Night at the Bon Bon

Last Friday my friend DLH held a belated birthday celebration at Club BonBon. For most of us it also happened to be our first night in town. I wasn't sure what to expect partying with my new friends. The combination of an open bar, B-Day celebration, and light weights doesn't usually mix well. For the record I'm now throwing myself into the "light weight" category. For years I've been in denial, but my friends in Chicago opened my eyes at my surprise going away party. Where I proceed to go from "0" to "sloppy" in 0.74 hrs.

Basically, BonBon has a one time cover of $120RMB. Once you pay the cover you’re entitled to an open bar. However your pretty much paying for what you get, which was cheap liquor and Carlsberg beer. If you want water of any kind or anything non-alcoholic that’s gonna cost you. And no you can’t order vodka orange w/o the vodka. The club scene in Shanghai (at least in BonBon) was pretty typical. It was about 50% local Chinese, 45% other Asians, and 5% other (i.e. Asian night). Roughly translates to lots of doe-eyed Asian girls. Which most of you all know, happens to be my kryptonite and generally spells disaster for me.

The club had some really cool table areas and a bathroom with a view that at the moment is kind of indescribable. There were 2 dance floors, 1 floor had a DJ playing hip/hop, the other floor had a DJ playing House. There was definitely a lot more table space than in the clubs back home. For the most part clubbing for the Chinese involves playing drinking games with a pair of dice. Judging by the disinterested looks on people’s faces it didn’t really look all that fun and there wasn’t nearly enough drinking.

On a side note getting a table can be a frustrating experience. In Asia it is perfectly acceptable to save one's (or a party of 8) seat whether in a club or library for 1- 2 hours with say a book or empty glass. Kind of like calling “5’s” or “seat back”.

Our initial group consisted of about 8-9 people. That lasted for about 1 toast, 10 minutes, and 2 pictures. All throughout the night random groups of people dropped in on us. The evening (the way I remembered it) ended early for the B-day boy who was out of commission after about 2 hours. My roommate and GO were toast after a few drinks and left early. I was still going strong and was rejuvenated by an influx of new friends, classmates, and strange women. I got a text message from SS @ 3ish. He was hurting and my Jedi mind tricks weren’t enough to convince him that he was ok. So we headed back to the dorm (su she). The next morning I woke up reeking of alcohol, smoke, and Asian girls.