"He Who Rushes Is Already Dead"

With the entire morning right till 3 PM free to myself, I am ready to explore the wondrous splendours of Marrakech...

And sure that needs quite a lot of fueling up. The Moroccan cheeses and preserved olives are indeed quite delicious and make for a delectable start to the day...

The Francophone countries have a way with their breads. And that is visible here in Morocco as well. These guys prefer their baguettes and croissants very well. For today's breakfast, I have a flaky croissant to go with my omelette, some boiled whole red lentils, capsicum and tomatoes...

And as I have my breakfast, I once again enjoy the decor of the hotel...

The hotel per se is quite ordinary, but the decor is rather nice in the lobby and the restaurant. And there is a distinct Moroccan feel to the architectural design...

A collage of Moroccan tiles...

A labyrinthine feel to the corridor...

And it's time for tea before I venture out. Guess what, I can't stop raving about the Moroccan mint tea...

Mint tea in Morocco means time. It forces you to pause, pause a bit, and contemplate over life...

The tea is Morocco’s national beverage and favourite pastime and is often made with tea leaves from the Atlas mountains with a dash of saffron...

Tea drinking is steeped in ritual and ceremony, it is always served to a guest when in a shop or a home, rich or poor. In a sense it is a cultural foundation on which Moroccan society is built. Drinking tea in Morocco signifies slowing down, to connect, to look at each other and to talk...

An old Berber proverb, “He who rushes is already dead” signifies what mint tea is all about. It means time, and with it, means peace...

Tea Ceremony At Andong...

While walking through Hahoe, we came across a tiny hanok where there was an ongoing tea ceremony...

Waiting to be served...

Order and precision...

Little green-tea cookies and cups waiting for our tea to get ready... 

And we are almost there...

And here we are...

The Taste Of Kenya, In My Cup...

A lot can happen over a cup of tea.... That's exactly what happened sometime back...

My parents were recently in Mumbai to spend the New Year holidays with us and they brought along a treasure of great food - a good mix of gourmet stuff from a food store close to their home and a lot of homemade goodies. That treasure trove included a few tea bags of Kericho tea - a tea that comes from the Kenyan county of Kericho.

Kericho is located  on the highlands west of the Kenyan Rift Valley - an area well known for its marathon runners. The climate and altitude of 6500 feet makes it ideal for tea cultivation. Kericho is said to be the tea capital of Kenya and Kericho tea known for its brightness, attractive colour, brisk flavour and fragrance. Such is the popularity of tea here that the central square of Kericho town is known as Chai Square!

Now these tea bags traveled from Kenya to Beijing - gifted to my sister by her friend... She shared them with my parents who were in Beijing last year...

And from Beijing the tea travelled to Delhi and then to Mumbai....

And then the taste of Kericho comes into my cup...

The taste was crisp and flavourful....

With each sip, I was in sense teleported back to 1980-1981, when as a kid, I travelled with my parents across Uganda and Kenya in our beautiful blue Fiat 127, passing by the lush green tea gardens of the Rift Vally in Kenya...

Till now those memories were a bit faint...

But each sip of Kericho tea made me relive the memorable roadtrip, vividly... passing by the Equator, stopping and buying bananas, having them right on the Equator... and then sharing them with a local man who passed by with a walking stick...

I longed to get back, to jump on to the next Kenya Airways flight, that I have so often see here in Mumbai, to head back to the land of my birth, East Africa, to relive those moments all over again.....

All this happened as I enjoyed the taste of Kenya in my cup....

Xie Xie Zhangjiajie - 谢谢张家界!

From Baofeng Lake, we headed to the Zixia Taoist Temple. Zixia is a 500 year old temple complex which had recently been restored by the local government to attract visitors. The sprawling complex is built on a hill side and has over 30 buildings - halls, temples, minor shrines etc.

It turned out the temple closes at 5 PM. We reached at about 5.15 PM and missed getting in.

Despite the disappointment, we spent a few moments appreciating the sculptures.

A layout of the Zixia Temple complex!

An interesting chair.... And a poster promoting health and wellness in Hunan...

Next we proceeded to a teahouse, called Dr. Tea!

Sadly photography wasn't permitted.

Two pretty girls attired in traditional dresses very deftly and prepared small quantities of tea for us to sample.... We liked the oolong tea and the rose petal tea....

The green we tasted here was awesomely fresh....

We picked up a pack of oolong tea. And then we sampled black tea, which had been aged for 20 years.... We were told that was as expensive as RMB 2000 for a few hundred grams.

As the tea ages, a fungus grows on it that gives it unique health benefits - lowering cholesterol, controlling blood pressure, keeping blood sugar in check and aiding digestion.

A block of black that was aged for 13 years was available for RMB 800, which was quite pricey.

But drove a hard bargain and managed to get two packs of oolong teas, a 13 year black tea and a pack of green tea for barely RMB 200...... 

That's what you would call driving a stiff bargain.... Thanks to Neeti for that!

Our next stop was Hehua Airport. We had 3 hours to kill.... Our flight to Shanghai Pudong was on China Eastern Airlines MU 5372, an Airbus A320, scheduled for 9.40 PM.

And we were in no mood to eat or drink.... Sam's lousy meal was still rumbling around in our tummies. We had planned to relax a bit at the airport before catching a meal on the flight.

Despite Zhangjiajie being a small city, the airport was fairly busy - there were quite a few flights to Beijing, Xian, Shenzen, Tianjin, Chengdu and Shanghai....

The airport was bustling with people - there were no other foreigners besides us.

Flights were running late that day - you could blame it on the weather, but in China, the military controls  most of the airspace leaving commercial flights with smaller slots for operations.... 

The reverse of the boarding pass showed an impression of the swanky new terminal being planned at Hehua Airport. Hehua is in the process of being upgraded to handle flights from abroad - Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong....

That's where China scores over India - if you create capacity, demand will follow. On the other hand if you wait for demand to pick up to justify creation of capacity, you'll be condemned to being a mediocre economy....

We took off from Zhangjiajie's Hehua Airport after 10.30PM - a delay of nearly an hour.

Boarding was chaotic - Indian carriers, no matter how vilified are much better.

The aircraft was clean, but airconditioning was poor and they had no blankets on board....

And you won't believe what we got for dinner on board - a paperbox with two dinner rolls with a small glass of water - nothing else! There was no option to buy anything onboard....

I was thoroughly disappointed.... Even our desi SpiceJet is better - at least you can buy a cold but delicious sandwich!

We finally landed at Shanghai's massive and swanky Pudong Airport. It was well past 1 AM then...

After collecting our bags, we were met by our guide Shaun who had come to receive us....

And began the 40 minute, 60 kilometer drive to the Bund in the Puxi area of Shanghai... And yes we were drooling thinking of a much awaited meal of our MTR packets, which would have otherwise been quite unappetizing....

Despite the horrible journey into Shanghai, we felt blessed we had visited Zhangjiajie, a wondrous and unique experience in the heart of China. That experience left us richer with memories, experiences, and sights that will forever be etched in our hearts. 

I suppose Neeti would agree with me when I say Xie Xie Zhangjiajie 谢谢张家界! That simply means Thank You Zhangjiajie!

The bonding over a steaming cup of tea...

I have always seen people bond over a smoke and a drink, but for me, a steaming cup of tea works wonders...

But if you think, its as simple as it sounds, you are mistaken. The tea has to be made the right way, my way, probably the only way, is what i would say.

The right way is to heat the water and just as it starts to boil, add tea leaves and take the pan off the heat. This ensures that oxygen is not boiled out of the water, ensuring the oxygenation of the tannin in the tea leaves, which comes about by brewing it (of course off the heat) for about 5 minutes and voila....

One wrong step and it all becomes a royal mess, that I would prefer to throw down the drain.

Now coming to the element of bonding over tea, or dare I say the right kind of tea, just happens. In Neeti's and my family, it is the trigger - its like a war cry to say "chai ho jaye", and the anticipation of a conquest over the cup of tea begins. This invariably happens every night after dinner, providing the right trigger to stay up a while and talk about the happenings of the day.

I still remember the day my folks and I visited Neeti's place for the first time before our marriage. After an hour or so, when we moved out, the first thing I told my folks was that I loved their tea!!! And my folks nodded in agreement, laying the foundation for our marriage.

Mauritius, where we had gone for our honeymoon, is known for its boutique vanilla teas. Our resort had nothing but vanilla flavoured tea all over. And both of us had to struggle with the Creole and French speaking staff just to get a few tea bags of Assam tea. Wherever we go now, one of the standard gifts we usually get for our families are tea gift packs.

Tea has taken to several extremes. On weekends, when we are out in the market and Neeti starts checking out some nick-knacks, I can barely control my patience for half an hour after which extreme boredom sets in, and I am forced to let out the war cry of "Chai ho jaye"!!! And Neeti, like a fellow "drinking partner" gets so tempted that she winds up within the next 15-20 minutes, after which we either head home or to the nearest Barista or Cafe Coffee Day.

One such hangout for us used to be the Cocos outlet at Lokhandwala market. It charmed us with the quality of its tea and its colourful ambiance. But as real estate markets had their way, high rents forced them to move out. And old does indeed make way for the new.... we have now started patronising Coffee World with a similar zeal.

And just as I want to write more, I hear Neeti making the war cry of "chai ho jaye" - it's time to go...