Hong Kong - Hang Over

Well on Saturday morning I have to admit to having a Titanic hang over. I don't go out so often these days and I really did give it some large on Friday night. But self pity doesn’t really work with my two girls around so I had to get up and get on with it.

We were meeting with a bunch of Expats at Fat Angelo’s for lunch before moving on to see the Lions v. All Blacks game. Fat Angelo’s was a great restaurant and a huge plate of Spaghetti Bolognese washed down with a beer was absolutely perfect for my condition. It was a bit of a mad lunch with a lot of kids running around which, needless to say our two enjoyed.

After lunch we headed over to the Dickens Pub in the Excelsior hotel which we had been told might be a good place to see the rugby as it is slightly further from the crowds than the bars in Lan Kwai Fong. When we got there we were told that you had to book seats and that the place was completely booked out for the game and had been for some time. I then made arrangements to go an watch the game in Lan Kwai Fong and Catherine said she would go home with the girls…she was understandably not impressed.

I met up with Paul, a friend who I used to play rugby with in Zurich at the Bulldogs bar. I was expecting the place to be packed but it was far from it. I finally got hold of Catherine and she got a taxi and arrived about 10-15 minutes into the second half.

As for the game itself I guess the conditions didn’t really make for the best rugby as I couldn’t really stay glued to the game. I thought the Lions never really looked dangerous at all and New Zealand played the perfect game for the conditions and walked away with not only an easy win but I think the Lions will have a lot to do to beat them.

After the game Paul, Catherine, the Girls and I went for a bit of a look around. We went up the Mid-Levels escalator to the top which would have been OK if there was something to do at the top but it seemed to stop in a more or less completely residential area. Paul took out his guide book and on his list of things to do/see was a place called Bonham Street. We got a Taxi down there to go and have a look around. In the guide book it described the weird and wonderful things you can get there. It was not far wrong but it was pretty difficult to find some one who spoke English.

The shops were all the Chinese Medicinal kind. Selling deer velvet, dried out sea horses, Fungus of all kinds and swallows nests. One other thing they had was deer tails which were like black pieces of rubber and resembled something I would rather not chew.

This part of Hong Kong is quite strange. You have all the little side streets with little market stalls and people are doing all kinds of trade there. Most of the buildings are quite old apartment block kind of buildings but you can always see a modern skyscraper of some description in between the bedlam. It is also amazing that if you are in and around Central every body can speak or understand English, even if not too well. This part of town is only 5-10 minutes on foot and it was very difficult to find anyone who speaks or understands English. I guess it reminded us we were indeed in a foreign country.