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Shanghai nights


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No not the (bad) Jackie Chan movie. The latest on this way cool city.

 

OK, I am a Shanghai virgin -- the best I've done is a few trips to a customer in Pudong (a suburb 50Km outside of Shanghai) over my time in Asia. But I had a very good and trusted tour guide: Jelly & his gal Happy. First impressions are cool in that this is -- despite the economy -- a vibrant city, working, focused, growing, beautiful in a colourful, computer-controlled LED lighting, architecturally eclectic sort of way. Cutting edge. That always appeals, so I felt right at home. Plus a sense of the historical, and that appeals too.

 

This was a chance to renew old acquaintances among professional expats; we all knew each other in another life in Bangkok (Jelly, Happy & the Doc). But are still fast friends. We kicked off at 1700 at Jelly & Happy's cool apartment in the heart of the city, having finger foods and drinkies while we awaited the proper time to alight to a scheduled wine tasting.

 

The wine tasting was in a place called Kakadu (#8 Middle Jianguo Lu, ph: 5468-0118), in a lovely neighbourhood just on the edge of the old French Quarter. Beautiful huge old homes around there. The place was smallish, at least the bar area. But comfy enough, with nice decor. The main focal point was the cool integration of the fish tank with the liquor shelves. Sweet. Video

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In addition to the great reviews in the link above, we also agreed it was top rate. Great food, at least the canapés they served us. J & H declared that they'd be back for a full meal, with a report to follow. So if you go to Shanghai, remember this place!

 

 

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Tho' we disagreed upon which wine was best, they all were good. Pretty much can't go wrong with a bottle of Lehmann IMHO, for drinkability. And the Peter Lehmann rep from Oz was pretty cool, regaling us with plenty of stories. He invited me to meet up with him at the Dusit Thani in Bangkok in March for a big wine tasting event sponsored by Central Cellars. Will be there for sure!

 

They also had these neat vodkas infused with local herbs. The bartender made Happy a cocktail with one. We think it was lemongrass leaves. Whatever, it was a slightly sweet and moreso sour lemony martini drink that was very yummy.

 

 

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So off to the Chiang Mai resto (1019 Kangding Lu, near Wuningnan Lu, ph: 5528-1588), as was mentioned. Fun to watch it turn into an Issan village from a normal middle class restaurant in a foreign country! Good food, a bunch of friendly folks, and walking distance to both H & J's apartment and the hotel where I stayed (Swissotel Grand Shanghai -- an excellent deal at Y595/night, booked online). Chian Mai is highly recommended if you are in Shanghai and looking for a decent Thai meal (I thought the food *more* than good for a resto outside of LoS). But remember that the staff (save the kitchen staff) are all Chinese, so won't understand Thai! Ask for K. Tod (the owner) if you want to order off the menu.

 

Happy wandered off with the girls to get into girlie trouble LOL, and Jelly took Doc & I to the infamous Tongren Lu. This is a street with many bars, and the area we went to was like the Patpong of the street (south & east of the Nanking intersection). A building, maybe 200M long, with a couple of dozen "adult" bars. Each with a slightly varying theme: live music, Philippina, katoey, etc.

 

The bars we visited were all quite crowded, think the old Thermae (as Dan observed) or the early days of the Grace coffee shop.

 

I love it, tho' I was terribly tired so not totally on my game. And anyone who thinks Bangkok has high pressure touts & whores ain't seen nothing. But all good fun. Jelly took us to the katoey bar, Studio 78, first. LOL! Maybe 50-60% of the "gals" here were not gals. But there were some. And they would attach themselves to you like a suckerfish. As usual, just ignore them and they go away. Or chat 'em up if they appeal. Am told that the going rate is ~Y800/LT (that's ~B4200 or ~US$115).

 

 

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One drink there, watch some gals (pretty sure they were) pole dancing there, and we were off. To the Flippa bar, Woodstock (or was it Night Shift?). This was packed wall-to-wall and rocking. But for some reason, the waitstaff thought we were important and asked if we wanted a table. I said sure. So they bash their way through the crowd, find a table, kick the people out that were there, and gave it to us LOL! No idea why, but who cares. Drinks were what seemed to be a near universal price of Y45/ea everywhere we went.

 

 

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Jelly found a few Flips. So did the Doc. I fell in love with the very beautiful -- but icy cold-n-hard -- Jennifer from Tsingtao. So now there's two things I like about that place. Ms Jennifer and the beer. A few other gals tried to divert my attention, but I really wasn't interested in them.

 

After a few, we left. And that was a story in itself. So here goes:

 

It's 0230 or so. Taxis queued outside, mobs of freelancers waiting to pounce. And pounce they did. Shouting things from a bad Western movies about Asia: "suckee-fuckee good" "I ruv you" "fuck me Charlie" "fuck my ass" etc.

 

It was surreal.

 

Doc gets into a taxi. Some broad gets into it on the other side. We drag her out. It happens again. The taxi finally drives away, only to get stopped by traffic. Another gal jumps into the front seat so we run up to it and drag her out too! Unreal.

 

Jelly and I start to walk home (only Doc was a taxi ride away) and I am immediately accosted by six or more whores, grabbing my package, face, and everything else they could. I've seen this before, so I go for my pockets to try to stop them from lifting anything. Too late. Some of the bitches found my cash. So I got rolled for Y500ish. Mai pen wry. Can't do anything about it now. But they did not get my phone, camera or wallet with credit cards, so it's OK.

 

The little bastard street urchins were no better, with a couple following us almost all the way to my hotel (two blocks). Like Cambodia used (still is?) to be in the Angkor Wat area 10 years ago. Annoying, but harmless.

 

The following day, I walked back to the area today to take a couple of pix and get some exercise. There were street touts there selling knock-off Mont Blanc pens and various watches. Amazing how cheap they were. They guys got down to offering me 10 pens for Y100, or the best one: six watched and two pens for Y100! Imagine what deal I could have gotten had I bargained LOL!

 

But I caved, and bought the 10 pens. Damn persistent blokes, but friendly, funny, and harmless enough. Fun, actually.

 

Thanks again J & H. I can see coming over for a few days before I need to go visit my customer to have some more fun there. And I'll certainly bring Vampirella so she and her mate Happy can go have an expat-wifey/Thai girlie fun time (ya, I know that'll cost me, but that's OK, the ROI is worth it LOL).

 

Cheers,

SD

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Good report SD. :thumbup: Just surprised that you included that picture of you and your ample gut twice! :neener::cover:

Thanks, but I was behind the lens on that shot!

 

Not sure why two of the pix were included at the end and inline with the story :dunno:

 

Cheers,

SD

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