We love travel disaster part II

I wonder if I should call it 'disaster', it kind of makes it sound like we suffered through an earthquake or a tsunami or something.

And for those inquiring, yes, Ira did blow his top, and I'll get to that in a bit.

I wanted to talk a little about our celebrity status in Beijing.
The Chinese were nuts over us. They were like paparazzi and we were like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt with the kids. (Yes I am darn cute as her and Ira might be able to pass for Brad.) We would walk down the street and people would literally stop walking in their tracks to stare. Some would stop and ask us to take pictures with them. A group would form. Then the group grew larger.
Before I knew it, 15 minutes of smiling like a dork for pictures goes by and there is a large crowd of grinning Chinese people herding us together for photos, and you finally just have to say "sorry everybody, no more photos, we have to go, so sorry."

This happened everywhere. Day one, I must admit, it was kind of nice. It made me feel pretty special, and I did a few times in my own head pretend I was a movie star, I mean why not, like this will ever happen again in my lifetime? Where the heck will I have this almost celebrity status again?

No where. But it wore off quickly and became very annoying. And this isn't even with obnoxious photographers right up in your face trying to get that $10,000 People magazine cover shot. Finally we had to just start waving people away, nodding and apologizing. I did see a few snapping shots from afar, which didn't bother me.A small group forms, enchanted with baby: the guy smiling in front is counting how many kids we have

it growsIra discussing money for photos

The kids loved it all, never tired of it. Can you make out Joe's expression?
Again, from Michigan, 4 kids isn't that many. I sort of felt as if I was walking around with 10 kids the way they made such a deal of it.

Ok, off to the Beijing Night Market.
A few blocks of a busy sidewalk street crammed with various food vendors, lots of action, and interesting things to eat.



















how about a scorpion
Ira was ready to gnaw on one of these fellas but chickened at the last sec

looks like something from a nightmarenow this was great. sauteed chicken with fresh beansprouts in a realllly tasty sauce. Boring but deelish

Ira and I went out for dinner one night and unfortunately I didn't have my camera to take a photo of the menu. It was hilarious. Some of the funniest entrees listed:

Braised Bullfrog in tube-shaped container
Spicy duckblood & intestines in chili oil
Steamed object with crisp splendid elbow
Fried waist pieces with fresh bunge prickly ash
Boiled peacock
Fried cowboy bone France style
Boiled fish's lip in sauce
Boiled turtle water chestnut paste with clam
Spicy beeflung
Shredded pork maw
Chicken stomach in pot
Braised goosefeet & wisdom mushrooms with abalone sauce
Braised pig's intestines with preserved mustard cabbage

We had nothing that extreme.
Off to bed. Will get the 3rd and final disaster chapter with the blowout asap. night.

Ira here...our celebrity status was the result of a few factors. First, the Chinese still don't see that many foreigners with kids. Especially those Chinese from the provinces. I suspect many of those fascinated by us were from outside Beijing. They were at the same tourist spots we were and probably were there for the first time. So in a sense we were a tourist attraction for them. Second, the Chinese are limited to having just one kid per family, so seeing a troop like ours is unusual. Lastly, we've got some blonde hair going with our kids - we get similar reactions here in Japan and on our summer holiday in SE Asia - they just don't have many pink-skinned, blue-eyed, blonde children around here.

Last time I was here on business was 1998 and I was with a colleague who drew a lot of attention - he was black and 6 foot 5. Everyone asked him if he was a professional basketball player. Lots of locals asked us to pose for photos with them. I tried to get him to be like me - blend in and not look so much like a tourist - but he couldn't quite get the hang of it...