A couple of international students who had already been studying here for the fall semester told us at orientation that if we wanted to go out to get to know each other better that we could meet them at the main library on campus at nine for a venture into Long Kwai Fong. So all eighty people or so who decided to come lined up to fill the entire upper half of the double-decker bus for an evening of debauchery. We were headed to the most touristy part of Hong Kong night life. This is the place that we are embarrassed to ask directions for to locals for fear that they are type casting us for what we really are, tourists who want to have some mindless and homogenous fun.
Now I have been to Europe before which offers more clubs and nightlife to people under 21 but never before have I seen such sheer concentration of bars and clubs in one square block. There are bars upon bars, clubs upon restaurants and one or two 7-11s to supply all the cheap students who don’t want to spend money on pricey tourist drinks and buy beer there instead (I will admit to buying a Heineken there—apparently my cheapness can be attributed to me being Asian…). People can just drink freely in the street here and so, consequentially, you can see a throng of people socializing or just staring at passersby with their beers in hand and their party gear on. The first night was Ladies night in all of LKF and so the beer was kind of pointless for me because all the bars were giving free drinks to girls. There are many different kinds of vibes you can get but I learned on Saturday, when we returned, that the main vibe is one of ugly drunken mess. We had been walking around Soho (which I believe has a whole fashion style named after it) which was a bit of an older and classier crowd, avoiding what Lorna called “sugar daddies” and popping in and out of bars to just see what kind of scene was inside. A lot of the places are multicultural in that there is a bar called “Bar George” that plays Grease and other hit American songs…I was practically dragged into that one because I hated the idea that I was came all the way to Hong Kong to go dance to “Girls just want to have fun” in a bar with mostly slightly older white people. But I had to stick with the group (who had just left a Canadian bar). I had previously been in the infamous “Ice Bar” where it is entirely made of ice where they give you jackets to wear. Not as cool as it sounds…Picture a giant walk in fridge that is really only a small room and that is the ice bar. Not great and certainly not as great as the depressing couple singing in Russian to an empty restaurant with the sign “Baklava” behind them. Yes, this is kind of a cultural wasteland. I am sure we will return just to see some of the interesting sites (I took a picture of one of the bathrooms in a club because it was so darn shiny and long) as well as to “meet” other international people. Overall, it is very safe feeling in Hong Kong and although the map makes it look bigger, it really isn’t that large of a place. So we could take a taxi home from LKF for about two bucks each and that is what we did only to tipsily slip past our warden and into bed for the night. After that crazily busy day, I still couldn’t sleep past six the next morning.
Now I have been to Europe before which offers more clubs and nightlife to people under 21 but never before have I seen such sheer concentration of bars and clubs in one square block. There are bars upon bars, clubs upon restaurants and one or two 7-11s to supply all the cheap students who don’t want to spend money on pricey tourist drinks and buy beer there instead (I will admit to buying a Heineken there—apparently my cheapness can be attributed to me being Asian…). People can just drink freely in the street here and so, consequentially, you can see a throng of people socializing or just staring at passersby with their beers in hand and their party gear on. The first night was Ladies night in all of LKF and so the beer was kind of pointless for me because all the bars were giving free drinks to girls. There are many different kinds of vibes you can get but I learned on Saturday, when we returned, that the main vibe is one of ugly drunken mess. We had been walking around Soho (which I believe has a whole fashion style named after it) which was a bit of an older and classier crowd, avoiding what Lorna called “sugar daddies” and popping in and out of bars to just see what kind of scene was inside. A lot of the places are multicultural in that there is a bar called “Bar George” that plays Grease and other hit American songs…I was practically dragged into that one because I hated the idea that I was came all the way to Hong Kong to go dance to “Girls just want to have fun” in a bar with mostly slightly older white people. But I had to stick with the group (who had just left a Canadian bar). I had previously been in the infamous “Ice Bar” where it is entirely made of ice where they give you jackets to wear. Not as cool as it sounds…Picture a giant walk in fridge that is really only a small room and that is the ice bar. Not great and certainly not as great as the depressing couple singing in Russian to an empty restaurant with the sign “Baklava” behind them. Yes, this is kind of a cultural wasteland. I am sure we will return just to see some of the interesting sites (I took a picture of one of the bathrooms in a club because it was so darn shiny and long) as well as to “meet” other international people. Overall, it is very safe feeling in Hong Kong and although the map makes it look bigger, it really isn’t that large of a place. So we could take a taxi home from LKF for about two bucks each and that is what we did only to tipsily slip past our warden and into bed for the night. After that crazily busy day, I still couldn’t sleep past six the next morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment