Shanghai World Expo

On a roasting hot September afternoon, the idle monkey trainer and a colleague grabbed a taxi for the nearest World Expo entrance, where we had to open our bags, then board an Expo bus for the 2-minute journey to the gates, where we had to go through airport-style security.

China

Once inside, it was immediately clear that we would not be visiting a lot of the pavilions. The line in front of the Japanese pavilion, a big pink building that resembled a pig for some reason, confirmed the rumors we’d heard; namely that waiting times wandered into multiple hours. Helpfully, there are digital signs around the Expo letting you know which pavilions are experiencing the longest waiting times. Inevitably China, Japan and the USA were pushing between four- and five-hour waits all day. The signs would also let you know of the shorter (less than an-hour-wait) lines at certain pavilions.

Since I have an aversion to waiting in any sort of line whatsoever, I was fully prepared to take the advice of a helpful website and skip the pavilions for their bars. (This also coincided nicely with my love of trying new beers.) 

We quickly put the system to the test, grabbing a quick bite of skewered meat from the Pakistan pavilion restaurant. 

This was followed up with a stop into the Australian restaurant and gift shop for a Crown Lager and a cheesy, crowd-pleasing overhead acrobatic show with a couple dressed as SCUBA divers. 

Back out in the heat and sunshine it did not take us long to find that Malta had a nice little café and a good beer. At this point, the idle monkey trainer was approached by the first of several locals who wanted pictures taken with a white guy. I should have charged – it could have offset the costs of the beer.

As we exited Malta’s air-conditioned café, we saw that there was no line at the pavilion across the way, and decided we had to hit up at least one. Albania’s pavilion was a single room with a few murals showing beautiful views, and a gift shop that was exactly one display case long. They also had a wishing fountain. Happy that we had made a pavilion, we headed back out into the heat. As luck would have it, Georgia also had no line, so we got a second pavilion marked off. The Georgians used their one-room space to heavily promote their wine and skiing.

As we walked on, Peru beckoned with their strategically placed sidewalk café. A good beer and a meat pie later, we were off again, heading toward Brazil and the promise of a good cocktail. Sadly, AB InBev had the concession and were offering up only local favorites Budweiser and Corona. The same was true for the USA pavilion opposite. Nevermind, we thought, and headed out toward South Africa, via Argentina, who had a gorgeous restaurant in order to promote their own wines.

Not seeing what we were after at South Africa we instead headed into the African pavilion for a quick trip around the continent and rows of market stalls. Also, plenty of stuffed Gorillas.

But no beverages and we were getting thirsty. We headed back to the more reliably imbibing nations of Europe, where Germany’s outside stage was quiet and the bar area boisterous.  Hofbrau Dark hit the spot, but tired of standing room only, we launched out for the Netherlands' Happy Street, fake grass, canals and sheep. 

Naturally, Heineken was king here, so it was a quick one and off again. 

Belgium, we thought, would provide a good brew and bar. Remarkably, we had to actually walk all around the building to the back side to find a concession with beer. 

This proved to work out well, however, since as we sat street-side with our beers, we could watch the Latvians sky-diving simulating pavilion closing show.

Feeling pretty good, if a bit tired, we decided to walk through the rather depressing halls of the Red Cross & Red Crescent Socities’ pavilion. From there it was a short walk to the tropical islands and wooden canoes of the South Pacific nations, before a final pavilion in the form of Indonesia, which despite three-hour waits during the heat of the day was remarkably open and easy to enter after dark, in spite of the live band playing at the entrance. (China and Japan still had long lines as we made for the exit.)