Archives for 2010

Where do you go?

December 27, 2010 by Rona Michelson

Many years ago, in faraway lands (the US and Germany), I taught childbirth preparation classes. They consisted of anatomy and physiology and the basics of the birth process and becoming new parents. Most of the time was spent on giving my students techniques for reducing the pain of labor. I was eclectic in my approach and took techniques from several different theories as well as devising some of my own.

One aspect of pain reduction is relaxation and I copied from a book, perhaps Husband Coached Childbirth, an exercise that I read to the couples (yes, I had the husbands relaxing too) while they relaxed on the mats on the floor. It contained images that would help a person focus on another place and experience to distract them from some of the tension in their body.

I am long past the childbirth stage. I have, however, used many of the techniques over the years for uncomfortable medical and dental procedures. Sometimes, I use the images to simply reduce tension. Sometimes I use them just to make me happy.

So here are just some of the places I go– in no particular order:

1. A Chinese garden. Once of my favorites is the “Good Luck” Garden in Hangzhou, China. Not only is it lush and green and with some of the trees decorated with red ribbons, but it contains lovely sculptures and has beautiful Chinese music playing in the background. It’s a first class stress-reliever.

Good Luck Garden

Liu Hai and the Golden Toad

Looking through a doorway

2. Bamboo raft ride on the Martha Brae in Jamaica. Sorry, this was in the days before digital photography! You’ll have to picture nearly still water with trees of all sorts on both banks of the river forming almost a canopy over us and lush vegetation everywhere. Except for the sounds of the birds, and the gentle poling of the gentleman taking us on this ride, there was silence. A fine mist contributed to making the experience magical.

3. Halong Bay in Vietnam. It is beautiful– breathtaking, actually.

Halong Bay, Vietnam

4. The Rice Terraces at YuanYang, China. They are majestic. There’s something very clean and pure about the fresh stalks of rice, planted in rows, sculptured into the landscape.

Rice Terraces

5. Austria, just south of Salzburg. It’s just beautiful. I love the snow-capped mountains and this really isn’t a painting. It’s a picture I took myself in the month of May.

So tell me, where do you go??

Filed Under: China, Kosher Tours, Vietnam Tagged With: Austria, China, Chinese Gardens, Garden, Travel, Vietnam

Li River, China

November 29, 2010 by Rona Michelson

If you are a person who likes art, you probably have seen Chinese landscape paintings that portray very tall, pointed mountains. If you are like me, you probably have thought that it must be a stylized version of the Chinese landscape that the artist was portraying. Well, in fact, the Chinese landscape does have tall, sharp-peaked mountains. They account for some of the world’s most magnificent scenery.

The same Karst process that formed the peaks in Halong Bay, Vietnam, formed the mountains in and around Guilin, China.

About an hour and a half from Guilin is the small city of YangShuo which also lies amid these magnificent mountains and along the Li River. Some of the best shopping in China can be done in the clean, attractive market at YangShuo that runs perpendicular to the river.

Market in YangShuo

Once on the river, it is almost impossible not to gasp at the beauty of the landscape. Everywhere one looks there are magnificent landscapes.

Li River

While cruising down the Li River, one can see a viewing stand.

Viewing stand

The viewing stand was built for viewing a production unlike anything I had ever seen before.

The Chinese director, Zhang Yimou known for films such as Raise the Red Lantern and To Live and Curse of the Golden Flower and also for his directing of the opening and closing of the Beijing Olympics, has produced a show on the river. The show is presented each night, often twice a night, and although it is not in a Chinese population center, the seats are always filled. The stand holds about five thousand!

Zhang Yimou, when asked to produce a show immediately decided that the best theater of all was the river itself and the ten mountains that surrounded the small inlet where it is staged. When the mountains were lit at the beginning of the show, it was a breathtaking experience!

The show depicts the life of the local people in their villages. It shows farming, fishing, and local customs.

Fishermen on the water

The fishermen, on their rafts, move from side to side and raise and lower the red fabric making a beautiful impression.

The women (below), walking on catwalks on the water are wearing dresses that light up. They switch on and off the dresses in amazing patterns.

Women lighting up the night

It all is accompanied by beautiful music. Aside from the magnificent spectacle the show is, the wonderful part is that almost all of the 600 or so performers are local people who had lived a rather impoverished existence and who now earn a significant amount of their livelihood performing in this show. What a wonderful project! And wow! It will take your breath away.

Filed Under: China, Kosher Tours Tagged With: China, ethnic minority, Halong Bay, kosher, Li River, Sanjie Liu, Tour, Travel, YangShuo

It’s a small, small world

November 14, 2010 by Rona Michelson

In April of 2009 I published a blog entry about TaVan, Vietnam. The blog entry is located here. You can find TaVan on this map

SaPa map

You can see the railroad tracks that come from Hanoi to Lao Cai, then you can follow the road southwest to SaPa. South of SaPa is the village of TaVan.
In the blog post, I wrote about a young girl who I had met in the village who surprisingly greeted me in Hebrew! Living as far away as she does, in a small village in the mountains of north Vietnam, I imagined that she would always be nameless to me.

Well, last night I received an email from someone in SaPa who gave me her name and email! Looking at the village, one might be surprised that anyone there has email. But actually, it shouldn’t have surprised me because the children of TaVan were very impressive and it was clear that the adults charged with educating them were doing an excellent job.

So hello to Tu and to her classmates and friends and warm wishes to all of them!

Filed Under: Kosher Tours, Vietnam Tagged With: Children, Lao Cai, SaPa, TaVan, Tour, Travel, Vietnam

As easy as yi, er, san

October 31, 2010 by Rona Michelson

The first day I was in China on my last trip (October 5), I had a couple of things I wanted to do before my people arrived. The first was to purchase a Chinese sim card for my telephone. I had my own cell phone (unlocked and able to receive foreign sim cards) and a loaner (that I placed my Israeli sim into). That way I would have one Israeli phone and one Chinese phone to cover pretty much any situation.

On previous trips, attractive young ladies had been set up at counters at the airport to sell sim cards as people arrived. This time, there were none. I assumed it was because I arrived at 4 a.m.

So, after getting into my room, showering and changing my clothes, and checking my email, I went to the desk and asked where I could buy a sim card. I had noticed that there was a Carrefour department store adjacent to the hotel. I asked if they had them. I was told that the sim card policy in China has changed and that now there is much more regulation on them and therefore one can only purchase one at a store licensed to sell them and after filling out many forms. Fortunately, there was a China Telecom shop only a couple of blocks away.

It was a bright sunny day and everything felt wonderful. There were beautiful people, tall majestic trees with rustling leaves, and colorful shops. As I walked, I almost felt like singing. I love visiting China so much. It was like coming home to an old friend.

When finally I arrived at the telephone store I am not sure who was more perplexed– the salesgirl or me. You see, this store was not in a tourist area. It was frequented by Chinese people who unlike me, speak Chinese. How was I going to accomplish this?

I held up my phone and said “sim” hoping the word was an international one. I opened it up and showed her that one was missing. I could see a flicker of recognition. She called someone on the telephone, I assume to check how she should proceed. The person spoke to me in English. I said I wanted a sim card. I handed the phone back to the sales person. She tried to warn me, I assume because she might have assumed my phone was locked, but I pointed to it and said “OK.” “Hao, Hao.” (Hao is one of the words I know in Chinese. It means “good,”) So far, so good. She took me to another sales person, seated behind a desk. I sat down.

The new lady handed me an envelope on which were written four 8 or 9 digit numbers. She pointed to them. I remembered that in China people are very interested in the significance of numbers and they actually choose the license numbers of their cars– bidding high to get the most fortuitous ones, as for example, the number 8 being a fortuitous number, therefore, when appearing in a license, commanding a higher payment than the unlucky number 4. I chose one of the numbers at random. It was to be my telephone number.

At some point, the woman behind the desk called an English speaking colleague and after that she would hand me the telephone whenever she had a question. They asked for identification and so I handed them my passport. I had to show them which letters spelled out my name and where my birth date was. It was strange, having to stop every few seconds for questions to be asked in Chinese of the person on the phone and then the voice on the other end of the line asking them of me in English. All of us laughed at the awkwardness of the situation.

They filled out many different forms and then finally asked for a local address. Of course my local address was the hotel where I was staying as of that morning. In my jet lagged fatigue, I had forgotten the name of the hotel, but I did have the plastic card that was the room key with me. It was in a folder given to me by the hotel and had all of the relevant information.

And then, after a payment of about $20, I left with many smiles, many giggles, and my Chinese telephone.

Now wasn’t that simple? As easy as yi, er, san!*

*One, two, three

Filed Under: China Tagged With: China, kosher, Tour, Travel

What happened next

October 27, 2010 by Rona Michelson

So there we were, 6 a.m. taking off from Beijing. It’s always sad to leave China. If you haven’t been there, you have no idea of why. If you have been there, you are probably nodding your head and thinking about when you can return. China is a beautiful country filled with friendly, beautiful people. Chinese people work hard, but with a smile on their face, and greet tourists with smiles and friendship.

For example, while walking through my favorite market, one of the salespeople said to me, “I remember you!” I said, “You do? From when?” and she answered, “From now and from here.” We both smiled.

But I digress…

We were leaving China on an Aerosvit flight via Kiev, Ukraine. We had gotten to the ticket counter early, and so we were able to get bulkhead seats with lots of leg room. The flight, although 9 hours long with no films or other entertainment, was pleasant. People were quiet and I was able to sleep for a good period of time.

It still was good to land in Kiev, despite the fact that there was no time to leave the airport.

Landing in Kiev

After proceeding through security, we were among the first to get our boarding passes for the follow-on flight to Tel Aviv. That meant that once again, we were able to get seats with decent leg room which was nice.

We had about 3 hours to wait for our next flight. The airport waiting hall is one huge room with poor acoustics and hard chairs. There were large numbers of people and since I had my suitcase and my back pack, I decided not to wander into any of the shops. I just sat and tried to read and listen to my iPod.

However, at a certain point, I started to hear the crying of a little girl. She was about 5 years old and very very cute. Her distress was over the fact that her parents would not buy her a stuffed toy dog. She was crying incessantly. Her parents came and sat down a seat or two away from me. The little girl continued crying insisting that her parents buy her the stuffed toy dog. Finally, her father began to reason with her. He said, “Look, here in your back pack are the 7 new stuffed dogs that we bought you.” He took them out one by one. Yes, there were 7 brand new, tags still affixed, stuffed toy dogs. This did not placate her. She still needed the one she had seen in the store. Her father said, “I promise you I will buy you another dog when we get back to New York.” I just listened.

The father took the girl for a walk. She thought he was going to get her another dog. I wondered whether I should talk to the mom.

She was a very pretty young woman. She was tall and slender and well dressed. I began to speak with her. She was Ukrainian and married to an American, living in New York. They had come, for the first time in three years, to visit her parents. They had visited for three weeks. Since the mother had always spoken to her daughter in Ukrainian, the child was fully able to communicate with her grandparents. They were thrilled to see her and there was nothing she wanted that they did not give her. Now, the child was leaving Ukraine, not sure when she would see her grandparents again. The mother explained that usually her daughter was easier to deal with, but they were at a loss as to what to do now.

I told her that I was a marriage and family therapist and that I understood that at times of transition, people don’t act the way they normally do and that helping their daughter to deal with leaving her grandparents and returning to her old life was a good thing to do. The mother knew that the additional stuffed dog was not going to make the child happy, but she didn’t know what to do to get her out of her ongoing demands for it.

When the father and child returned, I tried to think of something that I had that would interest the child. Fortunately, in my magic vest (the one I wear when I am traveling) I had a small laser pointer. I showed the child how to push the button to make a red dot on the floor. She was fascinated. She made the red dot travel the floor. Then it landed on her mother’s shoes. Mother played along, trying to brush it off her shoes. Then it landed on her father’s shoes. He tried to shake it off. Then it landed on my shoes, Crocs, a perfect target. With all of the holes in the top, she was able to aim the red dot at each of the holes and skip from one to the other. Soon she was giggling and happy and starting to examine her father’s throat.

While this was going on, the mother asked me what to do about a child who is stubborn. I told her that stubbornness is what enables people to study hard, work hard, and achieve. I told her she was lucky to have a child who knows what she wants and works hard to pursue it.

Soon they called my flight. I asked the child for my pointer. Unprompted, she handed it to me with a smile and said, “Thank you.”

And then I headed in the direction of home.

Home

Filed Under: China Tagged With: Children, China, Travel

The End

October 26, 2010 by Rona Michelson

Usually I like to talk about a trip starting at the beginning, but this last trip clearly had the most dramatic end (at least in the way that I experienced it…)

Our tour consisted mostly of people who flew to China from the US. Only one other person flew from Israel and we traveled together. On the night we left China, a driver from our local tour company came to the lobby of the hotel to pick us up at 3 a.m. It worried me a bit that when I came downstairs, he was sleeping. I had hoped that he would be sufficiently awake to transport us safely. However, he woke up as soon as I got within about 6 feet of him, so maybe he really wasn’t asleep, but just resting his eyes.*

Aside from the take-off motion he made with his hands when he saw me and my nod in the affirmative, we did not really communicate (his English was not as good as my Chinese– and I know fewer than 15 words).

The other traveler joined me and we went out to the car while the driver piled our luggage into the car. He got into the car and started driving toward the airport.

Our local guide, whose English was very good, had told me that we were leaving from another terminal, not the main one which was recently opened and is very beautiful, but I didn’t remember the number he told me. When we got to the terminal, it was not at all reassuring that the building was dimly lit and the sign outside it said “Domestic departures.”

I was traveling with a large suitcase (in the trunk of the car), a small carry on (on the front seat of the car) and my backpack (that contained, among other essentials, my notebook computer.)

When we got to the terminal, I said to the other traveler, “I’m not sure we’re at the right place and I don’t want to be stranded at 3:30 a.m. in a place where no one speaks English. Please wait with the driver and I will go in and see if we are in the right place.” It took me a few minutes to ascertain that we were in the right place. I walked back out to the car. Meanwhile, the driver had called our local guide and was reassured that we were in the right place and the driver and the other traveler had gotten our bags out of the car. I tipped the driver and he left.

And then, about 3 seconds later, I realized that my backpack was not on me and not with the suitcases and that the driver had left with it. I could still see the lights of the car leaving the airport.

I was certain that there was no chance I could get the backpack back. Oh no. It was gone. Forever.

But then I remembered that our guide had given me the driver’s telephone number and I even remembered where I had written it down. With my Chinese cell phone I called the number. He answered, in Chinese, of course. I said, “I left a bag.” He answered. I, of course, had no idea what he was saying, but it sounded like he didn’t understand. “My bag is with you.” Still, no sense that he had understood. “Bag in car!” Still nothing. “Come back!” Finally, it seemed as if he understood, because he seemed to had an “aha” response and then hung up. But I was not certain. I called our local guide and apologized for waking him a second time. He was very kind and said he would call the driver.

We waited. And waited. Like most modern airports, it can take several minutes to return to the drop off point at the Beijing airport as a network of roads swirls around the airport. We saw one car after another approach. Then, finally, there was the car that had brought us.

The driver stopped the car. He brought me my backpack and apologized for leaving with it. Of course, I was feeling guilty for not checking before he left, so I gave him a second tip and off we went to check in at Aerosvit for our journey home (via Kiev.)

The end.

(OK– except for my adventures in the airport in Kiev)

*My father didn’t suffer from jet lag. When we would find him sleeping, he insisted he was just resting his eyes.

Filed Under: China Tagged With: China, Tour, Travel

China, October 2010

October 25, 2010 by Rona Michelson

The words will come later. Right now, enjoy the sights with me.

Note: This was NOT produced by my daughter who does this professionally and could have done a great job. This is my first attempt to make a movie.

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Filed Under: China Tagged With: China, Chinese Gardens, Forbidden City, Great Wall, kosher, Temple of Heaven, Tour, Travel

1000 words about why I love to travel

September 15, 2010 by Rona Michelson

Well, only in the metaphoric sense, that is.

I love to travel for many many reasons. I love seeing new people and places. I love learning about other cultures and countries. I enjoy learning their history and seeing their customs and their handicrafts. I love learning their legends and folktales. Perhaps, most of all, I enjoy the magnificent sights I see. And so, here in a picture is a thousand words about why I love to travel.

Beauty at the middle of the world

Filed Under: Ecuador, Kosher Tours, South America Tagged With: Ecuador, kosher, Tour, Travel

The Jews of Quito

August 26, 2010 by Rona Michelson

One of the joys of visiting and revisiting places is that I get to see the same people time after time. I will be talking about the people I met in Quito, but to preserve their privacy, I won’t identify any of them.

The Quito Jewish Community has two major elements:

1. The large indigenous community that has a beautiful community center and a synagogue and lovely grounds. People in the community are of European origin, most of their families arriving before or during the Second World War. They number around 500 and have a community school of high academic quality that has a non-Jewish majority and afternoon religious school for other children in the Jewish community. The community is a Conservative community and so people who live throughout the Quito area can belong and attend services there. We were lucky enough to visit their complex and to see their synagogue.

After entering the complex, one sees two buildings with a patio area between them. To the left is the huge auditorium/banquet hall, said to the be second largest banquet hall in Quito. On the lower floor is a room that we used for lunch. It was also large and because the building was built on the side of a hill, it had large windows and an outdoor area as well. Further to the left outside is the swimming pool.

On the right is the synagogue building itself. Although the congregation president did speak with us about the community, we were not able to take a full tour of the facilities since we still had a lot to do and wanted to get back to the hotel well before shabbat so that people would have time to prepare.

The synagogue grounds

The doors and entrance hall

The synagogue interior

Synagogue under attack by camera-wielding tourists

The inside of the domed roof

2. The Israeli/Orthodox element
The first two times I visited Quito, I became acquainted with these people. They are almost all ex-patriots living in Quito for various reasons. Although it is possible to acquire many kosher products in Quito, the lack of the thriving Orthodox community means that they need to rely on each other to be neighbors, friends, and family. They do not have a synagogue and so they lean on each other when they need strength. Watching them interacting with each other is something special. They have become a family, accepting of each other, caring, and warm. They enjoy seeing and playing with each other’s children. When they came to spend shabbat with us, the visiting Israelis/ Australians/ Americans they were open and friendly and simply nice people. They joined in our tfilot (prayers), zmirot (songs), and divrei torah (homilies.) By now, returning to Quito is a bit like visiting family.

Filed Under: Ecuador, Kosher Tours, South America Tagged With: Ecuador, Jewish, kosher, Quito, synagogue, Tour, Travel

Steak for dinner or no dinner at all?

August 20, 2010 by Rona Michelson

On my recent tour of Ecuador and Peru, our travelers had requested to see a bullfight. Traditional bullfights being rather bloody and gory and altogether inappropriate for a religious group, we chose instead to go to a bloodless bullfight.

We went to a beautiful hacienda not far from Otavalo, Ecuador, and had lunch there, prepared by our own chef, Boaz under the supervision of our mashgiach, Eyal. Lunch was delicious.

After lunch we were invited to the bull ring. We were told that this is a place where aspiring bullfighters are trained and the bull itself is being trained for bullfighting. The bull was kind of small and didn’t have much desire to perform, but he was persuaded by waves of the cape and the footwork of the matador.

After a demonstration, volunteers were solicited. To my dismay, our chef and our mashgiach both volunteered to fight the bull. Someone rightly called out, “anyone but the chef, please!” The chef was a pleasant young man who produced fantastic meals in the most unlikely places. The mashgiach was a delightful young man whose wife is soon expecting their first baby. Neither one was expendable.

But fight they did. Here’s how it started:

And here’s how it ended:

As we say in Hebrew, Kol HaKavod! Way to go, guys!

Filed Under: Ecuador, Kosher Tours, South America Tagged With: bull fight, Ecuador, kosher, Tour, Travel