Oktoberfest In Shanghai

[DISCLAIMER: I NEED TO EXTEND A WARNING AND APOLOGIES TO ANY OF TOM BRAMER'S FAMILY AND CO-WORKERS WHO WILL BE SHOCKED BY THIS ENTRY'S PICTURES AND VIDEOS. IT ONLY HAPPENS ABOUT ONCE A YEAR. NO NEED FOR AN INTERVENTION!]

Ah, you know that fall has arrived in Shanghai when the Lederhosen and Schnitzel arrive! Wait, is this Munich? No, of course it is Shanghai. The Holiday Inn Pudong was host to a wonderful event, lasting 10 days this year. Tom had attended the event last year as it occurred during on of his trips here to Shanghai and he stayed at the hotel. He had such a good time, he wanted to go back again. We attended with a few of our favorite beer-drinking friends this past Friday evening. Who needs to spend the holiday with real Germans? Well, there were a few real German's in the house, but mostly it was local Chinese. And an authentic die Blaskapelle (band). Oh, and a few good-looking Russian women, but wait, I get ahead of myself...

Our attendees at our table that evening were Dan, Marty, Tom, Craig, Shelly, Brad, Jamie, Dave, Kathy, and Brian. All you can eat and drink. Das Bier was good and though none of us ever finished one glass to the bottom, we seemed to drink a lot of pitchers of it. Tom started the evening by trying to steal one of the band member's hat. Though he does look pretty good with that little thing perched on his melon. Marty, Craig, Brad are the three blokes performing one of the many cheers that night. I am afraid I do not have a good picture of the table, though I seemed to have plenty pictures of Tom.

Many Chinese attended, they were probably 60-70% of the attendance, and they were true to character. When the buffet lines were opened, 60-70% of the room got up and jostled for food! It was all you can you eat! Not many buffets here in China for a good reason. They go crazy! And they ate in a typical Chinese fashion: individual plates piled high with a single item for sharing at the table. So the women at the table, or the lowest ranked man I guess would slog into the line and grab a plate of Sausages, etc. I don't know why, but this really cracked me up this time. I guess I should not be so surprised that the Chinese do exactly what anyone else does: adapt the situation to your own known culture. It was still good for a laugh or two. The table behind us apparently had no faith in edible food being served as they brought 7-9 bananas and some apples and oranges. Or maybe they took them from the displays??? Brian Miller, bless his heart, took pity on us westerners and went and filled quite a few plates of food and brought them to our table. We felt so Chinese, but it was good to have some food, which was actually pretty tasty. So, we ate. OK, enough about the other stuff we saw, let me tell you about us...

We watched the band, which was really good at getting the crowd involved. They played your typical German polkas (the darn Chicken Dance is still playing in my head) and a few other songs that tended to be heavy on the horns, but good crowd pleasers. It was difficult to talk and to see, and we found quickly that the best way to watch the whole show was standing on the benches at the table. The band did a really funny song, I am sure there is an appropriate German tradition for this, that consisted of one of the male band members to dress like a German woman and then periodically "gong" two men naked except for a cloak and metal pan. The "gong" song was hilarious. Check it out.

I could tell Tom was having a good time as I had to suggest he "slow down" half an hour after we got there, but there was no slowing the man down. He had a huge grin on his face all night. He also found a slightly smaller version of a bald man that he attached himself to for part of the evening. In the picture to the left you can see mini-Tom, Brad, Marty, Brian, and Tom enjoying the evening. I am not really sure what Tom is yelling here, but you can be sure he was screaming as he had no voice for 36 hours afterwards!

About 3/4 of the way through the night, it was time for that wonderful German tradition, Russian girls dancing on tables. And no, I am not kidding. The picture to the left is not of one these girls, that's Tom doing part of a "Y" in "Y.M.C.A.". Dan and Tom, who had attended this event last year, were giddy with excitement all evening, but I am not sure they rest of understood why. But yes, 8-10 Russian girls were escorted in, surrounded by "handlers" and assisted to the the table tops. I think the boys were disappointed that our table was not one of the selected "table dance" areas. Irregardless, we didn't see Tom for quite a while! Well, that is not exactly true, as the other video uploaded to You Tube shows. Now, many of you might think a wife would frown on this sort of chauvinistic, demeaning, insulting behaviour. I learned a long time ago with Tom that his "bad boy" image never goes too deep especially at the point of intoxication that he had reached at this point. I guess you gotta luv him...

So, The man in the chef hat at the left is Tom. As you can see, he still has a smile on his face. Though I have no idea where he stole the hat from! Now that would change for the worse in about 2 hours, but he was a happy camper at the end of the party! A fun time was had by all that evening I believe. Tom gave Craig his goodnight kiss (see why I wasn't worried about the Russian dancers!) and got our coats. We grabbed a taxi along with the Millers and headed home. Unfortunately, Tom lost a day of his life the next day, and he swears he will never drink again... Well, at least until next Oktober...