Spiced Wine, hot water bottles, and the Waldorf Astoria Long Bar

Meet Oliver Knapman. My British colleague, turned workmate, turned friend. This lovely photo of him was taken after a quite a long night of hanging out with friends, listening to live music, and drinking naturally infused ginger and

passion fruit rum, at the Rhumerie Bounty…a.k.a. pirate bar. Intent on adding some “culture” to our weekends, we planned in advance a “culture” day full of museums, art galleries, committed to seeing new bits of Shanghai. However…after a night like the one we had, starting off with brunch was essential. Brunch brought us down to Taikang lu, an area of back alleys, art galleries, restaurants, and shops. Wandering around the alleys after brunch got us a bit lost, but resulted in us happening upon this beach like bar/drink stand. Keeping in mind it was freeeezing, a glass of spiced wine sounded amazing on a lazy Sunday afternoon...and it was. As we took our seats, we were handed hot water bottles to place in our laps to keep us warm while sitting and sipping. What more could you ask for other than people watching, which consisted of watching tons of Asian tourists trying to balance their unnecessarily large cameras with unnecessarily large camera lenses, spiced wine, a bit of sun, and hot water bottles.

Leaving our hot water bottles behind, we found our way to the two museums, which were both closed. Figures. We did manage to go to 18Gallery on the Bund, which was showcasing Miss Van Twinkles solo show, consisting of canvasses of painted naked women, whose chests were all transformed into animals, food, weapons, more than you could imagine but…not my cup of tea. However, it did conveniently place us next to the Waldorf Astoria, which has just opened on the bund. Recreating a gentlemen’s club from the 19^th century, the hotel is gorgeous; art deco large ballrooms, original windows and doors….one of the most beautiful hotel interiors I have ever seen. We sat at the Long Bar, an exact representation of what used to be the longest bar in Asia and ordered ourselves Irish coffees while playing trivial pursuit. The Waldorf Astoria on the Bund to top off our Sunday Culture day….not a bad way to end the day.