OK, so we had nothing to loose, and went out today to really explore Beijing. Having been in the same city the whole time, we wanted to dive into some more remote parts of Beijing. So, naturally, we went to Starbucks. There's this small lake, with a bunch of great restaurants and bars around it, and Starbucks has prime realestate.

We walked all around the lake, and found a huge bookstore with English books. Bec found some novels and we bought a Lonely Planet travel book for SE Asia. On our way home we found a wild alley full of crazy food, people, and things to buy. First on the list was fried Scorpion, Sea Horse, and Starfish. We passed on that, but couldn't resist the fried corn on the cob and Octopus fried into corn bread balls. Love 'em.

When we got back to the hostel, we had dinner with our new roommate, Harry, in the Houtong (neighborhood) at a small street restaurant that served donkey meat, dog, and God knows what else. We orded egg plant. Ha! Harry proved quite the conversationalist and made our travels look trivial at best. A Melbourne native, he's traveled extensively across Asia, and has lived in Japan for the past 5 years. I mean not too many people can claim they've eaten fresh fox lungs from a mongol nomad. Crazy.

Well, it's off to Thailand from here. zai jen Beijin (so long).

- Matt and Bec