Bad directions

Sunday, September 5, 2010

• Coffee and muffin at café
• Walked towards synagogue, dad picked up a meat bun, we thought we might be lost and dad became certain that the map was of Beijing (it was Shanghai) so we called the synagogue for directions; we handed the mobile to the taxi driver and he started driving to the location; unfortunately, the woman on the phone didn’t understand that we wanted to synagogue and we ended up at the Jewish center, oops.
• Stopped in a nice supermarket (which had Coca light!) before getting on the metro to Jade Buddha Temple
• Taxi to Yang’s, a bun place recommended by Brock; 8 fried buns for only 10Y (less than $2), but it was hard to get a table; I eventually sat down next to some woman and they made room, had to push people out of the way
• No drinks at Yang’s, so we went to another restaurant for crab and shrimp buns (not as good)
• Walked along Nanjing; Hancity market where dad experiences the hawkers in full force
• Relaxed on a bench in Peoples Square Park
• Dinner at Zen in the French concession; delicious artistically presented food; met the owner after dinner

Funny story: When we got in the taxi to Yang’s we pointed to the place on the map. Dad decided to tell the taxi driver in Chinese that we were going to Yang’s restaurant.  Well, apparently he knew of a Yang’s in Shanghai and started driving in the wrong direction.  Then we tried to explain that we didn’t want to go to his Yang’s.  In the end we had to point to the map again to make it clear where he should take us.