travel

We travelled to another city for several days and stayed at a beach resort for a regional meeting. Now before you get any Western ideas of what a beach resort is, let me say that it was kinda disappointing, but it did grow on me as the days progressed to where I was really enjoying my time there. One highlight was that our A/C stayed on even when we were not in the room. It never got freezing cold as it does in the States, but it was wonderful to come back to a cool room. At our hotel here, we walk in, hurry to put the key in the slot to turn on the electricity and then I stand in front of the A/C for about 15 minutes until the room gets semi-cool. We were in room 205 before we left and now we are in room 105. One of the best things about the new room is the toilet is more Western style. However, the shower has only a hand held thing that attaches to the wall at belly level. There are pros and cons to the room, but overall Jerry likes it better. It will be our home until Oct 17th or until we get our own place, which could take a month or more. I will have to dedicate an entire entry to the art of finding a flat.

There are so many things to write about every single day that the prospect of writing about everything is quite daunting.

THE AIRPORT
There are two airports here, one for international travel and one for domestic travel. They are side by side, but the domestic one is MUCH nicer; it has A/C! However, in both airports your only choice for toilets is squatty potty style, unless you go to the handicap restroom. But, they are pretty dirty. I am hoping for many visitors while I am here, and I wonder how they will take to the dirty conditions here, especially my mom. Anyhow, I am grateful for my times in China where I was able to perfect my squatty potty technique. Another thing about the airport, our luggage is fairly dirty now.

COWS
Cows are sacred here. We have been told that if a vehicle, whether a car, bicycle, etc hits a cow, the crowd will attack the driver. We see alot of cows along the side of the road. Sometimes, they block a lane of traffic, but no one tries to move them. Even during rush-hour! The city where we are is VERY poor. We noticed that the cows in the beach city were much fatter than the cows in our city. There is also a cow-trafficking problem here. They are trafficked for their beef. I am guessing that our city's skinny cows do not have much to fear.

More later...