Bye Bye Beijing

Thursday, I (Leanne) had to fly solo. Patti was really sick and stayed in bed most of the day. I wanted to see the China Art Museum and headed for the subway. It was a little odd to be by myself, but I'm a big girl.

The art museum was beautiful -- 3 big exhibitions -- and a day in the peace and quiet of the museum was a nice antidote for the relentless pace of the city. I also stopped by the Lama temple - the biggest Buddhist temple in Beijing -- but it sort of made me mad that they didn't pay any sort of tribute to the Dalai Lama, and I left.

Friday was kind of a rest day. Patti tried to a session, but was told "He no come." The session leader didn't know up. Leanne and Barbara went shopping again, for the last few gifts for friends and family.

Our last outing is the Peking opera. We had to leave at 6:00 for the 7:30 concert because Friday night traffic in Bejing is awful. We took a bus to a hotel, which seemed like an odd venue for the opera, but this hotel has a pretty big theatre in it. We were seated at tables right in front -- dead center, just in front of the stage. On the table are some snacks and tea. How lovely, except it was jasmine tea which Patti doensn't  like.

The opera started and its just as unusual as we thought it would be... but more entertaining than we thought. The snacks were weird but good. The opera lasted an hour and half and we piled back on the bus.Back to the hotel and to pack all that stuff the Hey Lady people sold us. We had to buy an extra suitcase for all the stuff.

It's after midnight, our bags are packed, and we have a 5am wakeup call. Time to come home. We'll post more pictures and video when we get home and recuperate a bit. Its been fun to know you all were enjoying our adventure too.

So bye bye from Bejing. See you back in the States!