Monday dawned. The first day after the guys had arrived, and we were all amazingly hung over. Getting home at 5 or 6 in the morning after a 13 hour drinking session can do that to you, funnily enough. We ended up sleeping in until after midday and lazing around the apartment for most of the afternoon. Finally at around 5pm we decided we were in the right frame of mind to go out and see some sights, so I took the guys up to the subway station to travel across the river to Puxi.
We went for a walk along Nanjing Rd taking the obligatory photo here and there. Aside from having a quick look inside the flagship Nike store (complete with design-your-own-shoe area), we were far too lazy to stop in and explore any of the other stores. We were approached by someone trying to sell us a watch or DVDs every minute or so, but it was fun for the guys to experience it for the first time. We decided not to indulge in any of the offers, and instead just meandered down the road taking everything in.
We had a meal at one of the restaurants along the road after being approached by a guy asking if we were looking for a meal - actually, it was a coffee place with a reasonably westernised version of Chinese food, but it was still pretty tasty (aside from the spring rolls which seemed to have a chocolatey-type substance inside them). I remember that it was amazingly hot inside that place, which was probably for two reasons: 1 - we were still very hung over, and 2 - we sat very close to the neon sign that advertised their presence on Nanjing Rd.
After leaving the restaurant we wandered further down Nanjing Rd and onto The Bund where we took a few more photos of the great Pudong skyline. We walked almost all the way down to the Old Town area before organising a taxi to get back to the apartment. We were heading for an early night, and spent a little time with the Lonely Planet Guide to Shanghai so that the boys could plan what they wanted to do the next day.
The guys spent most of Tuesday wandering around the Old Town area while I was at work. We caught up for dinner, and I decided to show them my favourite meal - hot pot. We caught a taxi as the guys were sick of walking, and made a quick stop at the DVD store that I've been to previously. Shotty bought about 20 DVDs to take back (Cookie was a bit pickier as he'd seen pretty much everything they had), and we caught another quick taxi to the Little Sheep hot pot restaurant.
It was the first time I'd ever been to have hot pot without one of my Chinese co-workers with me to order everything. Luckily they had an English menu version (the standard one is all Chinese text with no photos) so I proceeded to order up a storm on behalf of the three of us. The guys left it completely in my hands as they had no idea what they were getting in for, and initially it looked like I'd stuffed things up completely. The amount of food that came out was extremely daunting - lamb, beef, potatoes, noodles, bean shoots - it just kept coming! Unperturbed, we ordered some Chinese beer (somehow managed to convey the fact that I wanted it to be cold even though I don't know the Chinese word for 'cold') and tucked in.
We must have stayed there for more than 2 hours, and drank a couple of litres of beer each during that time, but we got through all the food. We waddled home afterwards and lay around groaning and holding our bellies. The guys were extremely impressed with the amount of food and beer we consumed considering the price we paid ($AUS22 each), and Shotty rated it as one of the best things he's ever eaten. Another convert to the hot pot cause!
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