What a whirlwind of a month it’s been. Tomorrow, I’ll be on a flight to Chicago,
time travelling my way back to the US.
I’ve enjoyed you, Shanghai, but I’m ready to go home.
The past 5 days have been a bit wild, but here goes. Wednesday night started off on the 92nd floor
of the Shanghai World Financial Center drinking free Champagne. The view was amazing, the music was good and
the dancing was fun, but the free champagne stopped at 10, so it was off to hit
up some other Ladies Night deals around Shanghai. Unsurprisingly, we decided free Margaritas at
Zapatas were in order, and still likely a bit punch-drunk from our trip to
Beijing, we wrangled ourselves a van and haggled ourselves a good price. That poor man really didn’t know what he had
gotten himself into. Courtney, Lauren
and I serenaded him with “I like big butts” and then Alice and Toni jumped in
with an Australian folk song (Waltzing Matilda, if I’m not mistaken), followed
by their national anthem. Not to be
outdone, Courtney and I performed what must have been the world’s worst
rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.
Tomcats caterwauling in alleyways have sounded more appealing.
After an appropriate amount of dancing at Zapatas and
somewhere in the vicinity of 3 margaritas, we were off again, this time to
M2. This time, we grabbed a regular cab,
once more haggling our fare in order to get 5 of us into the cab’s 4
seats.
The night ended with Alice, Courtney and I in
McDonald’s. Courtney gave all of her
coins to a little boy and his grandma, and I tried to give a little kid who was
peddling fake flowers a French fry instead of money. She just ended up looking confused and
possibly a little disturbed as she went off to sell her wares elsewhere.
The next day was considerably quieter, with Alice and I
opting to do dinner at TianZiFang. Let
me just say, it was a fantastic decision.
We went to a Balinese restaurant, which had fantastic food paired with a
great atmosphere. After dinner, we hit
up a club called Glo, which was having free Mojitos until 11. We were worried that they would be terrible,
but that Mojito was, quite possibly, the best Mojito I’ve ever had. I’m pretty sad I’ll never get to go there for
another one while I’m here.
Friday was a big night out, and really our first since
arriving in Shanghai, since we’ve travelled every other weekend. We went out to a place called Mural, which
was offering a deal of 100rmb (about $15) for all you could drink. Oh dear.
Never a good thing. Shots and
Mixed drinks were flowing freely, and at one point every one of us had two
drinks in our hands. The bar itself was
fashioned to look like a cave, and was really quite pretty. The music had been plucked straight out of
the 1970’s, which was weird, but a nice reprieve from the loud, frantic pop
anthems of the clubs (and pretty much everywhere else in Shanghai, I think
there’s a set playlist that is passed out to all of the bars and clubs).
There was much dancing on stage, although Alice and I
managed to lose Toni, Lauren and Courtney after awhile. No matter, though, two of us were enough to
get home, and we were having a fun time dancing with a Czech guy who was even
cheesier than us (and if you’ve ever seen me dance, that’s a FEAT.) By around 2:30, the club was thinning out,
and Alice and I went out to find somewhere else or maybe go home. We ended up eating some street food and then,
because Alice bought the most firey Chili I’ve ever tasted, going to a club for
a quick drink. It turned out to be a
super weird club, with girls dressed in gold studded outfits dancing on
platforms (but you couldn’t take pictures of them). We stayed for as long as it took to finish a
beer and then high-tailed it out of there.
By the time we got back to the room it was nearly 4, so we opted to stay
up and watch the opening ceremonies.
I will preface this by saying I have not had the opportunity
to watch the ceremony at a reasonable hour, in English and without alcohol in
my system, but it was really bad. It
felt a little frantic and extremely over the top. A lot of it didn’t make sense. Bad vibes were everywhere. When the sun came up at 5, we decided to
abandon the ceremony and turn in.
Saturday, I visited the Yuyuan Gardens, which are, like the
Summer Palace in Beijing, a great escape right in the middle of the city. The gardens were stunning and peaceful
(despite the hoardes of other tourists) and thoroughly enjoyable.
I also discovered “the noodle man” on Saturday. This noodle man sets up shop right near our
apartment, with 5 different noodle styles, spices, veggies and a hot wok on his
cart. Getting the noodles is a long
process, because the man is a master and the line is long. I was finally able to pay, pointing at the
noodles I wanted, but he was still in the process of cooking a few other orders. When I knew it was my turn, a girl tried to
push in and order. However, the noodle
man was fair and told her “no, it’s the laowai’s
turn.” (Or some approximation of that,
he shook his head and I heard “laowai”.) The noodles were worth the wait. I actually think they’re the best noodles
I’ve ever had.
 |
| The master at work. |
On Sunday, the five of us participated in “The Crazy
Race.” The race had a number of tasks
that involved making a fool of ourselves around town. One task was “get a picture of you playing
rock, paper scissors with a local child under 12.” Well, two crying children later, we finally
found one. However, I did feel kind of
bad about striking terror into the hearts of two young Chinese children. We would say hello, ask the parents for a
picture, and then the parents would try to shove the kid at us while the kid
shook in terror or tried to run. I guess
we really are “frightening foreigners.”
All in all it was a fun day, and I can’t wait to get my hands on
Courtney’s copies of the photos (she had the “team camera”). After the race, we all convened at a sports
bar, where the winners were announced and the drinks were on sale. Unfortunately, we came 4th, but it was still
a good time. I think, however, the
highlight of my night came when Alice, Ingrid and I were outside (Alice and I
barefoot), coming back from the convenience store. One of the guys we had met earlier in the
month was getting out of a cab in front of the apartments. He was alone, with a full shopping bag and a
half drunk beer. After his cab driver
opened Ingrid’s beer on the stone steps with some considerably impressive
skill, we talked with him a bit.
Everything he said was “we did this” or “we went here.” This was confusing, because he was
alone. He then showed us some panda gloves,
complete with big ole panda claws, that he bought at a market. The weird part? They were each sold separately! I’m not sure what you could do with one panda
hand, but apparently it’s a thing. I
then took a picture of him mauling Alice with them and we bid him and his
multiple personalities good night.
You’ve just got to love weird late-night encounters.
Yesterday was fairly quiet, but we did cocktails at the
Peninsula, which boasts one of the best views in Shanghai. We were sat on a terrace, with the Pearl
Tower lit up right behind us and Pudong’s skyline shining brilliantly around
it. Boats shining like Christmas lights
floated languidly down the river, presumably carrying nighttime dinner
revelers, and even a few stars came out to play.
 |
| Such a beautiful skyline - I'll miss that. |
Tonight we’re doing a swank dinner at M on the Bund,
probably followed by another cocktail at the Peninsula, and then it’s time to
think about going back to reality. Next
time I write will probably be from my couch in Knoxville, and while I have
thoroughly enjoyed by time here, I can’t wait to be sitting in my own apartment.
No comments:
Post a Comment