Beijing Tour Day 1 (Beijing, China)

Today I visited the Panda Zoo, a pearl store, Olympic Park, the Lama Temple, and a local Hutong where I also had for the opportunity to have lunch at.

Panda Zoo:

Pearl store:
We had to stop at one of these government regulated stores as part of the tour, which is apparently rather mandatory for tour groups. I question those who buying anything at these places as they are drastically overpriced and try to scam you, but hey, then again many many tourists fall for it, even people who were in my 3 day tour group. However, it was pretty cool to see how fresh water pearls are produced and how to tell the difference between real and fake pearls.

Now you know why fresh water pearls are cheaper than ocean pearls (ocean pearls only produce one pearl while freshwater ones can be manipulated to produce up to a hundred in one oyster)

Olympic Park (Birds Nest and Water Cube):

Lama Temple:
Old Buddhist temple. I'm sorry but by this point in my journey I was too templed-out to be fascinated by the detail in the temple (then again, once you've seen the temples of Angkor, Borobudur, and ones in Thailand, nothing can compare).

Hutong: The Hutongs are small neighborhoods in Beijing that are characterized by their narrow alleyways and compounded homes. We were taken into a Hutong by a rickshaw driver and brought to a small home where a local family had prepared lunch for us.

On the rickshaw with another person from my tour (a Canadian actually! lol)

Some dishes from the meal the homeowners prepared for us

We had lunch in someones bedroom. There was a bed in the corner and clothes and shoes hidden under the bed. Very unique experience.

Wanfujung Street (Beijing, China)

My first night in Beijing I decided I had to venture off to find Wanfujing Street, aka the notorious street filled with both high end fashion stores and outrageous street food.

Entrance into the street food alley

Fruit squwers before they get coated in hot melted sugar

Pork satay

Veggie and chicken dumplings. I bought 3 for 10 Yuan. They weren't very good. I was expecting the outside to be nice and chewy with a but of crisp, instead they were hard.

Corn dogs?

I thought this was pretty funny, it's like their version of pasta in tomato sauce. Instead its glutinous rice flour tubes in a tomato soup-like sauce.

Birds?

This is the type of stuff Wanfujing Street is known for...random animals and insects on a stick! I think the thing on the left is some sort of crustacean and the one on the left is definitely silk worm

That's right, you read it correctly

Starfish, seahorses, scorpions etc

Scorpions

Green tea soft serve (6 Yuan). It was yummy. They also had a jasmine tea flavored one but when I went back for more they had sold out. Boo.

Yes, again, you read that correctly

These looked sooooooo good...and pretty!

Off to Beijing!!

My two months in Indonesia are now up and I am venturing off onto my last leg of my 4 month adventure. Watch out Beijing!

Aerial view from the airplane while descending into Beijing. Oddly, the flight attendant on my Air China flight asked me to stop taking pictures. My little Canon digital camera in no way interferes with flight deck instruments...so I am assuming he just thought I was a spy taking aerial photographs of China to send back to my spy headquarters.

Shabu Shabu (Jakarta, Indonesia)

I accompanied my mom on one of her weekly ladies luncheon with her friends and lucky for me this weeks restaurant of choice was an all you can eat shabu shabu joint. The restaurant provides raw veggies, seafood, various cuts of meat, beef and seafood balls etc and you can either boil it in a steamboat or on the grill. Shabu shabu is a great option if you are going out in large groups because its interactive, fun, and everyone can share the meal.

Fresh greens, seafood, fish balls etc

Meat, fish, mushrooms, sausage etc

My favorite part..dessert. This is a make it yourself dessert option. Grass jelly, mashed durian, cendol, and jellies that you top off with shaved ice, syrups, and coconut milk

Agar agar (Indonesian jelly/pudding)

Grill

Bye Bye Jogyakarta

My month long volunteer internship has come to a close and it is now time for me to return back to Jakarta for several days to prepare myself for...China!!



Work Retreat (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)

Compleatly un-food related, but this weekend I got the oppurtunity to take part in a work retreat that the organization I am volunteering/interning for was hosting. A massive coach bus was rented and people from the office, including some of their children and spouses, as well as myself were taken to Gunung Api Nglanggeran (Nglanggeran Volcano), which is a now extinct volcanao, and to beautiful Indrayanti Beach on the south coast of central Java where we had lunch and spent the rest of the day.

Posing with some collegues at the foot of the volcano

Narrow passage between two huge walls of solid lava rock

View from atop