My Cup of Tea

3 blocks from our hotel is a section of the city known as the Muslim Quarter. The guidebook says the area is home over 60,000 Muslims, which in a city of six million, is not a large percentage, but they mostly live in one spot. There is a mosque there which apparently looks like a lot of the more ancient Chinese architecture. The streets have lots of vendors selling trinkets, swords, silks, cashmere, nuts galore, and lots of dried fruit. The smells are amazing. It's really impossible to describe. I think our noses are underutilized back in the States. Everything is shrink-wrapped, boxed, and then encased wax paper. You couldn't smell anything if you tried.

A good example of a aroma sensation is the tea shop. We walked into the shop and there are large glass canisters of all different kinds of teas.
The seller encourages you to open the jars, take out a scoop, and smell it. There are all kids of flower teas, black teas, green teas. Josh and David even liked the smell of the teas. Best of all, when I bought tea, I got to take it home in a really cool cylindrical red and gold container. It has not been safety-sealed for my protection, but I get to open it whenever I want and enjoy the smell.

I bought Abigail and I each a little teapot to steep our tea in.