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
A few months back I was helping Gloria try on clothes for
an independent film she was helping with. The fruits of her labour was shown on the 9th and the 10th at the
Culture Club down in Central. The production was an independent film called “The Autumnal Equinox” (未央歌). Starring
Wong Yi Hing (王貽興)and another friend I met through Gloria Ma Yi Wei (Peggy).
That Saturday I met up with Cherry and her clubbing friends to take them out around Lan Kwai Fong. I ran into Phoebe as well outside club Avenue and the 7-11, which is the club her friends are usually at. We stopped by Pi first and then headed over to Volar. It was a pretty casual clubbing experience, but fun because I was out with some new friends.
On the 15th I had to say goodbye to another special friend. Hiroko headed back to Japan. Her next destination is actually Sydney, but she was going home first to visit family after finishing off her work contract in Hong Kong. Hiroko has just been one of the best of friends in Hong Kong. She's both smart and talented, I wish her the best of luck and hopefully I'll have a chance to see her again soon either in Australia or Japan.
That night Christine invited me out to the
Fashion TV boat party. Everyone was under the wrong impression that it was related to the
Hong Kong fashion week. Personally I think the party wasn't very good. It was a
large boat (f.Diamond), but when I showed up there were very few people there. Limited free drinks, and no
ATM made the party a bit dull. I suppose we were suppose to break out the credit cards, though there weren't many incentives to do so. There seemed to be a lot of merchandising going on as well. I ran into Ted there and his friend. There were a few girls floating around, but we suspected they were only there to meet rich guys. I suppose it was interesting to just go. Some drunk guy came by to take a picture with me outside of the washroom. Afterwards we heard him step into the washroom and drop his drink.
I forgot to wish Christine a Happy Birthday, but I went out the next night with them to go
hot pot (火鍋) over at the
New Star Sea Food Restaurant (新星海鮮酒家) in Causeway Bay. I found out that Amy and I have totally different tastes in food. From now on all my
tofu goes to her. On the 18th, Joyce and I went the
Neway in Causeway to sing with William, and some of Joyce's friends, Karen, Jimmy, and Sue.
I totally want to learn to sing Chinese songs, but I'm just finding having the energy to go and remember the Chinese characters isn't easy. Once in a while I can listen to
a few songs online to try to learn, but I'd have to do that a lot.
On the 22nd I setup a
yum cha event with a few of my friends who work down near
Cheung Sha Wan and
Lai Chi Kok. I called out Fred and Kelvin, who work over at
TVB but seemed to have the day off, and my friend Evita, who works over at the big
Li & Fung.
Pretty much for the rest of January I became ill. I had the
common cold, and also ended up with a mysterious ongoing persistent cough that doesn't seem to want to go away.
Labels: Clubbing, Friends, Hong Kong
Time to catch up on January. After the New Year I was busy with friends coming and going. Aaron and Leon left, and a few of my Japanese friends needed to leave as well. It is too bad really since the few Japanese friends I've become friends with in
Hong Kong have really come to love HK.
On the 2nd I met up with Kanae for a little bit. We've just recently started getting to know each other more and started to see each other more, but now she's already leaving back to Tokyo. I went to their teachers resident early on the 4th with Hiroko to pick up her luggage and send her off to
the airport. I was surprised that even at the airport I could run into people (it was a pretty early flight) but while we were lining up for the bank machine I ran into Dodo, who was on her way to a conference in
Vietnam.
That night I went out with Joyce to meet up with her San Fransisco friends in
Lan Kwai Fong. We partied it up at
Beijing Club. I think we managed to give them a good night out, people seem to be enjoying themselves.
On a personal note I decided to experiment with facial hair. Something I wanted to do for a while but in the past whenever I don't shave for a few days my mother complains that I look like a sick cat. 2/3rds of grooming is to look attractive for the opposite sex so I was out to get opinions. My cousin, Yvonne, flew in for a long layover on the 5th and I decided to give the facial hair look a try.
Actually, she didn't comment on it at all. I guess she's alright with pretty much anything. She's actually really against anything to do with this whole unnecessary beauty thing, despite getting into plastic surgery. Well, truthfully she does
pediatric plastic surgery.
The first thing we did in the morning was meet up with my mother's cousin (my 表姨妈/母) at
Choi Hung MTR station. We went to
yum cha (飲茶) nearby and afterwards we decided to travel to
Mei Foo to find the apartment our grandmother use to live at. Yvonne and I both had vague memories of our time there, but my mother's cousin (I suppose my aunt) remembered.
The thing is, back when I was staying there I remember the water, quite possibly the ocean, right near our apartment. That area has been completely filled in now creating this artificial land mass and literally changing the scenery in that area. They built
Lai Chi Kok Park right ontop of the water it seems.
After our stroll through the park we went to meet Yvonne's cousin (from her mother's side of the family). This is the first time I met Yvonne's cousin, Herbert. Apparently he works as an Architect for Symantec. We walked around
Maritime Square (青衣城) for
a bit before Yvonne rode the
airport express back to take her flight to the Philippines.
My day wasn't over yet. I rushed home to quickly change and to head out again to
Central. I stopped by first at Tiffany's wedding and then headed over to Terence's apartment for his much delayed housewarming party. We all headed over to the recently renovated
Volar to party the rest of the night.
Comment's I've gotten so far about the facial hair.
Christine - "It's not bad, you can try it"
Pinkie - "It makes you more man"
Joyce - "You look more Japanese"
Phoebe - "Eww, No. I hate facial hair"
Vivian - "I hate facial hair"
Labels: Clubbing, Friends, Hong Kong
Happy New Year 2008! Actually New Yeas Eve was a lesson in frustration. The thing that makes Hong Kong so great for partying is also it's downfall at times; too many options. I'm not saying that I have too many options. It just seems that everyone else has too many options, and they always try to keep their options open until the last moment.
After the frustrations of Christmas Eve and Christmas day I was hoping we would be more organized as a group about finding a spot where we could count down together. After all isn't
NYE about counting down with friends? After Christmas Priscilla ended up going to
Osaka to visit
Natsumi. I introduced them to my friend
Takeshi virtually via email, and apparently they ended up hanging out quite a bit. Which was good for Takeshi and good for them. Prior to her leaving we talked about possibly having our friends gather at the
New Years Eve party at Adrenaline Bar & Lounge, mainly because it is one of my favourite night spots in Hong Kong. I just don't go there that often.
My only firm plan that night was a house party at Christine's place. She had just recently renovated and it was her chance to unveil her clean and tidy
Hello Kitty apartment. It was a fun night with catered food. I got to meet some of her friends, and to see Alan (who was already drunk coming into the party), Joyce, and Lynda again.
I spent half of dinner making calls to people and keeping Priscilla awake trying to find out what our plan was and to see if everyone would be able to party together. It just wasn't going to happen, by the time we had a plan to meet at Causeway Bay, Henry House, I had about 40 minutes to get down there. Aaron and Leon already ditched to spend New Years Eve with some other of their friends in
Lan Kwai Fong. I figured it really wasn't worth the hassle of rushing off to a spot, trying to beat the clock to count down with some friends, when I'm already surrounded by friends in a warm a comfy house watching
the fireworks on TV. I heard it was the first time they had fireworks at the
IFC 2 tower.
Afterwards I actually ended up in Lan Kwai Fong. I was suppose to meet up with everyone, but my
cell phone ran out of battery due to the excessive amount of SMSing that night. Like always the
mobile networks were flooded with messages. I sent my messages out about 4 minutes before midnight, but people were getting them about 30 min or more afterwards. I was getting messages well into the next day from some of my friends.
I took a brief walk around LKF and ended up meeting up with Joyce and Daniel to go to
Club No.9. I was already doing pretty well that night keeping my expenses down, and luckily because of Joyce's friend Gary we managed to get in without incurring additional expenses. There wasn't a lot of people inside surprisingly, and we all seemed a little tired so we ended up calling it a night early.
It was freezing heading home, the temperature has been pretty cold the
last couple of days in Hong Kong. I hope everyone has a better year in 2008.
Labels: Clubbing, Friends, Hong Kong
My friends Aaron and Leon are in Hong Kong again this holiday. I'm not referring to the singers
Aaron and
Leon though when I mentioned my friends someone else made the comment it sounded like I was bringing out a bunch of singers.
I didn't go out Friday night with them, but I thought that Saturday night would be better, especially since everyone was holding back for the up coming
New Years Eve Parties.
I went down to
Lan Kwai Fong to find them. They were already drinking, but had no clue where that particular bar was so I went over to 7-11 to meet up with Daniel, my
Aussie friend. We also happened to run into Phoebe C in front, and her friends Cherry and Luna. I hear about her friends a lot from her, so it is always interesting to meet them. I wonder how much they know about me actually? Phoebe had another friend, whom she met randomly in the washroom at
Hei Hei Club when it was still open, that they were trying to ditch. This girl, Maisie, apparently has a thing for us
Jook Sings and according to my source was staring and making Ms. Phoebe uncomfortable. The girls were going to their usual hangout at Club Avenue.
Aaron and Leon were on their way out and I went to meet up with them outside of
Beijing Club, where Daniel ran into an old family friend. A friend of Aaron's, Kelvin, got us in and we enjoyed the hospitality of his table and friends. It was a fun and interesting night. We kind of got separated at the end when Leon disappeared with another group, and Jenn and Monique messaged me. I went outside to meet up with them, but we couldn't get them in, so I took Jenn and Wendy over to
Volar instead.
Volar recently renovated, and is still undergoing renovation, and where the circular room use to be, a new room has formed complete with large painting style pictures and a mini
carousel in the centre. We were taking picture and dancing when I noticed this French guy harassing a girl along the side. I managed to save her and introduce her into the group. Her friend was busy picking up white guys and didn't even notice she was in trouble. We headed over to Tsui Wah afterwards to find Daniel and her group of Aussie friends who actually were at Club Avenue as well.
Labels: Clubbing, Friends, Hong Kong
First off Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël! クリスマスおめでとう!聖誕快樂! That's my semi-international opening to this entry. Most people that I've met in Hong Kong say it in English, but I've also heard the rest. A testament to how international this city is.
I spent Christmas with my new Aussie friend Daniel. He hasn't been in HK that long, and I know how difficult moving to a new place is when you don't really know anyone. The difficulty this holiday is deciding what to do. I don't want to spend a lot of money, but staying at home feels extra lonely during Christmas. When I heard about Tiffany's brother feeling sad one year away from home for his first time at Christmas, I totally understand that feeling. There is something missing when you're not with your family at Christmas time. Of course the culture here in Hong Kong is different. There's not much of a difference between
Christmas and
New Years. Most of the people don't even know the meaning of Christmas.
The cost of going out to events increases dramatically Christmas Eve, I had a headache trying to decide on which one to go to. With the average cost around $350 HKD a party. The typical party being an all you can drink alcohol party.
Daniel met up with an "uncle" and then opted to go out with me to Wan Chai to find a party to go to. We were just going to go out together, two boys, out looking for some fun. We ended up finding a place where it was just more boys looking for action. The ratio was pretty bad, but I ran into a few girls that I know, and I came in contact with a girl I possibly met about a year ago in another club.
Christmas eve being somewhat of a write-off, Christmas day, or night actually, we met up to go sing Karaoke at the Neway CEO in Causeway Bay. We grossly underestimated the people that were going to show up, and we fill one room and had to switch to another, much larger one.
Even though the
Nintendo Wii has been out for some time, I never really had a chance to play with it until I went to Karaoke. All
those stories you read about where people throw the controllers breaking TVs and people throwing out their arms pretty much all came true in front of my eyes. Kanae managed to break something throwing the controller while playing
Wii Tennis and I almost threw out my shoulder playing Wii baseball.
It was a good night, everyone was pretty social, and only one person threw up. I brought out my friends to socialize with Priscilla's friends, and I think they all had a good time. I managed to strengthen my friendship with Kanae, but she's leaving in the New Year. We took a lot of
pictures that night, so even for those with spotty memory, there's a good record of that night's events.
Labels: Friends, Hong Kong, Karaoke
