Day 16 ~ Week ending June 30

We spend Sunday and Monday in Shanghai.  We went to Din Tai Fung.  They served the best dumplings and fried rice I have every tasted.  Jeffrey and his wife Rita (from DLG) were the hosts.  Between the nine of us we ate about ten baskets of dumplings.  The also had the most delicious fresh apple juice.

On Tuesday, I met Donn, Dave, Stewart, and Lim for lunch at the Food Loft Restaurant at In City Mall.  We ordered Laska soup which I really enjoyed.  It had shrimp, rice noodles, bean sprouts, tofu, fish cakes and boiled eggs all in a delicious broth.   Mine was plenty spicy, but most of the guys added the extra spice to theirs.  Donn, of course, wasn’t a fan because it had shellfish in, but I thought it was delicious. It is more a Singaporean soup than a Chinese soup.

I just got back home when I got a text from a lady in my ward named Lee Preston.  She had agreed to take me shopping to kind of show me the ropes and the brands of things that they have found to be good.  She wanted to meet at In City Mall so I decided that I would try the green bikes by myself.  I had no problems getting there, even though I overshot it by a block.  Getting home was a little different and I started to panic and wonder how I would ever get back to the Courtyard Marriott.  My stress level had grown quite high when I spotted the Rainbow sign.  Once I saw that I knew exactly how to get back to the hotel.

Lessons I learned today:  Don’t pick a bike that doesn’t have the seat raised up for a regular-sized person.  Lesson two:  Don’t wear skinny jeans when you are going to be riding a bicycle.  I had a really, really hard time pedaling.  (Note to readers:  I learned that the seats are adjustable and now I can wear anything.)

On Tuesday Lim invited us to come and play badminton with him and his friends.  Since Donn and I are quite athletic, we thought "fun".  These people here are very good.  We had fun and just smiled at all of our mistakes.  We picked up some racquets at the Shanghai Market and will be practicing.  It was actually fun and very good exercise. 

On Wednesday Jace Stoker took us to a fun food place.  We discovered these yummy dumplings that have sausage and a hot soup inside.   I bit into one and had the hot soup squirt out and burn my lip.  I had a huge blister for over a week.  These four buns are only 5 Yuan. This is less than $1.  What a great place for a quick snack.  They also have delicious fruit smoothies for 9 Yuan.



Saturday morning was our scheduled trip to Tiger Hill.  We rode the subway as far as we could and then hopped into a taxi for the rest of the trip.  It was very high humidity that day, but it was still enjoyable.  

Just outside of Tiger Hill

You can see the huge pagoda in the back.

The history of the Pagoda