Karting

On Saturday night I was able to go and hang out with a buddy of mine, something I don't get much of a chance to do when the family is in town. We went out for a bite to eat and talked and then at around 8pm headed across town to the go karting track (note I am spelling karting with a k cause that is how they spell it). The really cool thing about the go karting track is something that you would never ever see in the US. You see, the track is inside and the top floor of the facility (2 floor facility) is a bar. So, in fact, this go karting place is encouraging drinking and driving. That notwithstanding, it makes for a really fun time to share a pitcher of Carlsberg (finding out I don't really like this stuff), then heading down to the track for a nice race. It was a great night of talking, racing, and sharing some drinks a nice get away if you are ready for a change of pace here in Shanghai. I was not surprised that most of the patrons were expats (it can be a little pricey for locals), but I was really surprised that most of the expats were American (or at least they were fluent in English with an American accent, so I am making the assumption). Anyway, the thing that go karting does is it brings together the 11 people on the track and for the 8 or so minutes you are racing makes you into a little community where you are congratulating each other at the end or swapping stories of hitting each other and laughing about it, things like that. All in all, we left the place at around 12:30am (it closes at 2) and had a great night.