Hello Everybody, “How old are you?” Our guide told us not to be surprised if someone asks our age: this is considered a sign of respect in China. He told us that one hotel put up a sign for a Road Scholar (Elderhostel) group that read, “Welcome American Old People.” Being a senior citizen in China is not a bad thing. The official retirement age is age 60 for men and age 55 for women, however if you have a child who cannot find a job, you can retire much earlier to make room for them to enter the labour market. Pensions run from $500. per month to $3,000. per month depending on the job you held. Government workers get the best pensions. As well, public transit is free for those over 65. For us, the ... read more

I wasn’t looking forward to two days of heavy bus travel—but it was another great adventure. Our journey took us through Bandipur National Park. Animals are protected here. We saw Spotted Deer and Langur Monkeys. The wine coloured Malibar Giant Squirrels chased each other from tree limb to tree limb. We saw farmers spreading grain across the road so that our bus would roll over it. It breaks up the grain for the farmers and brings us good bus karma. We climbed until reaching 2300 feet above sea level. We stopped at a plantation for lunch and a tour. The region has the right conditions for coffee, pepper, tea, cardamom, vanilla, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, tumerac, rice, bananas, rubber, and betel nut. The biggest threat? Elephants. They roam wild in this region, although we didn’t see ... read more

We left the land of the Taj Mahal and headed out through the rural areas to the state of Rajasthan. Here you see women working the fields in the most brilliant colours that I have ever seen—yellows, oranges, reds and blues. Part of this light fabric covers their faces. We were told that hand embroidery is often used to make this material even more beautiful. The men wear colourful turbans—the colour depicts their village and caste. In each village the people are related and are, of course, of the same caste. When the women are old enough, they marry “out” and each of the mothers that you see in each village has married “in.” We visited one of these villages. ... read more

Hello everyone, Agra is called the city of monuments, including the famous Taj Mahal. The first monument we visited is Akbar’s Tomb, the second is called Baby Taj and was built a few years before the main attraction. It is also called the Jewellery Box. All the monuments have a few things in common: they were built by the Mughals who controlled India for three hundred years between the 1500s and 1800s. We use the term mogul to describe someone successful, and that is the Indian context as well. Each person for whom the monument was built is buried several feet beneath the monument, with their feet facing south, their head facing north and their head turned to face west toward Mecca—remember Mecca is east of North America, but west of India. The Taj Mahal is ... read more