Last night I went out with the guys I play basketball with to a club named Sin. It's one of the newer clubs in Shanghai having only opened about 6 months ago, and is one of the higher end places (being owned by the same guy that owns Barbarossa, which I think I've mentioned in this blog before). We booked a table for 6 at 9:30, and I caught the subway there after first going home from work and having some dinner.
The club was on the top floor of a building a few hundred metres away from the subway station. Initially I almost walked into a hotel which was right next door, as the markings weren't too obvious. While I was mulling over my choices I was approached by a guy on a bike asking me if I wanted pretty girl. Somewhat tempted to say yes to see what would happen, I politely declined and made my way into the correct building. I went up to the 23rd floor and was shown to our table, where only one of the guys was waiting for me - Sherwin. Sherwin's the youngest of the bunch, and is the only one of us that actually grew up in China. He had come straight from work, so still had his laptop bag with him. I mention that because it will feature later.
The other guys (Ben, Mike and Eric) rocked up at around 10pm. Initially the place was pretty quiet, but picked up quite nicely within the next hour. I was pretty happy with the place in general - good atmosphere, nice furniture, a place to dance, decent music - much better than some of the other clubs that I've been to over here. We had some problems to deal with however - the waiters were refusing to let us use the voucher that we had for a free bottle of vodka. It had been given to us a few weeks earlier by a promo girl at another establishment (Barbarossa), and was the only reason we'd actually decided to go to Sin in the first place. We asked for the bottle and showed the card to our waitress, who shook her head and said we couldn't use it. After a bit of questioning, we got her manager to come out who explained that since a big party was happening that evening, we weren't allowed to use the voucher. This was complete crap of course, and even if it was true, there were no conditions of use printed on the voucher - it was definitely valid. I think it was a bit of a bluff to try to get away from giving us a free bottle - not a great way to influence our opinions about the place? Luckily, Mike argued passionately for us, and after 5 minutes or so the manager relented and we got our bottle.
From there is was on to toasts, shots, and more toasts. We split the bottle of vodka between the five of us, had a few tequila and southern comfort with lime shots (they actually taste better than they sound), plus some other ones that I can't remember the names of. Before we knew it we were onto our second bottle of vodka. Another group had joined our little enclave and were sitting at the table next to ours - I heard an Aussie accent in there so went over to introduce myself...and found myself staring at three guys and their 5 accompanying...'ladies of the night'. Had a quick chat to the guy that I'd pegged as an Aussie (from Melbourne, been living in Shanghai for 4 years) before going back to my group.
By this time it was past 1am and Sherwin was looking a little average. He was slumped down in a chair with his jacket and laptop case over on the couch with the rest of us. We'd finished off the second bottle of vodka and someone decided to order some whisky for some reason. I protested and bought myself a few coronas at that point. By 2am we were ready to move onto the next place...but noone could find Sherwin. After looking for him for 20 minutes (noone had noticed him leaving), we realised that his jacket and laptop bag were still there, so I grabbed them and we went on our way.
The group split up at this point - Ben and Eric went home, but Mike and I and another of his friends that had shown up moved on to Mint. However, after getting past the door security (one of the few places in Shanghai where you need to have a table pre-booked or be on someone's list), we didn't stay very long. For one thing, it was absolutely packed, and for another, I was carrying my own jacket, Sherwin's jacket, and a laptop. It was not a good situation. After a single beer I decided to hit the road, and was home in bed by 3.
The next morning I awoke to find a few messages on my phone from Sherwin (his phone wasn't working the night before so we couldn't contact him that way). Turns out he had gone to the toilet...and fallen asleep in the cubicle! Classic. Anyway, he woke up at 3 and everyone had gone, and he didn't know what to do - so he went to another bar looking for us (we'd mentioned it as a possible alternative). Finally around 4 he gave up and went home, and then got in contact with me to see if I had his stuff. I handed it over to him at about 11am, and he looked extremely hungover, but very happy to get his stuff back. All in all, a great night out!
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