SPICEGASM.COM My travel tales and food hunting

I’ve been to China a couple of times but it was to the southern part of China, namely Guangzhou. Never been to Shanghai but always wanted to go because of some documentaries that I saw on TV. Back in the old days, Shanghai was a free port and a lot of foreigners can go in and out of China. Many foreigners made Shanghai as their permanent home and you can still see the influence in some of the buildings.

My younger brother at that time was based in Shanghai and he invited me to come over for a visit. I accepted his invitation and told him that I will be bringing two friends from USA with me. He was given a really nice condo by the company he was working for and it’s located near the famous Shanghai Bund. I was really excited to be bringing two American to witness how awesome China has turned to now. Most of the American still thinks that China is under developed and backwards. My American friends were totally blown away to see how modern Shanghai really is.

I have to admit for a 100% free accommodation, my brother’s pad totally kicked ass. It is a spacious 2 bedroom condo with a balcony view of Shanghai Bund. Sleeping arrangement was easy as Alfred decided to take the couch, Zach was given the guest room (Alfred and Zach didn’t want to share the same bed as they worried they might ended up SPOONING. For more details about spooning click here). I shared the master bedroom with my brother. The weather was in perfect condition as it was spring at that time. Day time was cooling but at night it can get really cold.

My brother did not have an extra blanket for Alfred but Zach was gentleman enough to pass his blanket to Alfred since he said he got the guest bedroom and Alfred got the couch. Zach did mention that his hometown is way colder and he could probably handle the cold. But every morning when we woke up and went to Zach’s room, you can see him dressed in his sweater, jeans and socks, wrapped in the bed sheet like a cocoon. So much for handling the cold Zach!

The living room – we spent a lot of time here going online and watching DVDs at the same time.

The balcony view and you can see Shanghai Bund from here, how cool is that. Sometimes at night there’s firework display.

We did a little bit of sight seeing but me and Zach tend to avoid touristy places. Alfred on the other hand was more into sight seeing and he went to quite a few places taking pictures and being a tourist. As for me and Zach, we normally just chilled in the living room in the daytime and went out at night to pubs to get buzz. We enjoyed those cheap Tsingtao beers with the local delicacies.

Some iconic buildings of Shanghai, I can’t remember the names though.

This building I can remember because Shanghai people call it the Bottle Opener Building. Easy to remember as me and Zach uses bottle opener a lot in our daily life. ( Pictures courtesy of Alfred )

We were invited to my brother’s colleague birthday party at Hooters Shanghai. I have to admit that this place totally rock from 3pm – 6pm as it is happy hours and the beer is one for one. So you have beer and pretty Chinese girls in sexy outfits, how can it go wrong! The Hooter girls are very friendly and they did some special dances and songs for the birthday celebrant. Most of them speak Engrish, I mean English but still have a little bit of accent. We are not complaining though. I love the way they shouted the word SURPRISE and the gif below will illustrate exactly how it sounded.

THIS IS HOW THE HOOTER GIRLS IN SHANGHAI PRONOUNCED THE WORD SURPRISE.

Zach and Alfred enjoying the birthday party in Hooters Shanghai with hot Chinese Hooter Girls at the background.

It was one of the best trips that I’ve made so far and my two American friends shared the same sentiments. Until today we still talked about how we enjoyed Shanghai and would love to make a trip again soon. We decided to go only when either one of us is celebrating our birthday while we are there. We just want to be SURPRISE again