2010 - Day 7 - Sam and I find the worst bar in Shanghai

Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2010 4:21 AM

Subject: Day 7

Today we are seeing two Chinese customers and have to leave the hotel by 8:00 – Larry is driving and I must say, he drives worse than most in this city – and that is saying something.  The first customer is probably 25 miles away and in that distance he stopped not once but twice on the highway, in a middle lane when he nearly missed his exit, car horns honking and cars whizzing by on both sides, and moving to the exit once he had caused a sufficient backup behind him.  I just closed my eyes.  The meetings were OK, lunch afterwards was OK too – Hunan style food – very hot and spicy, and some beer (Sam and I already decided we were not going into the Shanghai office after lunch).  Larry suggested a “local beer” which turned out to be a Japanese beer that they happen to brew in Shanghai – he just does not get it sometimes.  The most memorable dish from lunch was miniature shrimp with hot peppers and onions.  As usual, the shrimp was served head, shell and all and the only way to eat these tiny ones was whole.  It tasted like shrimp, but the thought of eating the heads did not appeal to me at all.  Oh well…

The worst bar in Shanghai

Sam and I were on our own for dinner (thankfully).  We went to the hibachi place and ordered for ourselves this time.  Dinner was good, except the staff of too many people hovered over us way too much.  When ordering, no less than three people stood right behind us leaning over our shoulders making suggestions.

After dinner we went looking for some entertainment.  We asked the concierge at the hotel for suggestions which turned out to be all bad – he spoke little English – he sent us to shopping areas.  We wandered about for a while and wound up in a real dive bar called Goodfella’s run by a creepy old Chinese woman who made sure to tell us she was a lesbian and that she would call some girls for us if we wanted – we didn’t.  We finished our beers, left, and took a taxi back to the hotel.  Maybe better luck tomorrow night.