Follow up to "Toilets!": Squatting for proper toilet posture

I received an interesting response to my last post about toilets. This puts things in a different perspective. Here is video explaining why squatting, not sitting is best:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/pYcv6odWfTM



 

Toilets!!

Many people will consider this an odd, maybe even inappropriate topic, but since toilets help with an essential part of life, they are important.  :)

I had been told about the toilets in Saudi Arabia and just avoided going to public toilets for a couple of months.  They are often just holes in the ground, but flushable.  There is usually a hose and nozzle hanging on the wall, even if it is a regular toilet, to clean yourself. Often times, the floor of the stall is completely wet, with standing water.  So, if your abaya is too long, you come out with an abaya with wet edges. I have one abaya that is longer than the other.  So, if I think that I might have to go the bathroom while out, I wear the shorter one.  I guess this is a different version of the bidet, but much more powerful.  :)

I remember when Mom visited me when we were living in Belgium, we took a weekend trip to France.  Mom had to go to the bathroom when we were in a little country town.  The bathroom that we found was like the ones described above, a hole in the ground.  We laughed so many times over the years recalling Mom's hijinks in trying to get her pants off because she could not squat properly. 


Here is a picture of a toilet at the Jeddah airport:

 I don't understand how you use the hose and not have to have a towel to clean up.  Usually, there is no toilet paper, so you bring your own.  But a towel?
I was curious what the toilets would be like in Dubai, a beautiful city in the United Arab Emirates.  They actually had both types of toilets, but still with the hose. 

 I decided to test the hose because it looks pretty heavy duty.  So, as you can see below, it has a pretty high flow rate.

I guess the local people have it down to a fine art, but I know that if I used them, I would come out soaking wet.

I was curious what the toilets would be like in China.  Well, they are like the Saudi toilets but without the hoses.  Sometimes the stalls have designations, a picture of a woman squatting over a hole or a woman sitting on a toilet, which was very helpful.  Here is a picture from China.

Hopefully, I have not grossed you out, I just thought that I would share one of the more personal aspects of being here.  :)

Street market and food in Shanghai

Another fascinating aspect of China is the street markets and street foods.  In Shanghai, we were very fortunate to be right across the street from a very lively market.  It was busy all day and all night.  Here are some pictures that I took from a stroll that Ken and I took after first arriving.

Bins of grains and legumes:

 

Shane explained that these are marinated eggs, with the spices still crusted on the outside:

Big ceramic jars of wine:

Crabs:

 

 

Ducks:

In Shanghai, we went on the Untour Culinary tour of street food.  A young man took us around to restaurants and stalls that the tour company had vetted as being clean and safe.  :)  Here are some of the pictures from that tour:

 

Hot and Spicy crawfish!!

Lamb, mushroom and eggplant kebabs

Grilled lotus root kebabs:

 

Grilled spring onion and alfalfa sprout kebabs:

Eels:

 

Baby eels entwined in this young vendor's fingers:

 Moon cakes for the Mid Autumn festival:

Yummy grilled eggplant:

 A man who swings dough around and it separates into strings of pasta:

One of several gelatinous fruit desserts that our guide picked up for us:

 

 

Food Adventures in China

This post today is about one of my favorite topics, interesting food.  And the food in China was definitely interesting!  The food in Nanjing and Shanghai was not at all like the Chinese food we get in America.  And I like the Chinese food at home.  Houston has a very vibrant Asia Town filled with lots of Asian restaurants.  The Chinese food in Beijing was more like the Chinese food that we are used to at home.  But when we ordered Mongolian Beef and Kung Pao chicken in Beijing, they were not at all like the ones at home. 

I am usually adventurous with trying new foods, but in China we had to be super-adventurous.  Some of the more different things that we had were:  duck tongue, duck feet, duck liver, fried duck bones (after they cut up the Peking duck, they fry the bones and bring it back to your table), duck blood, duck head, eel, turtle, lotus root, fried whole crawfish, "stinky tofu" (the actual name), marinated eggs and others that I can't remember.  I did not try the Wanshan pigs feet at Zhouzhuang Water Village outside of Shanghai.  It looked like feet.  I would have liked to try a bite, but not a whole thing.  Also, at the wedding, there was soup with an uncut special chicken which had black skin and black bones.  The sight of it was unappetizing, but it was probably good.  There was a dessert in Beijing that looked pretty, a white cone with a drizzle of fruit sauce over it.  The white cone was actually mashed potatoes, made slightly sweet by the drizzled fruit.  I think that I was the only one that liked that one.

I decided to try the duck tongue because supposedly it was the former Empress' favorite dish. She ate it 3 times per day.  The odd thing about how it looked is that it had these long curled things at the tongue's end.  I guess it was the ligaments that attached the tongue to the jaw. But when I tried to bite off just a tip and couldn't, I started pulling on it and the tongue stretched, just like in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.  At that point, I couldn't eat it.  :)

Here are some pictures:

 Here I am trying to eat it and the tongue starts stretching:

Here is a marinated quail egg:

This is the duck head, unfortunately, I did not get a picture of my friend eating it.

These were the pigs feet that we did not order:

A basket full of greens with cute little footprints:

I can't seem to find the picture of the duck blood, but here is the Duck liver:

We had several variations of lotus root.  This one was on a stick in Shanghai, street food:

 

One of the many numerous courses of foods that we had:

Pork belly:

Breakfast with a steamed bun shaped like a pig:

 

The dessert that I mentioned with the mashed potatoes and fruit:

The Peking duck:

Finally, Baiju!!!

Next blog:  Street food!

Experiencing the People of China

     On March 15, my son married a lovely girl from China.  On Sept 15th, her parents hosted a celebration of the marriage in Nanjing, China. My husband, my daughter, my brother in law and sister in law and two friends travelled to China to participate in the celebration. But this post of my blog is not to talk about the wedding.  I will do that in another posting.  This post is to talk about the incredible warmth and kindness of the Chinese people. 

We first travelled to Shanghai and spent 3 interesting days there.  Rather than the 9 (the 7 listed above and my son and daughter in law) of us taking a train with lots of luggage, we decided to hire a driver and a van.  The hotel told us that it would take about 2 1/2 hours to get to Nanjing.  The train would take 1 1/2 hours.  We decided to accept the extra hour travelling and have less hassle than we would have taking the Metro or cabs to the train and dealing with all the luggage transfer.  Well, it actually took 5 hours to drive!  My son's in-laws had said that they would come to the hotel to meet us.  Unfortunately for them, that meant that they had to wait until 11 pm to meet us.  I had worried that they might be frustrated with us, but they turned out to be very warm and gracious people.

For our entire time in Nanjing, they had arranged a van and a driver to pick us up from the hotel every day and to drive us around.  The following morning, they picked us up to go to the birthday celebration and luncheon for the 90 year old grandmother.  The grandmother was a tiny ball of energy, probably about 4 1/2 ft tall.  She greeted us with a big smile and held our hands.

  At the wedding, she walked up a flight of stairs as if it were nothing.  We were told that she regularly climbs the temple steps.  She received toasts from everyone by drinking American whiskey and baiju, a very strong Chinese liquor.  Like all grandmothers, you could see how she treasured her grandchildren around her.  And they included my son in all the pictures of her with the grandchildren and/or relatives.

 She was a teacher before retiring, and at the birthday celebration, she was seated at a table with her former students who were in their 60's and 70's.

  At the wedding, we met my daughter in law's 86 year old paternal  grandfather.  He was a tall, stately man, also very dynamic, greeting everyone with a big smile and receiving and giving toasts also.  Here is a picture of the grandfather and uncle chatting with my son:

Individually, the grandmother and then the grandfather got up on the stage at the wedding and gave speeches.  The grandmother had a few little tiny notes, but the grandfather spoke extemporaneously.  For our benefit, there was a translator.  I think that they are great role models.  Here is a picture of the two of them sharing a laugh:

     My sister in law had happened to mention that she was looking for the silk Mandarin style pajamas for her granddaughters.  As we climbed back into the van after the party,  my daughter in law's mother had arranged for us to go to a silk store to make silk purchases with a discount.  The same thing happened when my daughter mentioned that she would like to take a night boat ride on the river with all the lights and decorations.  It was immediately arranged (and paid for).  The father even joined us, even though it was late and the wedding was the next day with some final details still to be completed.

They treated us to a succession of restaurants with many, many courses, showcasing foods and food preparation styles from different areas.  (My next post will just be about the food.)  They treated us to a tour of the Confucius Temple, the National Museum of Imperial Examinations started by Confucius, and the Gan Xi Folk museum.  When we would offer to pay for something, he would repeatedly say that it was "his honor and his duty to do this."  They also invited us to their home and gave us a tour of his petrified rock collection and the mother's framed Chinese embroidery and of course had another spread of food and beer for us at the end of which they gave each couple gifts, beautiful framed Chinese embroidery.

On the day of the wedding, the van picked us up and brought us to the wedding venue and we met more of the family.  EVERYONE made us feel so welcome and that we were part of their family now and inviting us to come visit.

So, this was our experience of the kindness and hospitality of our new family.  But just about everyone we met in China (the tour guides, the waitresses, the cleaning people, the hotel staff, store clerks, etc, were very polite, helpful and very happy.  (I guess the only exception was people trying to sell us souvenirs at tourist areas.  They were very aggressive.  In another post, I will talk about a funny experience with my sister in law at a tourist site.)  I did not expect the kindness and happiness of the Chinese people.  I expected a more serious and private people.  The personnel at the hotel could not do enough for us.  The waitresses at the restaurants, even though they could not speak English, were very patient and helpful.  The tour guides were always upbeat and positive about the future.

So, if you have China on your radar as a possible tourist destination, but are hesitating, I say, "Go!!!".

Future posts on China:  Wedding (after I get more pictures), Food,  Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, Toilets, Insane Driving, Haggling
 

Driving

One of the major issues here is the topic of women driving.  I have been seeing more articles about it in the media here.

I just happened to run across this blog, called Driver Diaries from the Kingdom.  This woman is very interesting. She talks about the various issues from the problems with drivers to the cost to the Saudi economy of having to hire drivers.

Here is a link:  http://ksadriverdiaries.wordpress.com/2010/04/

Also, here is an editorial article that I read in the Arab News.

It was interesting reading these articles after having experienced having to get around with only drivers.