Soho
Hmmm....well what can I say. I appear to actually be sweating Jack Daniels, and i've been awake for the last 4 hours, been for breakfast and taken enough Nurofen to kill someone, although bizzarely enough, not actually kill the dull thumping pain that I only get when I have had a REALLY heavy night. And still I could not sleep. Well, thats a bit of a fib. The room stopped spinning at about 2.30 at least enough for me to pass out. I woke up on the dot at 5am, so 2.5hrs at best. It's weird as I drift off ok and then wake up naturally after a really short space of time and don't feel tired anymore. In a 24 hour city though so I'm not bored :)
This is where I try to piece together some observations, or at least some memories of Soho. Given that it was a Sunday night it was pretty heaving, although not until about 10pm. I got off the MTR at Central and tried to find Lan Kwai Fong. Not difficult; simply a case of follow the short skirt wearing, slightly innebriated partgoers who were unsurprisingly mainly Brits. I went on a bit of a pub crawl through the area until I hit a bar called the Cavern, where one of the best live pub bands I've ever seen were playing. They were a 5 piece doing mainly rock numbers (Hard to Handle, Sweet Home Alabama, etc) to a highly unappreciative crowd. It was there where I was propositioned by a quite attractive lady who I assumed to be a prostitute. I have to say her chat up line was pretty poor, "I'm tired. Going home to bed. Would you join me". Having been warned about being approached (and being exceedingly drunk at this point!) I was perhaps a little ruder in my negative response than I might have been and she left giving me a disgusted look. It was only later talking to an Aussie bloke who'd seen the whole debacle and referred to her as a "real goer" that I discovered that she was actually just a bit of a party animal and not a prostitute at all...whoops....
A point to note in for anyone who plans to visit here is this. For all the drinks are expensive, in a couple of places I've noticed that the method for pouring drinks is this - throw ice in a glass, start pouring in the spirits, then straight after start with the mixer, while still pouring the spirits. It's not an exact science! A couple of drinks last night left me feeling (in the words of Douglas Adams) like i'd been hit around the face with a rather large gold brick. Usually it works out at 50%/50%, but at between $60 -$90 a drink (£4-£6) it's still not cheap. I went out with $1000 last night and came back with $13, which minus my cab at $24 (there was no way I was going to try to navigate the MTR - I'd have been found unconscious stuck in a turnstyle) went entirely down my neck.
Back to yesterday momentarily, and another point to note - there is a distinct absence of people of colour in Hong Kong - and by that I mean, ink. I've seen maybe 5 Cantonese people with tattoos, and none of them particularly good....until yesterday. I was wandering past a head shop in the President Shopping Centre and a guy was putting some pipes and bongs in the window. He had an extremely cool black & grey portrait on his inside forearm. I went inside and asked him if he spoke english. It wasn't great but it was a hell of a lot better than my Cantonese ;) We got talking about tattoos, and I explained I was looking at getting something done here, but hadn't had any luck finding a studio at all, let alone a good one. He said that the piece on his arm was done by a friend of his, Jason Choi at Cubist Tattoo, gave me a card for the studio and told me to mention his name (Angus Wong). I've been to his website and the work looks pretty cool. Gonna pop in this afternoon or tomorrow depending on the continued pr
esence of hangover.
Also got a new digital camera yesterday....a pretty good one too. Also became aware of a method salespeople use to try to scam people. They will work out the price in your own currency for you, but use an incorrect Exchange Rate. The guy in the camera shop was totally insistent that the current Exchange rate was £1=$16HK, when actually the exchange is $14.7HK. The camera was $1300 which in sterling is actually £88, but he was working it out at £81....not a big difference and not really a scam, but it would all add up. Tested the self timer on it in the room before I went out last night, so posting a photo of me in a cheap room in HK!
On my morning walk this also found a total doppelganger for my cat Jasmine. I took a photo, which unfortunately doesn't do her justice as you can't see the little white tufts just under her neck, but i've included here anyway.
This is where I try to piece together some observations, or at least some memories of Soho. Given that it was a Sunday night it was pretty heaving, although not until about 10pm. I got off the MTR at Central and tried to find Lan Kwai Fong. Not difficult; simply a case of follow the short skirt wearing, slightly innebriated partgoers who were unsurprisingly mainly Brits. I went on a bit of a pub crawl through the area until I hit a bar called the Cavern, where one of the best live pub bands I've ever seen were playing. They were a 5 piece doing mainly rock numbers (Hard to Handle, Sweet Home Alabama, etc) to a highly unappreciative crowd. It was there where I was propositioned by a quite attractive lady who I assumed to be a prostitute. I have to say her chat up line was pretty poor, "I'm tired. Going home to bed. Would you join me". Having been warned about being approached (and being exceedingly drunk at this point!) I was perhaps a little ruder in my negative response than I might have been and she left giving me a disgusted look. It was only later talking to an Aussie bloke who'd seen the whole debacle and referred to her as a "real goer" that I discovered that she was actually just a bit of a party animal and not a prostitute at all...whoops....
A point to note in for anyone who plans to visit here is this. For all the drinks are expensive, in a couple of places I've noticed that the method for pouring drinks is this - throw ice in a glass, start pouring in the spirits, then straight after start with the mixer, while still pouring the spirits. It's not an exact science! A couple of drinks last night left me feeling (in the words of Douglas Adams) like i'd been hit around the face with a rather large gold brick. Usually it works out at 50%/50%, but at between $60 -$90 a drink (£4-£6) it's still not cheap. I went out with $1000 last night and came back with $13, which minus my cab at $24 (there was no way I was going to try to navigate the MTR - I'd have been found unconscious stuck in a turnstyle) went entirely down my neck.
Back to yesterday momentarily, and another point to note - there is a distinct absence of people of colour in Hong Kong - and by that I mean, ink. I've seen maybe 5 Cantonese people with tattoos, and none of them particularly good....until yesterday. I was wandering past a head shop in the President Shopping Centre and a guy was putting some pipes and bongs in the window. He had an extremely cool black & grey portrait on his inside forearm. I went inside and asked him if he spoke english. It wasn't great but it was a hell of a lot better than my Cantonese ;) We got talking about tattoos, and I explained I was looking at getting something done here, but hadn't had any luck finding a studio at all, let alone a good one. He said that the piece on his arm was done by a friend of his, Jason Choi at Cubist Tattoo, gave me a card for the studio and told me to mention his name (Angus Wong). I've been to his website and the work looks pretty cool. Gonna pop in this afternoon or tomorrow depending on the continued pr
esence of hangover.Also got a new digital camera yesterday....a pretty good one too. Also became aware of a method salespeople use to try to scam people. They will work out the price in your own currency for you, but use an incorrect Exchange Rate. The guy in the camera shop was totally insistent that the current Exchange rate was £1=$16HK, when actually the exchange is $14.7HK. The camera was $1300 which in sterling is actually £88, but he was working it out at £81....not a big difference and not really a scam, but it would all add up. Tested the self timer on it in the room before I went out last night, so posting a photo of me in a cheap room in HK!
On my morning walk this also found a total doppelganger for my cat Jasmine. I took a photo, which unfortunately doesn't do her justice as you can't see the little white tufts just under her neck, but i've included here anyway.
posted by Roachy at 9:17 am
2 Comments:
Hi chick just thought id let u know how jealous i am!!!! Everythin here is fine cats have gone mental since u left, Jasmine has taken to having fights with the rug in the living room on an evening, which is entertaining. Hope u comtinue havin a great time xxxxxxx
Hey Roachy. I'm sooo danged jealous m8!!! You sound like your havin a fantastic time, keep up the blog so we know how ur getting along. Hong Kong sounds great, lucky devil you. I've left u a voice message on skype, just letting you know that we're all set up here, and that my username is purpleherbman. Hope to talk to u soon. Have fun :) we love you!!!!
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