Hong Kong...Bring it on!

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Hong Kong was carnage. There is no other way to describe the 5 days I spent there. 21 days of not drinking whilst trekking in Nepal combined with a 10hr delay in Delhi were not the ideal preparation for a weekend at the HK 7s rugby tournament.

Arriving at central station, I put on my best Chinese accent and asked the taxi driver to head for the glamorous sounding Hollywood road. It started well, as James my host for the week showed me to a private room with a double bed and a bathroom with running water opposite....sheer luxury compared to the previous 3 weeks.

A quick shower later and I was ready to face Hong Kong. The evening was mainly spent bumping into old friends who suddenly realised who that dodgy guy with the beard in the corner actually was. Followed by some tugging to check that it was real. Followed by names such as Forest Gump, Chuck Norris, David Belamy etc...then a little bit more tugging. It was like an ancient tribal ritual had been revived.

The next day (Friday) was when the 7s started. A three day event finishing on the sunday afternoon. It would likely be a weekend involving some alcohol so we decided to have a quiet Thursday night in preparation. We got back at 4am.

Singapore noodles for breakfast is not as bad as I imagined it would be. The following afternoon, winding down the window of the taxi, I made sure I would arrive without asking the driver to make an emergency stop en route. The start was a slightly more sober affair than I was promised the rest of the weekend would be and we retired early to prepare for the big weekend.

Following a large fry up we arrived at the gates of the stadium on Saturday morning along with: the smurfs, the munch bunch, sailors, cowgirls and of course the Jamaican bobsleigh team. Having got into the South Stand area which is where all the fun happens in the stadium, we started off slowly with vodka/cranberry jugs and that more or less set the tone for the rest of the day. Towards lunchtime and into the afternoon, the vast majority of the 4-pint jugs found their way from the top of the stand onto the fellow supporters below. On occasion, somebody wouldn't have let the top off the jug (full of liquid) and I saw two girls knocked out cold as it hit them square on the head. It became clear quickly that if I was going to stay in the south stand, it was wise to stand near the top.

The stadium resounded with the song of "Swing Low" everytime the English team came onto the pitch, and the South Stand treated the rest of the stadium to renditions of "Stand Up if you Hate the French" and other such pleasantaries when the USA team entered the stadium. It was heartening to see the odd Frenchmen or American taking it firmly on the chin and singlehandedly countering with the Marseillaise or Star Spangled Banner. Their efforts however were generally recognised as futile by the rest of the stand and they were treated to a barrage of jugs and cups of drink hurled from all directions!

Spurred on by a fantastic win over Samoa by England, another evening passed with a blur in Lan Kwai Fok finishing around 4am again. Four hours sleep and it was back to the Stadium for the final day. The South Stand was noticeably quieter but was treated to some fantastic rugby early on by the HK team which got the crowds going. The day took a sharp turn for the worst unfortunately when England were knocked out by Samoa and two brash Kiwis sitting in front of us became more vocal. The rest of the afternoon was spent enduring the smug comments as they watched their team continue through the tournament and eventually taking the cup to follow up on their success in Dubai earlier in the year.

The following days, I hobbled around various districts and took the boat over to Kowloon to see HKs equivalent of Hollywood Boulevard with icons such as Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee etched into the sidewalk next to the water.

A fantastic tournament and definitely one for the diary but next time I shall be bring a survival kit and a crash helmet.

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Photos

The (lack of) HK skyline
Unfortunately the weather was foul but with a little imagination the view is fantastic