This post is a little late, but I wanted to wrap up February so I can move onto March. Not that February is an insignificant month. Actually, February is one of the busiest. For the Asian community this time of year usually marks the start of the
Lunar New Year. Often times it is referred to as
Chinese New Year. This year it happens to fall on the 7th of February.
For some reason people like to travel to Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year, though they don't realize that probably isn't such a great idea. Hong Kong pretty much shuts down during the New Year. Most of the shops are closed for several days as people take this important day off to spend it with family.
I don't really have family in Hong Kong, so this is usually a dull time for me. This year I was lucky enough to have company. Jenn was back visiting from China and they invited a group of us who all have similar backgrounds; people who grew up overseas without relatives in Hong Kong to spend the holidays with. So as a group we had dinner at their house, walked through the chilly
flower market at
Victoria park, and went clubbing down in
Lan Kwai Fong.
For those that don't know, each day, for the duration of 15 days starting from Chinese New Year, has
a special meaning. In addition to the special days, and not having to work, people get together to go out and party. On the 15th I went clubbing again with Janet, Michelle, and their group of friends at Sugar. I wrapped up this special leap year on the 29th with Joyce and her ex-coworkers at Diesel. One of the girls is moving to
silicon valley so their whole group had a farewell karaoke party with her at
Neway. It was a pretty crazy and intense night, with girls running around the room singing and dancing their heads off.
Labels: Friends, Hong Kong, Karaoke
While I haven't quite recovered from my mysterious cough I still felt compelled to drop by to help celebrate birthdays with a few friends. February started off with two celebrations on the same day. First off I went to drop by to see Eva. Because Hong Kong is so small getting off the
MTR in Causeway Bay I ran into Kazue. We walked and talked and exited up by the
UA Cinema at
Times Square. As soon as we got out we ran into Tiffany and her friend Karen. In Hong Kong it is just so easy to run into friends. Everyone goes to the same areas.
I crossed over to Tang Lung Street and headed up to wish Eva her happy birthday. I was surprised to run into Julian, Eva (a different Eva), Steve (aka Momo), and one of Cherie's friends whom I met about a year ago. I haven't seen Eva since Gene and Sunny left Hong Kong.
Afterwards I headed over to
Azure at the top of Lan Kwai Fong Hotel for
Monique's birthday. Everyone was having drinks at the top. Daniel was taking his Australian friend, Jason, around as well. My first impression of Jason was that he reminded me of one of my best friends Rui. Kind of a the tall, medium length hair Japanese look. They're both big at playing pool so when we got to the pool table the resemblance was just striking.
The environment at Azure is pretty nice. Upstairs Yembie, Ran, and I were caught taking pictures with this one dude who was just trying so hard to break into our social group. The night view from the balcony is quite nice though.
We left as they were closing and decided to head over to
Prive. We met up with Joyce first and she managed to take the girls into Prive, but the guys had problems getting in. So I took one of them over to
Volar for a little bit, and then we dropped by the new club,
Cliq. There was barely anyone at Cliq. I bet it is because we just got through the New Year parties.
Eventually we me up again in front of
Beijing Club where Joyce's friend Gary got the whole group of us in. I didn't stay long though because Joyce was pretty drunk that night and started throwing up in the ladies' room. I ran into another Gary, while waiting at the bar outside of the ladies' room, who use to work over at the
Diesel retail shop in Tsim Sha Tsui. He apparently clubs a lot himself because I keep running into him. I've been seeing some of Phoebe's friends, Luna and Miu Miu, quite a bit as well at
Beijing Club. Joyce and I had quite the taxi ride back to Mong Kok. She had a plastic bag hanging over her ears for most of the ride back. I suppose it is a kind of badge of honour, but I never quite understood the appeal of being that drunk.
I managed to getup in the afternoon to meet up with Daniel and Jason to take them shopping around
Sai Yeung Choi Street for clothes. We ran into Joyce's younger brother Ryan and his girl friend in one of the shops. Ryan's a good looking kid, he works over at the Calvin Klein at the
Fashion Walk in Causeway Bay.
Labels: Birthdays, Clubbing, Friends, Hong Kong
