Birthdays, Family, Uncategorized BIRTHDAY DRINKS IN THE SKY 5 November 2009

We decided to hit the 3rd tallest building in the world for my birthday drinks and to watch the sunset. This is where the Hyatt is located, though Chris and I had never been because it’s on the other side of Shanghai (ie. across the river) and because we’ve just been lazy. It’s one impressive building – all sleek and modern… and very very very tall. We decided to go to the bar in there for drinks, instead of the observatory level.. because the latter is boring and expensive.

The lift was an experience on its own. With the soft slide shut of the doors, it ZOOMED effortlessly all the way up in about 10 seconds, noiseless and totally smoothly. Tres cool. The Hyatt itself looks quite different to other Hyatts and also most other hotels.. it’s actually pretty dark inside, and all moody with dark woods and inset spotlights. It was actually a little foreboding to me.. I think I prefer more lush or wide open/bright hotels. In fact, the bar has a huge wooden door that they slide shut, and only open/close once someone comes in or out. Very strange! It meant that when we went to the bathroom, we wandered around a bit, all confused because we couldn’t find the bar… until we realised it was behind the huge nondescript wooden door (which looks more like a solid wall). very surreal.

The bar is a nice cosy nook of the building, high up above the other high-rise buildings and offering a brilliant view complete with telescopes. One of the staff was friendly, whilst the other one couldn’t seem to crack a smile. For heaven’s sake, people are paying a ton, SMILE and be polite! We ordered some coffees and teas which tasted just find, but were obviously made by an ammateur – the coffees came out really sloppy. You’d expect, given the prices, that the coffees would come out beautifully decorated with foam, with a little biscuit or chocolate on the side. Rather, the foam was sloppily slopped on (with sloppy holes in them) and there was no little tidbit on the side. It actually just looked like a cheap coffeeshop drink, save the nice cup it came in. And there was no bowl of little peanuts/snacks that expensive bars always serve. Definitely not something I would expect the Hyatt to do….

I suppose they hope that you’ll be impressed enough by the view, or at least distracted by it not to notice the unfriendly service and sloppy work 😉 And they would be right, because we spent most of the time looking out of the window and chatting and chilling out. I guess that’s what you pay for – location and ambience. So I’d go back there to bring overseas visitors or to hang out with friends for a late night drink, but I certainly wouldn’t bother visiting for the drinks 😉

The 3rd tallest building in the world!