Pirate Hooker Party Bus

On Tuesday, Court L and I went out to dinner with one of her friends, Andy, and Andy’s roommate, Jobin. We went to a little Mexican restaurant in Hong Qiao that was nothing special but all of the food was half off and margaritas were buy one get one free. Andy is English and Jobin is German, and they were both really fun. Court and I had a blast, and before we knew it we were a couple margaritas deep and buzzed on a school night. We didn’t have time to finish our last free margarita, so we go it to go and drank them in the taxi – that is one of the fabulous things about China, no laws about drinking and riding. Anyway, Andy and Jobin invited us to come join them on a party bus on Friday night for Jobin’s final farewell (he is moving back to Germany in a week).

We were totally excited for the party bus because none of us had ever been on one in Shanghai, and we are always looking to meet new, fun people. Unfortunately, Andy decided to tell us 20 minutes before we had to leave for the bus that it was Pirate themed and that everyone was dressing up. I was so upset! I would have loved to go all out for a Pirate theme, but we didn’t have time. Andy did manage to get us some bandanas and a couple eye patches so we were not completely lame…

We started at Andy’s apartment, and had a couple drinks and some pizza before heading to the first bar. The first bar was a pretty cool pub, and that is where we signed in and paid for the party bus. Only 200RMB got us into all of the bars, an hour of open bar at the first pub, shots on the bus, shots at each bar and an hour of KTV- all of that for less than 30USD a person.

There were about 20 people going. Most of which were Andy’s roommates and other expats from his apartment complex. Everyone was really awesome. The best thing about Shanghai is all of the diversity, so there were people from Germany, France, California, Wisconsin, Great Britain, and Arizona and so on. And of course, can’t forget about Bruce… Bruce is a big blow up shark pool float and he is a PARTY ANIMAL! He stays at Andy’s apartment, but he goes on all of the party buses with them & even goes into the bars. For the Pirate theme, Bruce was wearing an eye patch, a hook, and a pirate hat! It was absolutely hilarious and I must admit that I became very fond of Bruce throughout the night.

So the first pub was great and an hour of open bar pretty much set me up for success for the rest of the night. I probably had at least 7 drinks and a couple shots before we piled into the bus headed for the second bar. Bar number two was a neat and they made all of their own rum, so I actually bought a drink there – delish! After that, bar number three was a local, hole in the wall basement bar called C’s. They greeted us at the door with shots of tequila. We did not spend a lot of time there because we were running late for KTV, so we piled back onto the bus.

The bus rides of course were a blast! We had music and drinks and we were all dancing and singing, just having a great time! Everyone was so much fun, too!

KTV is amazing! It is a Karaoke bar and they are HUGE in Shanghai. Do not let me fool you, it is not just a bar with Karaoke, it is a bar with a bunch of individual rooms, each set up with its own karaoke – huge flat screen TV, a computer for picking songs, a couple mics, musical instruments, and a bunch of tables and sofas for dancing or sitting on. This was probably my favorite stop. They have songs in both English and Chinese and I sung my little heart out and danced on all the tables. I would have stayed there all night long, but there was one last stop on our journey… Ba Shi Ba (club “88”)

Ba Shi Ba is supposed to be one of the best dance clubs in Shanghai, so I was kind of excited when I found out we were going there. It is supposed to be so much fun and it is so highly regarded… but let me tell you, I hated it! It was beautiful walking in. It kind of looked like we were going into a really fancy hotel or something. Inside, however, they were really rude at the coat check, and then they had a security guard and metal detector to talk through. The security guard went through my purse and made me throw away the unopened bottle of Propel I had just bought. Once through security, it was jam packed with Asians. It was incredibly hot and smoky. It smelled horrible, the music was terribly loud and Chinese and it was so crowded that you couldn’t move. It was all Chinese people too.

By the time we got to Ba Shi Ba it was nearly 3:00 am and Court and I had lost everyone as soon as we got into the club. We ended up finding the other Court and Andy and decided to leave. The club was really disappointing and to be honest, a little scary because there were so many people jammed into one bar, but overall, the Party bus was awesome! I can’t wait to do it again!