Guests Come And Go

Mari made her way back to the States almost a week ago - but what a great time we had while she was here!

Here are some recaps:
* Took her down to the local "dirt market" at PianJiaYuan to check out the mass-produced 'antique' treasures. Mari was a champion bargainer - go Mari!
* Went to Bodhi and received 80-90 minute massages 3 times (All for the low low total cost of less than $30/person - That's right, less than $10 a session!)
* Checked out the insanity at Yaxiu and HongQiao. They are 2 of the famous department-store-like markets that are well known for luring in tourists. The pushy obnoxious vendors weren't so bad, but the stinky fish market in the basement of HongQiao did her in. (We left quickly.)
* Visited many of the must see places around Beijing included the Temple of Heaven (with random people singing and playing instruments),
Tiananmen Square,
Forbidden City,
and the Great Wall.

* We tried many a different restaurant where they might serve you raw meat (the Korean place near our apartment, though the meat may have been smoked) or have you cook it yourself in your own private hot-pot or just bring out massive amounts of strange looking dishes and you just start eating everything you can.

(Hot Pot is one the meals that I have forgotten seemed strange when we first
arrived here. Sometimes there is a big communal pot, but in this case everyone
had their own pot of broth that was adjusted to their personal spiciness
preference. Once the broth is at a boil, you add the food from the various
dished and let it cook. Then you eat and eat and eat. You can see about half of the food we ordered in this picture. We thought we had stuffed ourselves silly and would need to roll out of the place, but that was when the waitress brought us the ice-cream-like popsicles. That's Cindi, one of Anthony and Jenny's friends in the picture with Mari.)

*Kareoke (That's Benson in the picture with Mari
this time. The other friend of Jenny and Anthony's that was visiting that week.)
* Toured around some hutongs (little neighborhoods)
* Rode in a pedicab


Just enjoyed ourselves as much as possible!