We first visited Hong Kong in 2005 (when I took this photo on my Lomo LC-A) and we did lots of tourist things. So far this time, it’s been a rather different experience. Last night we went out with a lovely bunch of expat WAGs to a few bars in Wan Chai which, it turned out, were right in the heart of the red light district. We sat in a ‘British pub’ and had chicken in a basket, then moved on to a Scottish bar beneath a hotel that had big chairs and a lot of different types of whisky. After that though, things got a little crazy. With our now larger group, we headed to a bar called Dusk to Dawn and were greeted by a painting of a woman masturbating as we walked in the door. Well, I was… no one else seemed to notice it! The music was loud, the covers band rather good, and the table service for our cocktails was prompt. After a bit of time gazing at the band’s pretty female singer and trying not to notice the hoards of people my parents’ age who were dancing, the volume of the place became too much and we moved on.
One night in Wan Chai
Next was a brief visit to a bar across the road where the girls in our group headed straight for the dancefloor, only to decide after two songs that we weren’t staying because the place smelled like a toilet. The final bar had to be seen to be believed though. Earlier in the evening, a woman called Kim had noticed me gawping at a couple of women in short skirts on the street and had told me that she and her husband liked to ‘play the game’ in this part of town – the game in question was ‘spot the hooker’. When we entered the final bar of the night, Kim leaned over and, perhaps unnecessarily, said that we could play the game in here. It would actually have been more of a game to guess which of the women wasn’t a prostitute, to be honest. As we made our way through the bar to get to the back and find a table, I was faced with more cleavage and bare legs than one would see on a night out in Essex. Only these girls were much more attractive and friendly.
We found a table and settled in to survey the scene. It was fascinating to watch a Western guy in his 70s dancing to a cover-band-performed Black Eyed Peas song with a beautiful Asian girl in her 20s. After a couple more songs, they disappeared off together. Then we spotted a Westerner in his 50s with another stunning younger woman. And another. There was no questioning what these people were there for either, as everyone was clearly on their own and out to make new ‘friends’. So, after one drink, some dancing and a lot of people watching, we headed off to catch the last MTR train of the night back to Hang Hau. We definitely saw a side of Hong Kong that passed us by last time.
which is why you should always go where the locals go, and not where the tourists go… unless you wanted to find that sort of thing of course!
We don't know any locals… only expat Brits 🙁