Tuesday i decided to play hooky and yachi and i went to the pearl market so that she could see this pearl place for herself.

when we got there it was right around lunch time and i knew that they served Chinese pizzas somewhere around the market as i had seen someone eating them last time we were there.

we decided to grab one before going in so yachi could taste this magnificent food. We ended up wandering around the hutongs though trying to find this pizza stall and then trying to find our way back.

that is where we found the picture above, i think he is saying step off before i have to wear your ass out with this bat. i would argue that this is a more effective approach than dog inside signs you see in the states. The idea of someone coming at me with a bat frightens me a little more than a dog.

here is another random picture in the hutong. i am not quite sure what it was but it was interesting seeing English and such random English at that.

one funny thing about the hutong was the interest of the people in there. yachi being Asian and me being Caucasian draws a decent amount of attention everywhere we go but the amount of interest we sparked in the hutong residents was amazing. i am guessing that they are still talking about seeing us right now.

we finally gave up on finding the pizza place and almost gave up on finding our way back to the market. Of course just like that saying If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it's, well, broken. So as soon as we stopped looking for pizza we found it and i must say it is the best i have had so far.

after the pizza we actually went into the market and went down to the basement which i had never been to. The basement is a fish market so there were tons of fishes, turtles and eels. The reason i have no pictures of this area was because my hands were firmly lodged in my jacket with my fingers frozen around various items. The eels were still petrifying but i should be able to take a picture next time... Maybe.

there were also the more interesting deep fried skewers (scorpions, starfish, grasshoppers, ...). We did not try any though as we pretty much flew through the floor.

we bought a couple of handbags as well. It was interesting seeing how that works. You walk past a backpack stall and the women working there offer you a binder that has pictures of everything they offer. The actual goods are hidden behind the backpacks.

we bought a nice fake Gucci for one of yachi's friends. yachi picked it out and i bargained for it. i had explained the whole bargaining exchange to yachi but after about 30 seconds into it she was laughing so hard that she ended up leaving. Basically it goes price, counter offer from me which is referred to as "joke price" than a brief discussion on what currency we are talking about than whether i live in Beijing than many many offers about price.

i was happy as i thought i bargained pretty hard and got a good deal until after i gave the woman the money. She gave me the special needs compliment (oh you are a very good bargainer). If i really was a good bargainer she would not have said anything. Although i did get the bag for about 20% of the original asking price.

after that we bought a random fabric bag for yachi which was much easier although still as funny to yachi. Then it was up to sandy's on the fourth floor to look at pearls for a friend. After deciding on a potential pearl for him, yachi started talking earrings with the woman and she started making them for her right there. It was pretty cool to watch this. yachi would sketch something and suggest some colors. The woman would then make it in about 5-10 minutes.

we then decided to check out the fakes market better known as the silk market. i needed a jacket to wear around. i brought my zegna jacket as a spring jacket but i refuse to subject it to Beijing weather. So i was in the market for something cheap and light.

on the way there we walked past my feminine alter ego's restaurant. It is truly a feel fine establishment.

since i did not really care about the jacket i started off looking primarily at ferrari and BMW f1 jackets. How cool would that be if i had one of them, unfortunately they are pretty small but someone is getting one as a present.

i ended up finding a north fake in my size that i was able to bargain from 1880 down to 180. Before you think i am a great bargainer i would remind you that they just start with a ridiculous amount for the 1 in a 100 person who will pay it. i probably could have gotten her down to 160 but i was bargaining for about 20 minutes and starting to get light headed. Her voice would have given out soon as she was screaming at me how i was robbing her.

one of my favorite tactics by the salespeople (women really as there are very few male salespeople) is the "other for that price" tactic. Basically whatever offer you make would be fine to buy this other item in the stall because it is off lower quality. The good thing about that for me is that only about 2 things in any given stall fit me so i can say "gee i would buy that for that price but you only have this in my size".

we also ended up buying a shirt for yachi and some presents for people back home. The presents we bought from the unbargainable woman. There are a couple of them and it is alternately refreshing and frustrating. Refreshing because it is so much easier to buy things but frustrating because the price is always a little high.

after the silk market we headed to the oriental plaza mall and south beauty. i am starting to think that might be my favorite nice Chinese restaurant. After dinner though we wandered around the mall some and came across these mannequins. Obviously they are nice and well cared for unlike the ones earlier that were on the street but something about the mall environment made them a little crazy as you can tell by their expressions.

we also wandered around the hutong area outside the mall where we found this mannequin. a lady of the night looking to make rent by luring other mannequins in. sorry for the dark picture but i did not want to use the flash and scare her away.

after wandering around the hutong we finally found a place where we could grab a cab and headed to bodhi for the second time in three days. This time we got a foot massage and for the first time i really enjoyed it. Even the foot part of it. Before they had been a little too heavy on the pressure points in the foot but this time was great. Number 13 is my new favorite masseuse.

after yachi pulled her feet out of the tub the guy told her that she needed a pedicure before the massage and brought in a lamp and a straight razor. After a strict admonishment to not move he went at her feet with the razor for a while cutting off all the callouses. It was gross but interesting to watch, kind of like faces of death with no blood or people dying. From there it was back home.