panda merchandise - I have never seen so many things Panda, ever. I will miss the street shops selling Panda hats/gloves/socks and souvenir stores selling panda magnets, pictures,bookmarks etc. 
2. Getting away with wearing a panda hat EVERY DAY - If I did that in Atlanta, people would think I was a freak, after the first week. Here, it is adorable and I get compliments all the time and once I even had my own panda hat stalker who tracked me down in the dorm.
3. Cheap food - Lunch for $1 and dinner for $1. Just have to bike to get the food. There isn't a better deal than that.
4. Public transport - The subway system is awesome. Minus the morning rush hour when they have people who are employed to just push you inside the door (true story)
5. Getting offered a job - A stranger on the street offered me a job as an English teacher, would never happen in the US.
6. Street food - Right from street sushi, to fried potatoes and even meat on stick, the food carts offer cheap deliciousness while traveling.
7. Compliments - I don't think I will hear anyone say again - "I like your skin color". Also, my eyes are way pretty in China apparently.
8. Special preference - Being a foreigner has its perks, it is racism in a nice way. People are nicer and more helpful, at most places. 
9. Clean living room - The place where I stay includes cleaning service for the outside room+bathroom. All I have to do is sweep all the dust from my room, under the door and someone else takes care of it.
10. Bargaining - The joy of buying something at 30RMB when the shopkeeper started at 280RMB. 
11. Trophy friend - One of my friend's invited me to a christmas party so that she could be cool, bringing the foreigner to a Chinese event. I was a good trophy friend and single-handedly helped the girls team win Pictionary.
12. Sleeping - Not going out/having cable tv/high speed internet has led to more sleep time, 8 hours is my minimum now.
13. Train system - Clean and efficient and makes traveling a whole lot easier in the mainland.
14. Asking to be photographed - It is nice when total strangers want to take a picture of you (but its creepy when they are taking a picture *of* you without asking/telling)
15. Hot pot - One of my favorite foods here. Debated about buying a hot pot on amazon but realized I won't be able to recreate the Chinese flavors :(

Update: Missed mentioning cat loving BFF (in my defense, he is not bound to China, he shall be back)
     0. My BFF Warren

Things to look forward to in Atlanta

The last post was about things to do in China, but looking forward as I must, there are so many things that are going to make me happy. Again, not talking about work, but life-wise here is why Atlanta will be awesome to return to:

1. English (Hindi/Marathi) speaking friends/ friends, in general
2. STABLE HIGH SPEED INTERNET :-) (It will be nice to not have to wait 5 minutes, before streaming a 5 minute video on youtube)
3. Not having to use VPN or visit baidu.com
4. Not having to bike in freezing weather conditions
5. Unlimited hot water - Don't have to worry about the monthly hot water supply running out in the middle of the shower ever again.
6. Cheese
7. Desserts (which are actually sweet unlike Chinese red bean desserts)
8. Being able to cook again
9. Buying things with a credit card rather than having to carry wads of cash
10. Ordering food without having to point/gesture/use iphone app dictionary
11. No pollution, being able to see the sun EVERY DAY !!! (minus rainy/cloudy days)
12. People not spitting on the street
13. Being able to understand conversations about me - It won't be "Tanu ...chinese rambling...Tanu...more rambling ...." -esque conversations in lab
14. Going out on weekends/having a life - parties, movies, dinners, potlucks and all that jazz
15. Not having to eat unknown pieces of meat that taste funky
16. A soft bed with normal pillows - Not the extremely firm twin bed with pillows that cause you to have a crick in your neck
17. Shower placed in a tub - no more perpetually wet bathroom floors
18. Deep frying all sorts of things in my *new* deep fryer
19. Shopping in supermarkets based on aisle name rather than going aisle to aisle in search of what I want
20. Smartphone with a data plan that is useful

Things to do in China

I have 30 more days to spend in China. And suddenly, I am overwhelmed by the things I need to do. I thought I would share the list. Here it is, in no particular order of priority (this does not include work + research + class related tasks).

1. Go to Forbidden City (seriously, I have been here forever and haven't seen the most famous Beijing landmark)
2. Go to Shanghai
3. Shoe shopping
4. Buy Chinese tea
5. Eat
1. Hot Pot
2. Gong bao ji ding
3. Korean bbq
4. Rotating table sushi
6. Watch movie - Flowers of War
7. Picture taking
1. PKU campus
2. Subway stations
3. Canteens at campus
8. Visit the Bird's nest (olympics)
9. Ice skating at Weiminghou lake at campus
10. Bask in the attention bestowed upon me by virtue of me being a foreigner

ps - All things panda are not included in the list, because I have realized that it is going to be a life long obsession, to collect/do/be involved in all things PANDA.

A panda picture, because they are so darn cute

How to Operate a Microwave - The Chinese version

The photo may look similar to a lot of kitchenettes in the US dorms. And it is.
It is a microwave. 
Now that it is getting cold and I hate biking in the winter, I have taken to packing my dinner during lunch and bringing it home. Hence the need to heat up my food before eating it. I have hardly spent time in front of the microwave in China. And I have been in the kitchen a couple of times, which also houses the laundry but never had to spend more than a minute. Now, that I have to heat up cold food, I am spending more time in front of the microwave. And honestly, reading the instructions is way more entertaining than playing another game of Word Warp on my phone. Till now using the microwave was easy - open, stuff food in, punch a button/turn the dial, take food out and make sure not to burn your fingers.
But in China, you need to follow a lot more instructions. Some of which may require acquiring a ruler.

I really did not want to type up ALL SIXTEEN of the bullet points, so here are some of my favorites:

1. Please stop using when the outer cover, door were broken
     Wouldn't it just stop working if the door were broken?

2.You can't cover the persiennes, so as to control the temperature
    Persiennes is defined as "outside window shutters having louvres to keep out the sun while    
    ventilation" Also called Persian blinds. (French word) 
    I had to google the meaning of Persiennes to figure out that the instruction means to not cover the     
    back of the microwave as temperature control. Still doesn't make sense technically, but still....

3. Please don't startup the microwave when it is empty. It's very harmful to the microwave if idle running
     I thought you would want less radiation from the microwave affecting humans, but no, here, the  
     microwave running is *very harmful* to the microwave itself

4. It can't hit up the fresh and cooked eggs, please break the yolks when you fry them. Or they will explode.
     Self explanatory - no "hit up" = EXPLOSION !!!

5. Please use the slow fire when you hit up the waterless food or un-heat-resisting package
     Microwaves are supposed to use waves, not fire, or so I thing. 

6. Ensure the food is >3.5 cm shorter than top of the container
     Not 3cm or 4cm, it is specifically noted to be 3.5 cm.(This is where a ruler would come handy)
     I am assuming there might be an EXPLOSION otherwise. 

7. You should stay 1m away from the microwave.
     1m = 3.3 ft. Need I say more?

The rest of the instructions are below.
And I live in the International student dorm, the best dorm on campus.
But hey, I am not complaining, despite the wacky instructions we get to have a microwave on each floor and that means I can conserve body heat by not having to bike to the dining halls when it is freezing outside.

Kubuqi desert aka Warren photoshoot

As I had said earlier, I decided to break down the Inner Mongolia post into two parts.
This being the second. Rather than being focused on the Kubuqi desert it is more of Warren's photoshoot result.

On our 2nd day in Inner Mongolia, we went to the Kubuqi desert. Late October seemed to be the perfect time. It was a little cold, but in the bright desert sun, it wasn't too bad and it wasn't crowded. After renting out our awesome desert shoes, of which one of mine had a hole and defeated the purpose, we went on to explore the desert. Warren, fearing the health of his camera being invaded by sand particles, left it in the car and thus, by default because the photo subject.

We had a fun camel ride, and Warren lurved his camel. I was glad to be sitting at the very front, so as to not smell too much camel, but that did end up bringing the rear camels head way too near to my foot for comfort. However, it was a calm ride ( at least the camel did not spit).



Then it was decided that the desert was a perfect place for jumping pictures.

Warren did some awesome jumps, as captured here. Our tour guide was impressed by Warren's skillz. He said he watched Warren jump from the other side of the camp, which was slightly creepy but understandable. 

I did not do so well, when I had to jump. It seems that I was trying to do a really bad impression of the Karate kid crane stance mid air.

VS

After we got tired of jumping, by which I mean inhaled too much sand, Warren posed for "awesome white person in desert" shots. A few from the collection are shown here:











The day ended with a sand slide. It was a bad decision in retrospect. Sand ended up entering my ears, nose, eyes, hair, permeated through my clothes and needless to say, it did not make the over-night train ride to Beijing easy. As if the snoring and Chinese radio shows weren't bad enough, the feeling of sand on your body that scratched every time you moved, made that train ride unforgettable to say the least.

Inner mongolia - Hohhot

Towards the end of October, I was getting a little travel lusty and convinced Warren to take a weekend trip. 

Inner mongolia, a north-eastern province of China with its grasslands and deserts seemed inviting enough.

I did enlist the help of a travel agent who said that we would live in yurks at the grassland, see Mongolian people dancing at the bonfire and other fun things. We did know it was cold and we wouldn't see rolling green grasslands but we hadn't imagined quite this:

We arrived at an ungodly hour at 4am at Hohhot (pronounced as Hu-huh-haw-tuh). Then proceeded to the "grasslands". It was freezing and I was shivering and just wanted to go back and sit in the van (which we did after sunrise). The whole dew freezing at dawn made for this empty beer bottle to look artistic.

We did see the sunrise and our over enthusiastic guide took a picture of Warren and I holding the glowing sun !

The rest of the grassland day was kind of a let down though. We saw some horses but didn't ride them because everything was barren. We had lunch with the Mongolians (no fire included) and I tasted some of their wine which I think was 50% ethanol (*gags*). Due to the freezing conditions, our yurk stay was canceled and we proceeded to the city. Warren and I decided to just go exploring the town on our own and that was quite fun. We saw a temple, giant statues, walked around in the market etc.

But the highlight of the day was going through the local vegetable market and looking at the ginormous produce. We were amazed at the sizes of scallions and carrots and onions they were selling. See for yourself:

Later we had dinner at a non-English speaking place with a Chinese menu. It was quite eventful as the adjoining table had 6 boisterous middle-aged men whose goal was to make conversation with us. Warren and I tell Chinese people that we don't speak Chinese usually as an opening line. That is a good way to stop them from bombarding us with questions. In reality we know a tiny bit of survival Chinese but our vocabulary being limited to about 20 words or so, doesn't really help us in carrying out social conversations. 

However, this dinner group was not deterred by our inability to speak the language. I think they believed that if they talked "louder" and "used more words", we would eventually understand what they are saying. They were sorely mistaken though. I am still not sure what they were trying to say. They gave up eventually, but ended up taking pictures with Warren and I (more with Warren, him being white and all) as a consolation prize. 

It was a quaint town, not touristy at all. We went through the entire day and almost the whole weekend, without seeing any foreigners !

I was going to write about going to the desert the next day, but that is going to be a tribute to Warren's jumping picture modeling skillz, so it shall be a separate post, hopefully soon.

Children acrobats - China

As our Inner Mongolia tour did not meet our expectations (blog post to be written soon), I coerced/blackmailed/convinced our tour operator to reimburse us or make it up to us. She offered free tickets to a show either Beijing opera, Kung fu or Acrobatics.

It was easy to rule out Beijing opera. Neither Warren or I wanted to listen to the wailing & clanging that the opera is famous for. We had heard a part of it during a ballet show and that was the limit of our "cultural immersion" when it came to the opera. Then it was down to Kung fu vs Acrobatics. I decided to go with acrobatics. I thought it would be cool tricks, with crazy flexibility. And I was right about that, except I did not think the tricks will be performed by kids who were barely even teenagers, if that.

Warren and I got to the show late, due to bad directions. We had really good seats. And once the show started, we saw little kids on the stage. This made us uncomfortable - we wanted to enjoy the show but not support children being on stage to perform day after day. And some of the acts, just could not be safe for your body. But the show was pretty good.

I wonder how long the kids were trained for. But when you see a girl doing the following act (and see all her muscles ripple) and she doesn't even look like a teenager, you wonder if that is an indication why China wins so many gold medals in gymnastics:

And then there was this cutest kid who did some daredevil tricks. He was happy, jumping around and making everyone cringe in their seats.

But then, if you had a telephoto lens and could creep on his face, he looked just like another kid, scared to make a mistake.

 There was also a lot of standing on other people's heads, balancing things using your teeth and doing crazy splits. I just would have felt better if everyone was a little older...
And also if they did not have tacky digital backgrounds like a swan (or a blue vase)

There were also a few other acts. One in particular made both Warren and I think about the Human Centipede movie (open link at your own risk).

The show ended with 5 motorcycles in a sphere which was absolutely terrifying. I have a video, but it won't do justice.

After the show, I looked into the legal aspects of allowing kids to perform and there wasn't a whole lot written about it. I just found one article that talked about parents "renting" their kids to be street performers. But I wonder if that is also the story at big establishments in Beijing. These shows are famous, ticket prices go from 120 - 600 yuan ( 20 - 100 USD). Maybe there is a legal way of doing it or maybe no one pays a lot of attention to it, but it is difficult to believe that these kids are still going to school and living a normal life when they are performing crazy stunts on the stage day in and day out.

Erm, there is a dead rat on my bike

My research involves performing animal experiments. I work with rat models. So needless to say, it also involves sacrificing animals for the sake of science. It isn't a pleasant thing to do, but it's one of the many things science demands.

At least in the US, the most transfer of animals I had to do was limited within one building. However, China is a different story. First, to get approval has been a long process. They had to do a special training for me in English... Our first preliminary study involved just some characterization, so not an extensive experiment. My lab mate told me to meet him at lab and then we would proceed. So I biked to lab and on getting there he told me that we need to go to the Life sciences building. The life sciences building is a 5-10 minute bike ride  from my lab. So we headed off there. My lab-mate is essential here, he speaks Chinese and can communicate with the animal lab official who don't speak English.We get there, and the officials first hand us a live rat. This is the conversation that follows:

Me (M) - Why did they give us a live rat?
Labmate (L) - We asked for a live rat
M - We need to sacrifice the rat, we can't take a live rat back to lab (which is 10 mins away)
L - What, we don't?
M - How do we sacrifice a rat at our lab? (Our lab is mainly cellular biology)
L - Don't we bleed it to death ?
M - NOOooOoOOOoo
L - Oh.
M- Erm...
L - So what do we do?
M - Can you ask them if they have a method to do it here in the animal lab?
Much conversation in Chinese ensues
L - There is another way, they have CO2
(I heave a sigh of relief, I did not want to deal with a bloody rat)
M - That works
L - Okay

So then they sacrifice the rat, and put it in a shoe box with some bedding and hand it to us...
Now my lab-mate is holding a cardboard box with a dead rat body inside. And we still need to get back to lab. We come outside the life sciences building and then he goes - "Oh, your bike has a basket". We then arrange the cardboard box with a dead rat inside it on my bike and we head back. (While I am screaming inside my head, there is a dead rat on my bike)

That is the story of how I got a dead rat on my bike.

(When our animal numbers increased, we could no longer bike due to the need of a "bigger box". Now we walk a whole 15 mins, when it is below freezing outside to get more samples back in a bigger thermocol box that once housed some machine...)

A day at People's Park - Chengdu

Chengdu is a really nice city. It is more laid back than Beijing and the people seem nicer.

On our 2nd day in Chengdu, we decided to explore the city. The city has a famous park called the People's park. Warren and I were expecting something similar to the Beijing parks we have been too. Calm, old people singing, maybe some birdie hackey-sack. 

What we did not expect was crazy dancing, a talent show and some intense badminton (and a bonsai garden).

The park also had creepy, old rides for kids as seen below:

I watched some people play Badminton but chickened out of asking them and we moved to the bonsai garden. In addition to Warren and his parents enjoying Chinese horticulture, we also found bubbles ! I decided to try out my telephoto lens to take some pictures of bubbles and thus, I made friends with the bubble girls who gladly blew bubbles and posed for me to take pictures. They were a giggly, happy bunch and let me take a bunch of trial and error bubble pictures.
   



After the seeming quiet of the bonsai garden we followed the crowd to hear loud music. Guess what we found - A Chinese talent show ! There was singing and dancing and much applause involved. It was pretty entertaining and Warren and I creeped and took some pictures of the performers. We then saw some tai-chi-esque dancing but nothing prepared us for the crazy line dancing that we were about to enjoy (and participate in).

Following the music we got to this open stage and saw people just breaking it down, Chinese style. Here is a short video for your enjoyment:

Being the only foreigners, one of the guy's made Warren and I join the dancing. The first sequence wasn't too bad, but we gave up when the dance moves got too complex. Next to the dancing, there was a kids fashion show and Warren wanted to steal a baby but compromised by taking pictures of babies.

We found a really cute girl whose dress matched the yellow flowers in the background and her parents were more than happy to let us take her picture and even let Warren pose with her !



After much dancing, laughing, and amazement at the belly dancing Chinese man we moved on to the "boating area". Usually when I think of boating, I think of this:

                                      

          NOT this:

                                     

But I guess it is China.... In their defense though, it was National Holiday and everyone and I mean every single person in China was out and about, traveling.

On our way out, we saw more dancing and the last group was Waltzing. Warren's mom taught him how to square dance - correctly as she believed her son was not doing it right the first time :p

At the exit, I saw some people playing Badminton and mustered up my courage to ask them if I can play. It was fun, the guy went really easy on me and did not make me look like a fool.

Our day ended, by eating at a Chinese restaurant and ordering food without a menu or pointing at pictures. It was eventful to say the least.

If only Piedmont park was as entertaining...

Unfazed by you pointing towards me

After a long day biking, 30 mins one way in Beijing traffic/haze/cold between my lab and the lab with the micro-CT machine at the PKU hospital with my lab mate, I was hungry. My lab mate (let's call him Tom) and I went for lunch at one of the canteens on campus. There Tom met one of his other friends (let's call him Jerry). I got tofu and eggs+tomatoes for lunch; yes I know what I am eating sometimes.

The three of us sat down for lunch and Jerry says hi to me in English and then Tom & Jerry get into their Chinese ramblings. To be honest, I don't understand Mandarin. But with Fluenz lessons, and just immersion, I can pick up a few words here and there. So even if Jerry wasn't jabbing his finger towards me in the air I would still know they were talking about me.

This is what I heard - " Bla bla bla Indian, bla bla bla, English, bla bla bla American, bla bla bla China, bla bla bla food, bla bla bla student, bla bla bla America ", and the entire time Jerry was pointing at me. At least Tom had the courtesy to not point at me.

It is just interesting to notice this now. There was a time when I would have just picked up fewer words and probably wouldn't have thought that they were talking about me (minus the finger pointing). But now, I felt even more weird, because I understand a bit, but not enough. So my imagination fills up the gaps and sometimes they are not filled with the nicest things. I guess if I had a smaller ego/was insecure/cared more about what people thought, I would be disconcerted by my lunch time listening.

When I want to say something about someone behind their back in Hindi to one of my Indian friends, I make sure to use code words and be as un-obvious as possible to make sure that no one else understands what I am saying. But I think the Chinese way is better - "Who cares if the other person cannot speak Chinese, let's talk about them and point at them over lunch, they can deal with it". Okay, that was sarcastic, I think it is still rude to point and talk, but I guess its just one of those cultural things. I am actually beginning to think that I am going to miss all this special attention when I return to Atlanta (where it seems that there are more Indians on campus than off).

I have made my share of faux pas too though. The most embarrassing one was when Warren and I were at the Chinese ballet. There was a couple sitting right in front of me, and they would not stop moving around in their seats (no, they were not making out). But the guy was pretty tall, and I was having trouble watching the show. Exasperated, I said to Warren - "Can't these people just stop moving". And then they just stopped still in their seats, and the guy turned around and said sorry ! I assumed they would't understand English, but I was wrong. I was surprised that the guy apologized and felt pretty bad. I feel that if this had happened somewhere else, the guy would be annoyed at me.

But its China. I guess if shoving and sticking your elbows out is accepted, so is talking about others in front of them or behind their back for that matter and them overhearing you, is not as big of a deal as I have been made to believe...

Tibetan homestay

When we were visiting Jiuzhaigo, we stayed at Zhuo Ma's Cottage.
Zhuo Ma, a local, has converted her house into a home-stay for travelers. And it was a very interesting experience to stay with a local and learn a little more about the Tibetan way of life.

Place where we stayed. You can see Ray and Kim in the window ! (Courtesy Warren)

It was gorgeous at night

Zhuo Ma's mom - Ah Ma is the main caretaker of the place and she is awesome. She has mad skills when it comes to hand gestures and I am sure she could converse without using words if she wanted. Being a home-stay, this place was definitely not luxurious. Also, personally, I think it was a bit over-priced since you could stay at "nicer" hotels in town. But apart from that, I really liked staying there. The place itself is about 20 mins out of town, but Zhuo Ma's brother taxi'd the tourists to and fro.

The cottage is located on top of a hill and the view is gorgeous. The mornings and nights are sort of misty, making the hills surrounding the place look more enigmatic. And we could see stars, lots of stars ! It is a rarity to see stars in Beijing, with all the pollution/haze. And I may have almost gotten a frost-bite since I was wearing flip-flops and star gazing/taking pictures at night, but no lasting harm was done. Sadly no shooting stars :(

One of the best parts of the home-stay was the home-made food. We got breakfast, lunch and dinner and almost everything is home grown. Ah Ma showed us where she collected the honey from and her vegetable garden. From her sign language, we gathered that she gets stung by bees in the process of collecting honey but it doesn't stop her from doing it. Also, yak meat tasted surprisingly better than I imagined. Though yak butter is not my cup of tea. I am not sure where she gets the yak meat from, but I really don't want to know. I think yaks are cute...
FYI: Tibetan version of french fries = best form of potatoes I have ever had.

Tibetan Om nom noms

The other fun part of the home-stay was to get to meet other travelers. Met a guy from Germany, who has moved to China and now owns a travel agency in Xi'an, an American student who is doing ecological research, another American student (half Indian-half Chinese) who is studying Mandarin, and another Indian guy who works in Germany and is now traipsing in China for a holiday. Dinners were fun and there were always good stories to listen to.

All the people were really nice and it was small gestures such as making sure that our cups were always filled with steaming tea and serving us dinner, that made it a very hospitable stay. It was a great experience overall. A little pricey, but worth it for once.

With grandma and little kid !

Also Warren told me that lonely planet did a segment on this place, so it has to be cool :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmj3CFpNGcQ

PANDAS !!!

I may not be entirely lying if I said that one of my biggest reasons of coming to China was to hug a panda.
(The truth is my reason to come here was to steal a panda but I have realized that is not going to happen).

This national holiday, I traveled to Chengdu with Warren and his parents. Chengdu is where the world's largest panda breeding center is located. They started with 6 pandas and now there are 88 pandas that stay there. They use special panda breeding techniques as they showed us in a documentary. (That documentary in itself was very interesting/funny and I am debating having a post just about that)

Anyway, getting back to PANDAS !

We got to the Panda base at around 8am. It is sort of an exclusive Panda zoo. There are both giant pandas and red pandas as well as the cutest Panda cubs ever. The pandas are lazy. All they did was sit (or sleep) and eat bamboo. No wonder they are going extinct. The most common panda pose was them sitting on their huge behinds, leaning against a tree and munching on bamboo.

Then we walked around to where the panda cubs were. They were the most adorable things ever. They were sleeping in a crib on their pink blanket. It was sometimes hard to figure out what part was their eye and what was their ear as they looked like cute fuzz balls.

After walking around in the bamboo forest, seeing cute pandas and taking a gazillion pictures, it was time to hug a panda. I had to wear gloves and shoe covers before going into the panda enclosure. There was a line of people there. And then the panda arrived ! It sort of waddled halfway and then decided it was tired so just plopped down on the ground. One of the volunteers then picked up the panda and took him to a bench. It was a baby panda, not full grown and hence, could be picked up. To ensure that the panda did not fall asleep/posed for pictures, there was one volunteer whose sole job was to dip bamboo into honey and offer it to the panda. The panda would dutifully chew the bamboo up to the point of where it was dipped in honey and then would promptly throw it away and wait for its next honey dipped bamboo. Still it was the cutest thing ever.

Finally, it was my turn to hug the panda. As soon as I got next to him, the panda had finished munching its honey bamboo and was not paying any attention to the camera/me but wanted more food (disinterested panda in the picture on the left).After the volunteer did his job, the panda was back to pretending to like being hugged, petted and taken pictures with.

I have a ton of panda pictures but won't upload them all. But I ended up buying a panda hat that day which I wore for the next 2 days and pretended that I too was a panda. Albeit one of its kind - a skinny brown panda from India.