Lan Kwai Fong

We are in Mainland China as I write this. It has been difficult to get internet connections compared to Hong Kong, but we have two laptops with us on the trip so we manage. I will have to do a couple of posts retroactively.

After we got back from Macao we went to dinner in Kowloon and got the corner table on the third floor of a restaurant with a view of the waterfront. We didn't get too much of the view because the windows were fogged and we were paying to o much attention to each other. Where we in the west had marble on the floor, this restaurant had jade, and instead of the best silverware, we had gold-banded ebony chopsticks. After dinner several of us went to the Lan Kwai Fong district.

The Lan Kwai Fong district is the chief party place for ex-pats to meet. The demographics in Lan Kwai Fong matched that of clubs around San Francisco's financial district, with Indians replacing Hispanics. The first club we went to was the most exclusive one on the steet we ended up at, and we couldn't get in because of open-toed sandals, despite having a contact inside the club.

The second place we went to was hard to find and accessible only through a footpath, and was so dark that you could only recognize people from their silhouette as they passed in front of obscured red lamps. This bar was a little too loud and smokey for some of us, whe went around the corner to a quieter and more talkable place. When they had their fill, they came back to the group and we travelled to our third stop, the techno bar across the street from the exclusive bar that would have none of us.

The techno bar had been overflowing with people an hour previously, and still looked full from the outside, but we found a table right away. Just as quickly I decided this was the time to make my break for the German kneipe I had seen down the street the previous day. I took two others with me, and on our way their we past the Russian Ice House bar where they have a 10x10x10 refrigerator that you and several friends can walk into and sit down in and enjoy a few drinks in. Bearskin coats are provided. The German bar was authentic down to the type of benches they had at corner tables. It took just the right amount of time to pour a pils, and we managed to get a seat on the front porch. We people-watched for an hour, witnessed no fights, saw two chinese supermodels, and took a $20 US taxi ride home to the YMCA.


The next morning I found someone passed out in the lobby outside my 12th floor hotel room. I could not poke him awake but hotel security could and did. That was when I knew that my night in the Lan Kwai fong was over.