Everybody Have Fun Tonight…Everybody Wan Chai Tonight

After our amazing dinner, we decided to head back to Lan Kwai Fong and see where the night took us.   We hit a couple of the bars down the street from our hotel and then decided that we would have way more fun with our friends at Wagyu, so we headed there for the rest of the evening.  It was fun of course, if you don’t count the obnoxious Brit that was dominating my time with conversations about how he hates Americans, etc, etc.  Needless to say, it was an interesting and ineffective tactic for attracting American women.  After the Wagyu crew got off for the night, we headed to a club for some dancing and then it was decided that I needed to experience Wan Chai nightlife before leaving Hong Kong.  And  it was quite an experience. .. We ended up in some nameless underground club full of shady characters and scantily clad local Hong Kong women surrounding spellbound foreign men.  I tried to take pictures of the scene for the blog, but I was advised against it and told to take note of all the shady characters at the bar….so, my apologies, but words and your own imagination will have to suffice until you are able to experience the Wan Chai underground nightlife for yourself!  It was great people watching- in fact, it was so great that by the time I figured it was time to head out and go to bed, we exited the club only to be bathed in 6am morning sunlight. 

Post dinner drinks in Lan Kwai Fong

Jenn maybe had too much hong pútáo jiǔ when she took

this picture, but it's still cute!

People watching at Wagyu with night manager Alex

*Thanks for Jenn for being the photographer that night, Mary &

I were taking the night off!

 

Causeaway Bay and Dinner at a Hong Kong Private Kitchen

Thanks to our late night out, we got a late start for the day today, so we decided to hop on the MTR and explore other areas of Hong Kong Island a bit.  We decided to walk around Causeaway Bay where we grabbed a bite to eat at Din Tai Fung, (again!  It was so good and cheap!)  And then we rode the mid-levels escalators in SOHO.

I love that they use bamboo for scaffolding here

it creates this create dichotomy between old and new

Boarding the MTR for the real Hong Kong experience

No joke, the sidewalks have stairs they are so steep

Riding the mid-levels!

At the top of the Mid-Levels

Exploring dark and dingy alleys...

A stop at Watsons, our GO TO personal store, haha

Dinner tonight was at Sichuan Cuisine Da Ping Huo, a private kitchen in Hong Kong that only schedules 2 dinner seatings a night with roughly 6 tables.  It’s run by a couple- the husband runs the front of house and serves the guests while his wife cooks away in the kitchen.  The dinner was amazing, and what made it an even more incredible experience was that the husband and wife came out together to thank each table of guests and then the wife sang a piece of Chinese opera.  It was so moving and definitely one of the best dining experiences thus far in China, which is saying a lot!

a very spicey 4 course meal!

At Sichuan Cuisine Da Ping Huo

A picture with the owners

High rollers.

What Happens in Lan Kwai Fong, Stays in Lan Kwai Fong

After we returned from Kowloon, we vamped it up for a few drinks…which somehow turned into more than a few. ..And finally the evening ended (or should I say morning began) with Jenn and I returning to the hotel lobby where Jenn proceeded to ask the front desk concierge when the hotel restaurant opened because we were hungry.  We were disappointed to learn that it wouldn’t open until 6 am until the concierge pointed out that it would be 6 am in thirty minutes J  Regardless, we were unable to wait, so we retired to our room where we ate airport duty free chocolates in the bed and reminisced about our fun night like two giggling little girls.  Now that was an awesome night.  And here is the only evidence remaining of what transpired that evening- enjoy!

Sitting inside the bar at Waygu

The streets of Lan Kwai Fong at night

Enjoying some mojitos

Jenn has a bottomless glass of pútáo jiǔ - so she's in heaven

Me and Jenn with Alvin, a Wagyu manager who loves to dance,

and apparently, has a thing for women who are much taller than he

Dancing with Alvin

With the girls!

Mary befriends a man who we think might

have a connection to the drug cartel :)  kidding.

He invited us over to his BBQ on Sunday.

Jenn and I enjoy another glass of much deserved bai pútáo jiǔ

Me and Alex, the night manager, who also

enjoys a little eggs benedict at 1:30 in the afternoon

 We love Hong Kong...and the year of the bunny!

Me and Mary

Jenn, Alvin, and me

Jenn and Mary

What??  I bet Jenn just said something hilarious that I will never remember. So sad...

The Symphony of Lights & Shopping at the Temple Street Night Market

After being in Hong Kong for less than 24 hours and talking with our new Hong Kong friends, we have found that the fantastic night life (oh, and the food) is the real reason for visiting Hong Kong.  We definitely planned to do the typical tourist things, but honestly, most of our time was spent bar and club hopping well into the early morning.  So, needless to say, that explains why I’m taking my time to update my posts…that and I’ve been travelling for work the last few days since I’ve been back and I’m finding that the lack of sleep and living out of a suitcase for the better part of 3 weeks is finally catching up with me.  But the stories from Hong Kong must go on-

Dinner at Din Tai Fung- soup dumplings!

Bite a hole in the dumpling, blow on it and suck out the soup!

Greens and more dumplings...

Dessert is sweet red bean curd...

We came all the way to Hong Kong to shop at

H&M...I loved the sticker shock.  I spent $826.00.

Hong Kong dollars, that is

Getting drinks at Felix at the Peninsula Hotel to watch the

Symphony of Lights on Hong Kong Island- it was overrated...

but as American tourists we had to do it anyway.

I could not stop laughing in this photo- Jenn and Mary were cracking me up from arguing about what angle Jenn should take the picture in order to capture Mary’s best side.

Kowloon at night

Temple Street Night Market

I bought some bangles here for my sister & sister in-law...they are super cute!

 The famous Shanghai hairy crabs..never did get to try these...they're pricey!

This will never not be funny….the seller of these fine wares had to shoo us away because we couldn’t stop laughing like 10 year girls.  We will always be a couple of
Catholic school girls at heart

 Good-bye Kowloon!

Eggs Benedict

After our crazy Macanese adventure, Jenn and I woke up crazy hungry for western style meals, so by chance we decided to walk across the street from our hotel to a restaurant called Wagyu to get some breakfast/lunch.  Since we hadn’t really explored the winding and hilly streets around our hotel just yet, we thought it would be best to stay near our hotel and Wagyu looked like it was a pretty popular place to be for lunch.  We were getting a late start on sightseeing today, but since we were a bit worn out from our Macau adventure, we thought it might just be best to scratch our morning trip to Repulse Bay beach and grab some food and wait for Mary to arrive before heading to Kowloon for the afternoon.  The restaurant was pretty busy and looked like it had a lot of great lunch items on the menu, but  I was eyeing a guy at the bar who was eating some delicious looking egg dish that I couldn’t seem to find on the menu.  Dying for an egg breakfast, I decided to take matters into my own hands, so I went up to the bar, tapped him on the shoulder and asked him what he was eating.  I was already used to asking people stupid questions on this trip, and at this point I didn’t care because I wanted some stinking eggs.  Turns out that I tapped on the shoulder of one of the Wagyu night managers (Alex), who was off for the day. After simply striking up a conversation about his Eggs Benedict and being our charming American tourist selves, we somehow got the hook up at Wagyu with complementary drinks,  amazing food, and great local companions who were willing to show us the best of Hong Kong nightlife (and the worst)…

My Likeable Alter Ego, “Vacation Rachel” Emerges

Three glasses of wine and 2 new Hong Kong friends later, Jenn, Mary and I were refreshed and ready to start our day of sightseeing.   As we flew through the crowded and narrow Hong Kong streets Jenn and Mary noted that those *several*  glasses of bai pútáo jiǔ that Alex had sent to our table had really given me a lot of energy…and I could tell that in Hong Kong, my relaxed vacation had finally begun.

Free wine and food at Wagyu,courtesy of Alex, and new friends...

The theme of China- construction everywhere!

The famous Star Ferry Port

Riding the Star Ferry to Kowloon on the Mainland

Jenn and Mary enjoy their ride on the Star Ferry

Me...taking pictures again...

We have arrived!

                                      

Kowloon shopping- I’ve never seen so many designer stores in such

a small area…and each designer has multiple stores…