The first night I arrived in Hong Kong I already met up with Will, who I know back from Zurich. We worked in the same company, but he is in the HK branch.
After some communication difficulties, we finally met in Central, on a Rooftop bar called CeLaVi. Not surprising at all, the scene is dominated by western people. Just like I know back from Shanghai 2010.
On the rooftop, the floor manager (can be spotted through different clothing) is Chinese. I was not able to find my friend since his FB message didn’t come through. So I ordered a beer myself and started observing (100 HKD for a beer is ridiculously expensive, it costs actually 97, but the guy at the bar did not even bother to give me the change back).
You can see different groups. White girls celebrating someone’s birthday, some mid age chinese guys, lying there as if they the greatest. Some other young (maybe english) guys, one ordered a beer at the bar and based on his watch on the wrist and his age, I would think that his family is wealthy, but of course, this can be totally wrong)
I finally met Will and his friend Donald. They know each other from sports and he is working in his family import business. He spent some years in Australia and now came back to HK. A typical story from a HK guy in such scenes, there are a lot of HK guys in London when I did my exchange program there.
Then we went downstairs again around the block. It was packed with party people.
Now a small side story: Donald knew some Russian girls from an App and went looking for them. We went to a small shisha place and realized that the bar is filled with some other Russians and two were obviously working their shifts that night with barely nothing on them. At the table beside, a bunch of asian guys were looking really fucked up lying on the sofa. We quickly said hi and left the place.
We stepped into another bar where Donald knew the bar manager. That bar is dark, there is a DJ playing some music but there is of course no space for a dance floor. You have booths filled with shots and champagne and people talking there. The usual setup is that some guys order the booth and invite some girls they know, and they might bring along some of other friends as well.
That night, Will would initiate conversations with some girls and we would talk to get to know them. There were a couple who were sisters, and the younger was difficult to have a conversation with (one way conversation and too loud). The other group we met were an australian friend who knew Donald’s friend. They have similar background as Donald. One girl seemed to be easy going, who ofc went to UK for school and worked in Beijing and Shanghai in the past 1 or 2 years and now came back to HK. She is doing cosmetic tattoos (like tattooed eyebrow) if I remember correctly. She seemed more easy going and was actually providing inputs to the conversation.
We came out around 2 or 3 and below is what I saw on the street. It is most probably right that such places are nothing for the mid class or poor. The right question though is to ask what are we looking for when we go out? It is a good place to meet new people and have fun dancing around or enjoy the music, become a bit tipsy and relief the stress from the day/week, but if it is to show your social status and pump up your ego … this is not my type of thing. But in the end, such people are everywhere and such thinking should not be preventing me to go anywhere. Keep a positive mind and it is always interesting to find out what kind of a person your opposite is.
The last typical western stop (at least, typical for CH): kebap.
To conclude, it was a really interesting night out in HK. Compared to Shanghai, it is more mixed, and a bit closer to the western reality. Thanks for Don, Will and Don’s friend for taking me out! 🙂
Me, sitting in a hotel room in Shenzhen with a huge curved QHD screen, mechanical keyboard, which costs like 25.- CHF per night.
P.S.: actually the taxi driver back to Kowloon was also telling interesting stories, but more to that, later in the 3.2 post.
