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The Chinese City of Suzhou has Some Nice Places to Drink

Jan 24, 2010Steve Rogerson

The Chinese city of Suzhou is one of the oldest towns in the Yangtze Basin with a history that is more than 2000 years old. Known for its beautiful gardens, many of which survive to this day, the modern version of the city also boasts some interesting bars.

Paulaner at Kempinski Hotel, 1 Guobing Lu

The hotel’s bar contains the only microbrewery in Suzhou, and it is part of the German Paulaner chain. The brewer, Christian Liepke, explained that the brewing is done in two large copper kettles facing the bar and then transferred to the fermenting room, a separate room at the side of the bar but with glass walls so people can look in. When ready, the beer is stored in five large vats downstairs and then transferred as needed to three large vats near the bar, and these are connected directly to the pumps at the bar.

Sadly Christian uses hop pellets rather than full hops as he said these were more convenient for a brewery this size, yet many microbreweries use full hops as they know they give better flavour.

The Paulaner light and dark are brewed there. The wheat beer is imported in bottles.

Jane’s Pub Bar, 621 Shiquan Street

This busy ex-pat style bar is one of the better ones on a street full of similar bars. Tiger beer is available on draught and the food is good. The bar also sells bottled beers that are a lot nicer than the draught Tiger. The range includes Chimay, Duvel, Hoegarden, Erdinger Weiss and Dunkel, and Paulaner Weiss. And it has a pool table.

ZZ8 Loft, Unit 203, 215 Shishan Road

This upstairs pub specialising in American craft beers is quite small with half a dozen stools at the bar and nine tables with seating round them. There were goldfish in a large bowl on the bar. The craft beers were imported from the USA in 12 fl oz bottles. The bar also sold Erdinger Weizen white and dark, Schöfferhofer Weizen and Crystal, Heinekin and TsingTao from bottles and Carlsberg on draught.

The Ruedrich's Red Seal Ale is a 5.5% hazy red beer from California. It is very hoppy to the extent that the hoppiness broke through even when it was cold from the fridge. The Dead Guy Ale Rogue is a 6.5% beer from Oregon. This has a very malty smell, and on taste an initial bitter hit gives way to a lasting malty and bitter mix. Also a red cloudy beer, with sediment, so bottle conditioned. The barmaid said people who normally drink the Carlsberg all night are drunk after two bottles of this.

Finally, the 5.2% Brooklyn lager is again a cloudy bottle conditioned beer with a hoppy smell. It had a nice hoppy taste with a colour more brown than red. It was good though not as good as the first two. Despite its name, this is not a lager.

The bar also sells Brooklyn IPA, which the barmaid said was the best seller, which probably explains why it was sold out.

Dream Hollywood, 777 Shiquan Street

This is another upstairs bar, but with live rock music. It has Paulaner wheat beer light and dark on draught. This oddly comes from the Paulaner brewpub in nearby Shanghai, rather than the one in Suzhou, apparently for contractual reasons.

The Bookworm, 77 Gun Xiu Fang

The Bookworm is a cosy combined bar, library and bookshop just off Shiquan Street. There is also a pleasant outdoor seating area. The menu had a range of western and eastern foods, and beer. On draught are Sapporo from Japan, Tiger, Carlsberg and Guinness, and the bottles range from Erdinger and Hoegarden to Newcastle Brown and Boddingtons.

Books are brought from the shelves around the premises to the bar to be purchased and the barman packs them and will add the cost to your drink tab if you are staying.

HB Hofbrau Bar, 50 Ligongdi Road

This is the second of the German Hofbrau chain in China and the beer is brewed at the first in Jiangyin. They sell the lager, weisse and dunkel.

The Place Where Krishna Taught Karmayoga (Action Without Desire)

Jan 24, 2010Raj Kaushik

From the looks of it, Kurukshetra looks like any other sleepy, dusty and nondescript town of Haryana, a state in Northern India. But driving down about 12 kilometres to Jyotisar, a village next to a lake to the west of Kurukshetra will reveal as to why Kurukshetra is placed so high in the annals of Indian history.

Jyotisar is the place where Lord Krishna was believed to have told Bhagvad-Gita to the great archer and Mahabharata warrior Arjuna after the latter expressed his inability to wage a war against his cousin brothers.

There is a plinth at the entrance of Jyotisar with a small lake tucked under on its left. A white marble gate leads to the plinth. There are locked tiny little rooms on the right of the gate where images of Mahabharata characters are resting.

One of these rooms houses Shiva, the destroyer God from Hindu pantheon. Next to the Shiva temple stands a banyan tree with a platform built around it where a replica of Arjuna’s chariot is placed. The tree is supposed to be an offshoot of the original banyan under which Krishna spoke Gita to Arjuna. Its overhanging branches and thick wrinkled trunk have red threads tied all over. The devotees of Lord Krishna believe that tying of the thread on the tree will help them realize their most cherished wish.

Although there are visitors at the sight during anytime of the day and evening but on festivals associated with Lord Krishna and solar eclipse it is packed with huge crowds. In evening, a light and sound show is organized at the spot to tell stories from Mahabharata.

Around a kilometre before Jyotisar is located another village called Narkatari where Bhishma, the grand sire of Pandavas and Kauravas, was supposed to have breathed his last after having been nailed by arrows fired by Arjuna, his grandson. A large image of Bhishma is placed in a deep well connected with descending steps. The well is located in the forelawn of a temple dedicated to Bhisma.

There is a Panorama and Science Centre where animation films on different episodes of Mahabharata war are screened during the day for visitors. There is also a museum – called Srikrishna museum - housing artifacts and paintings related to Mahabharata and Lord Krishna.

Land of Lakes & Temples

Kurukshetra is a town dotted with temples dedicated to different Hindu deities. It is also a land of water bodies with several ancient and sacred lakes – Sannihit and Brahma Sarovars – situated here. In prehistoric times, the town was supposed to have hosted the original confluence (now it is located at Allahabad) of three rivers which dried up over the years.

Besides the places associated with Mahabharata war and Krishna, Kurukshetra is replete with other historical monuments. Harshvardhan, who ruled over large parts of India in 606 AD, had his capital at Thanesar, the twin town of Kurukshetra. During its excavations, carried out on a mound at Thanesar in the past, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) discovered pottery, terracotta figurines and other structures from the Harshvardhan period. The archaeologists also found skeletons, wells and a water channel as evidence of the glorious past.

The city also houses a beautiful tomb associated with Abd-ur-Karim alias Sheikh Chilli, the famous saint and day dreamer who was believed to be the spiritual guru of Mughal Prince Dara Sikoh (1650 AD).

Mahabharata: The epic war originally written in Sanskrit was said to have been fought between cousins Kauravas and Pandavas, descendants of Kuru, a king of Kurukshetra, sometime around 950 Before Christ Era (BCE) over the kingdom of Hanstinapur. Krishna drove Arjuna’s chariot during the war where Pandavas were victorious.Gita, the treatise on Karmayoga (work with a detached mind), is a most popular part of the epic.

How to Reach Kurukshetra: The nearest airports are at Chandigarh and New Delhi. The city is well connected with a number of inter-state trains having a stopover here. You also have the option of traveling by a bus or a taxi. Kurukshetra is around 160 kilometres from Delhi.

When to Visit: It would be better to visit the city in October or March months when it enjoys a moderate climate.

Where to Stay: Being a religious centre, Haryana state government has set up a number of tourist guest houses in Kurukshetra. The city also has a few hotels and good number of inexpensive lodges.