It's 4:30 in the morning... do you know where your family is?

Josh is reading a book.
Ed is eating Jelly-Belly's.
I am Blogging.

Me: I can't believe you are eating Jelly Bellys at 4:30 in the morning.
Ed: I can't believe you are Blogging at 4:30 in the morning.

Enough said... end of that conversation! LOL

I.CAN’T.SLEEP.

Day 1 (con’t)

We found the Silk Market! What an experience that was. But not before the taxi ride from hell! I cannot even begin to describe what that was like! We came within a hairs breath of hitting pedestrian after pedestrian.... people on bicycles rode around with big targets on them as they were especially in danger! It is nothing for a car to cross over 3 lanes and swing in to a turn only lane without batting an eyelash! Paris cabbies have nothing on these guys! LOL! But anyway, we found out we were pretty close to the Silk Market and decided to head over there “just to look around”. FAMOUS.LAST.WORDS.

The atmosphere was incredible. Five floors packed with vendors who were selling everything from silk pajamas to pearls to iPods. The only bad thing was that if you even glanced at an item, the salesclerk started wheeling and dealing with you. This may be a good thing as it probably kept me from buying too much on this, our first full day in Beijing! At one point I had three different sales clerks holding my arms trying to get me into their store... they were from different stores. This happened to Ed to but all he could think about was that he should have asked me to take his picture so that he could share with everyone how he had three women fighting over him! LOL We happened to stop by a store selling ski clothes. I explained we had no use for them so the clerk asked us where we lived. We said Florida and she knew exactly where that was and proceeded to tell us that what we should do is outfit ourselves with her ski clothes and move north so that we can use them! She was serious.

Price Haggling 101
The prices that you are presented with are typically a bit high… but that’s all part of the game. I had been told that when you are presented with a price, no matter the amount, show a bit of concern or disinterest and they will start giving you a lower price. Now, one of the things we wanted to buy for Gracie was some silk pajamas. Note that they are not really pajamas but traditional wear. I have seen children’s silks at EPCOT for about $40… not surprising as Disney tends to mark everything up 500% anyway. I knew that I could get them for less than ½ of that price. I thought I would put my “haggling” lessons to work and see what would happened next. I present you with what happened next... (for the purposes of today's deomonstration, SM=Silk Market):

Me: How much for these pink silk pajamas?
SM: I can give to you at 400RMB (about $50)
Me: 400 RMB? That’s pretty high” at this point I gave her a look of concern and told her “no, that’s a lot”. That's what a good little haggler does...right?

CRITITCAL ERROR

I turned to Ed and do you know what this un-schooled on haggling man did? He said “That’s fine, I like them… and proceeded to count out the money”. First of all, hello, I wasn't looking for permission here! What happened to my husband? The man who hates when I spend too much? The man who can’t even stand shopping or crowds let alone the two combined? HELLOOOOOOOOO? So I gave him the look (ever see Everyone Loves Raymond? They did a whole episode on the look)... okay time to start re-tooling my strategy. I put them back on the rack and said I didn't think I liked them as much as I thought. Immediately the price dropped by 100RMB (now we are down to about $40…still some work to do because I really did like them!).

Me: I don’t think I’ll take these, maybe they aren’t exactly what I was looking for.
SM: I give you good price, you be my friend, 200RMB.
I decide to give Ed a second chance so I turned back to Ed again and what did this man who is not my husband say? THAT’S FINE. What is wrong with this guy…. Didn’t I just give him the look???? LOL

Long story short, I ended up paying 150RMB (about $18) and Gracie has now scored her first set of pink pjs! I had a long talk with my otherwise awesome husband and I think he gets the drift now and has decided to not be an active participant in the haggling game... that will now be one of my jobs on this trip. We left the Silk Market with a few other items and another set of silk pjs for Gracie…. Which I might add are way too cute!!

We ended the day having dinner with Anne and Scott, our Bethany travel mates. What a cool couple! We have been talking with them for over a year on the Bethany Boards and other online forums. The Internet is such an awesome thing… later today we will meet up with more of the Bethany families including Conway, Juleen, Rossette and Tarita who we have also been talking to for a while. We can’t wait!

Today we are off on a tour to see the Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace and the Forbidden City!

Day 1 - Beijing
We started our day off with a great breakfast buffet! They had traditional Chinese foods along with western style foods such as cheerios and frootloops! I decided to try a couple of new food items and had an egg custard... it kind of looked like flan but it tasted like soft boiled eggs. I liked it. Also tried fried noodles and they were really good! Ed and Josh had those as well as eggs, bacon, sausage, etc... The hot tea was delish!

Our Hotel




We went exploring near the hotel and ended up in a mall!


We were really looking for a place to buy water and a few odds and ends and there we were. Very nice and super clean. The sales people follow you everywhere and there is tons of security. They had a car show in the middle of the mall (did I mention it was 5 stories) and they had beautiful women in evening gowns next to each of the cars...


Well afer returning to the room and doing a bit of research, we have discovered that we are mere blocks away from Forbidden City, the Pearl Market, the Silk Market and the Friendship Store. So it looks like we are going to head out and so some real exploring and maybe get a jumpstart on some shopping.