Top Five Things not to forget when visiting Tianjin

5- Pee before you go out.   The bathrooms are few and far between in Tianjin and the ones you can find are sketchy at best    the only “American” toilets (where you get to sit) are found in hotels and the occasional McDonalds or KFC.   All the bathrooms you find in Tianjin are stand up /squat toilets and are rarely clean.   I always cross my fingers hoping to get the toilets with the individual hole in the ground instead of the trench that goes across multiple stalls.    Public bathrooms are only used when completely desperate and I hold my breath the entire time.

4- BYOTP!   OK- yes you will see a theme now.   Along with the sketchy toilets you will never find any toilet paper.   Everyone carries packs of tissues with them and you will see families standing outside of public bathrooms and moms handing out one tissue to everyone.  Bonus is the tissues always work as napkins as most restaurants don’t have napkins and if they are available there is a charge for them.

Don’t forget to bring the soap as well.   If you are lucky enough to get a sink outside the bathroom there will never be soap or towels.   I declared myself Tianjin’s “soap fairy” and I leave a bar of hotel soap at every bathroom I stop at.   No hand sanitizer is to be found in Tianjin and I will be bringing some back with me on my next trip home.

3- Bring your translation dictionary!  I use “charades” quite often when I am out and it’s actually a lot of fun.   The other day I forgot my translation dictionary and needed envelopes at the local Wal-Mart type store.   I spent 10 minutes looking for a box of envelopes and gave up and went to a service assistant.  OK—imagine explaining to someone who didn’t speak English that you needed envelopes.   After about 5 minutes of me pretending to write a letter and fold it and put it in an “envelope” with a stamp she understood what I wanted.    We had a lot of laughs but it was seriously frustrating for her and for me.   By the way they don’t sell boxes of envelopes, only exotic looking packs of 5, which is why I couldn’t find them the first time. 

2- doesn’t forget your hotel direction card.   I carry the handy dandy card the hotel gave me to show a taxi driver that I want to get back to the Sheraton.   This card works about 80% of the time as I still get refused because I don’t speak Chinese or they don’t know where the location is even with the translation card I carry.   This card saves me on a regular basis- I would be screwed without it and would be wandering the streets lost.

1-Your sense of adventure-   Everyday I try and wander into a new part of Tianjin.  Sometimes I end up at “safe” Expat areas with restaurants that have napkins and menus in both Chinese and English but quite often I end up turning the corner into a completely unexpected adventure.   There are street markets where they sell whole roasted ducks hanging from a cart that are chopped to order for you to eat on the street.   Vegetable vendors with corn and vegetables strewn out on blankets with chickens wandering around pecking away at the produce you are looking to buy.   The chickens are for sale as well they will capture it, kill it and clean it right there for you.   Fish vendors with shrimp and live fish jumping out of the bins.  Small mom and pop restaurants with children running around the kitchen and jars of rice liquor filled with snakes and herbs.  

We are constantly felt welcome here in Tianjin but locals and Expats alike and every day I look forward to a new adventure.

Cheers and here is to Good Travel!

TIANJIN- THE PLACE WHERE JOGGING IS BAD FOR YOU

A front came through Friday and we could see the blue sky as the breeze swept the smog away.   Our Air Quality Index dropped to the Moderate level of 81!   Big deal you say?   The AQI shows the level of the pollution in the air, and any time it gets to 100 or more it hits unhealthy, and over 200 is Extremely Unhealthy.  Tianjin has been over 200 the majority of the time we are here which shows in the perpetual haze that hangs over the city.   You don’t see any joggers outside here and many of the people walking or biking wear masks due to the pollution.

To put that 200+ number in perspective here are a few numbers from your neck of the woods:

New York City 68

Melbourne, FL: 27

Sydney Australia: 18

Bennington VT: 12

Los Angeles: 74

The smog just made us appreciate the sunny breezy weekend even more.   A meandering walk had us going down a local street with vendors, butchers and handymen out for business.    Huge meat slabs sit on counters as they wave a swatter back and forth to keep the flies away.  At one butcher there was a 2-3 foot tail sitting out to be purchased.   We couldn’t figure out what the tail belonged to- horse maybe?    Next to that butcher was a variety of smoked parts with a very large brain cut in half.      We moved on – no brains or tails for us today but we stopped at a small shop and purchased some wonderful steamed buns filled with pork and ginger.

The town is filled with traffic, scooters and bikes but then every once in awhile you turn a corner and see a serene shady grassy spot with someone practicing tai chi. Yesterday we came upon a group of elderly gentlemen sitting in the shade with one of them playing a traditional Chinese instrument that sounded like something between a cello and bag pipes.  Another local was singing along and everyone was enjoying the beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Good Travel!

Sea snakes, crabs and rabbits……………

We went to explore a few of the areas in the city and jumped into a taxi instead of tackling the metro system. A three mile ride that took 40 minutes and cost only $2.75.....with prices like that we may stay with cabs. The traffic was going every which way with scooters and bikes cutting in front of all the cars and no one paying attention to traffic lights. There are people sitting on the back of the bike holding their baby as the cars and scooters cut in and out in front of them. I can’t imagine driving in this city- I close my eyes  during several points of the drive.

  We were hungry and  found an odd little restaurant decorated with a variety of statues – everything from Laurel & Hardy to an Italian Chef and of course the required Buddha. The front of the restaurant was  filled with tanks in the front of the restaurant with live creatures for you to choose choose from. But no this isn’t like Red Lobster  with a couple of lobsters in a tank. There were a couple dozen tanks filled with fresh fish, crabs, eels  and  sea snakes. There were also tanks of snails the size of a babies fist, and  even a live rabbit. We love crab so decided to  start safe – I can choose a live crab to eat but not a bunny rabbit. In our attempt to order (see picture of local menu below) another restaurant guest, Helen, stopped at our table and offered to interpret for us. Helen was a savior and to the delight of our waitress helped us order our lunch and beverages. Helen is from Beijing and  was visiting her parents. She stopped at our table many times offering us some of the food her family was eating  along with giving us her card and offering to meet us in Beijing when we were there.   

Headed out of the restaurant we see the rice wine jugs filled with medicinal options- spices, dead snakes, bugs and who knows what. I am brave but I think I will hold off on drinking snake sake for a few more weeks.

Cheers everyone!

Pick Your Lunch

Snake Sake

Typical Menu

Snake Venom and a Goat Heart

Wow, it has been an unusual couple of days as we adjust to Tianjin China. The people are wonderful but there are so many exotic and different things I don’t know where to start. I will tell you very few people outside of the hotel speak any English which adds to the adventure.  

We are staying near the financial district at the Sheraton Tianjin but we are surrounded by gardens and the parks are near by.  It’s a wonderful hotel with a variety of restaurants along with a pool, small  grocery mart , a spa and a wonderful very patient staff.  The spa display caught my eye as they advertise the special face creams they carry is made with snake venom. Could that be the new botox?

On our second day after walking the food stalls and markets with hits and misses we made it back to the hotel and decided to stay in.   Simple hors d’oeuvres at the club lounge at the hotel, but then decided  to stretch our legs we went for a walk. After a short stroll we stumbled across smoke billowing out of an alleyway smelling of charcoal and fresh grilled meat. We make our way to a small opening outside of a home/ small restaurant with half a dozen tables scattered about . We collected a few stares but with gestures and smiles we were ushered in past the grill and given menus. We discovered early on not to expect any menus in English unless you were at the hotel and look for menus that have pictures , but not here.  The owner saw our confusion and  grabbed my hand and took me to the cooler with skewers of meat and ….who knows what. As Greg sat at the table and watched me with a grin; the cooks and servers  played an international game of charades with me as we "mooed" and "baaahhed" our way to figuring out what I should order.  I  pointed to various body parts  so I could decipher if I was eating heart, muscle, liver  but at times I gave up and just randomly grabbed skewers to be grilled.  Our favorite was the goat liver and the least favorite was what we think was  spinal cartilage but I really can’t say- it was chewy and not very flavorful but interesting.

Our new motto- follow the smoke!

I am going on a forced Facebook diet...

Amongst other things and along with Facebook there is also no direct blogging except for the miracle of email and  my daughter Anna posting  for me. The China Government seems to have a beef with Facebook and Google (not all of Google, just certain parts) and so my communication is limited except for  email.    Facebook is completely blocked and  I can see my blog (sometimes)  but  can not post or  respond to anything, so if anyone would like to contact me please email me directly via my gmail account batchelorlaura07@gmail.com. Note to all- I am not in any way annoyed with the the people of China regarding my lack of social media. The people we interact with here are nothing but friendly, polite, funny and respectable. I do miss seeing all the Facebook posts from  my close friends (and not really that close) updates regarding children, jobs, vacations and random exciting things happening in their lives. That being said ,if I don’t “like” anything , wish you Happy Birthday or comment on a post....it’s not that I don’t care , I just won’t know about it until I can access full internet in Qatar in October  for a couple of  weeks or back to the States during the Christmas holiday. So if you are interested in what’s going on in my life or just curious about random international curiosities such as choosing  your dinners from a cage or tank, or the lack of toilet paper, or crazy ass cab rides,  follow my blog. 

 Cheers and Good (and sometimes challenging but always fun ) Travel

Goodbye Dubai—China here we come!

 We left Jumeriah Beach on Tuesday and headed to the Intercontinental next to the airport for an early morning flight the next morning  to Beijing .    A gorgeous hotel connected to Festival City mall with a Trader Vic’s restaurant.   If you haven’t been to one – find one and go!   Absolutely wonderful food, beverages and service.    We ordered some sushi with a Beef Cho Cho appetizer  to play with.   The Cho Cho is skewered thinly sliced beef marinated in a sweet Asian sauce that you sear over a flame at your table.   Any food you can play with and eat with your hands tastes so much better. .  

An afternoon watching Oceans 13 and relaxing in the room, before enjoying a light dinner of dim sum at the bar overlooking the Dubai Creek.  A cold dragon fruit mojito with assorted steamed dumplings and red bean cakes overlooking the carousels and Ferris wheels of Festival City as the wooden dhow boats float by.  It was a beautiful setting.

There is a Belgium Pub connected to their sister hotel and the bartender Brian gave us tastings from the tap.  Beer is like coconut to me……  I want to like it, keep trying to like it , but it never hits the taste buds quite right.   Brian  poured a taste of a Cherry Belgium beer for me  and  it was excellent- but too sweet.   Greg savored a  Leffe –blonde  that I tried and enjoyed  with the fruit aroma and then another sample of a  roasted hops / coffee brown beer that was good.    Still don’t love beer but I have to say I enjoyed the Belgium beer more than any other beer I have tried before.

The Intercontinental is gorgeous and has floating orchids and candles in vases in every pathway around the hotel,  a short stay and then we are are off to China in the morning and our Asian adventure.     

We have been practicing our Chinese words and keep getting excited to try all the street food there is to offer; grasshoppers, sea snake, silk worm larva , sea horses, scorpions….. and more!

Don’t worry animal lovers I will stay away from the dog and cat food stalls.

Stay tuned and Good Travel!

For your feet or your bum?

Remember that Crocodile Dundee scene when Mick can’t figure out what a bidet is?    After first trying his boot in the basin and a puzzled look he realized what it was and yelled out the window  to Sue “ it’s for washin’ yer bum!” .   Well here in the Middle East it’s a bit different and the bidet looking item in your bathroom is actually a foot basin.   The foot basin is here for a cleansing ritual known as ablution,  as Muslims are required to wash their feet before praying to Allah five times a day.   It looks almost identical to a bidet and when I was here for my first trip to Dubai  earlier in the year I discovered in a very awkward way that it was not a bidet .  Needless to say water sprayed everywhere it was not supposed to and I had my first instruction on the difference between the two.

As we travel through different countries the  “bathroom  rules” change.  Here in the Middle East everything is separated similar to the States but even more so.   Separate  male and female entrances to pools, separate steam  and sauna areas and some gyms have “female only” hours.   In Europe quite often there is a single restroom everyone shares or a larger area with somewhat divided male and female sections to use the loo, but everyone shares communal wash up areas.  The one thing I can’t get used to is the squat toilet option, however when  a girl has to go, she has to go.  In Amsterdam my option was hold it or use the squat toilet.   Basically you walk in the stall and there is a large hole in the ground with a recessed drain surrounding 2 islands shaped like feet that you stand on and just like the name--  you squat.
Growing up in the 1980’s in Ohio this position was commonly known as “jungle peeing” however at least you had a car bumper to hold on to and I was a lot more flexible at  16 than I am in my 40's. 

So my friends, enjoy your toilets and if someday you come across a bidet in your travels test it before you use it. 

Cheers & Good Travel

. 

I am sorry all we have is champagne.......

Who would have thought that I would be….

Sitting in Dubai
Listening to American Hip Hop
Broadcast on an  Egyptian Radio Station
From a Russian TV
Working on an Italian job report
For a Saudi Arabian project
As my husband sips on a cold  Mexican Beer
As he works on the Chinese job that we head to next

(For some of you that know me the most surprising phrase was probably “my husband”  as I was a  “I’ll never get married again” single girl until Greg changed my mind.   OK-  he really just asked me and that made me change my mind )

We left Mesaieed Friday and headed to the Doha airport.   I have been lucky to fly business class a few times over the last couple of years but nothing prepared me for business class on Qatar airlines.   We pull up to a private entrance with gleaming silver bell carts like you would see at a 5 star hotel.  The bellman escort us to the counter with plush chairs and fresh rose arrangements every few feet.  I  keep looking around for someone to jump out and say “ I am sorry this  fancy stuff isn’t for you”;  but no one jumps out and the luxury kept  going on and on.     The Qatar Airline attendant thought it was hilarious that we were Mr & Mrs Smith – just like Brad and Angelina and kept cracking herself up as she checked us in.   We were whisked through the  private  security gate and that led us to exclusive duty free perfume and electronics stores.   Up to the club lounge for a kir royale , a wonderful glass of Bordeaux and appetizers as we waited until it was time to board.   The lounge was about 5000 square feet with a “quiet area”  where people could lie down—Greg made sure  we were not in the quiet area (I’m loud).  Dozens of staff members were there cleaning , greeting guests, or just waiting for any request you may have. 

It was time to board and we are sat in leather reclining chairs with a subtle back massager to ease any travel pains you may have    The flight attendant asks if we would like a beverage as we await take off and I ask for a glass of wine, but the attendant gives his sincere apologies and informs me he only has champagne to offer before take off.    I try and keep a straight face and tell him know that champagne will suffice then start laughing at the luxuriousness of everything.   After a short one hour flight and a three course meal ending in Godiva chocolates and we land in Dubai.   Like I said total over the top luxury!

The Sheraton at Jumeriah beach is our home for the next four days before we head to China, this resort will always have special memories for me as we got engaged on the beach here.  It is one of the older hotels and is dwarfed by the high rises next to it, however it is just as gorgeous and the service is just as amazing.    From the “hubbly-bubbly” (hookah) bar where we tried the lemon mint flavor this trip to the variety of shops and restaurants in the hotel there is always something to do and see, or even better sit on a lounge chair in the shade of a palm tree.  The view from the beach has  now changed as the Dubai Eye is being built right in front of the hotel.   The Dubai Eye will be another man-made island that will offer shopping , a hotel, apartments, restaurants and the world’s largest Ferris wheel, because every country needs a giant Ferris wheel.   The barges and ships work all day dredging  sand and depositing tons of rocks to build the island.  

Has the view changed a bit with cranes and barges…..  sure but life is still darn good.