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Published: April 1st 2008
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After an unplanned weeks holiday in Goa at the beginning of March, I finally headed off on my travels on 25th march... Why do you suddenly get this weird feeling of panic at the last minute - have I remembered everything, have I packed the right clothes (and more importantly shoes?!) etc.etc.
Landed in HK last Wednesday with a plane full of people (predominately men & boys) going to the HK 7s. Travelled into 'the island' on the airport express train with views of huge HK apartment buildings and low cloud hugging their tops. The weather was cloudy and humid, fingers were firmly crossed that it wouldn't rain whilst the 7s were on...
Wednesday evening was spent eating yummy food in Lan Kwai Fong and then the plan was to go out for a few drinks to help overcome the jetlag - well, several drinks later at Devil's Advocate on Lockhart Road and the jetlag was overcome by staying out until 6am! The 7s rugby fans were well and truely out in force and the place was packed with people spilling out to the pavement and the road (and apparently that was 'quiet' compared to what it would be
like for the rest of the 7s weekend).
A little hangover later and Thursday afternoon was spent at Stanley (despite the taxi driver taking us on a massive detour that meant that we saw practically the whole of HK island) - much needed food and a browse around the market was all that Alice and I could manage! Thursday evening was the 'David Larkworthy Cocktail Party' which was listed in our hotel as one of the events of the day, much to the amusement of Alice and I (and yes, photographic evidence of the sign was taken - despite the strange looks that concierge gave me as I was giggling to myself whilst waiting for the tv to switch around to 'the' event of the day). The video for Alice's 21st birthday that Nick (her brother had made) was shown - and David (Alice's Dad) assured the people in the room that her birthday celebrations would cease after the weekend, not bad going given that they had lasted for over a month! Drinks in the hotel bar followed, but this time Alice and I resisted the 'temptation' of strawberry daquaris (and our foolish error in sending them back the
previous night as we 'couldn't taste the alcohol'...), then we headed off to dinner at 'crusty crab' which is actually called 'under the bridge spicy crab' but was nicknamed 'crusty crab' due to the way that they serve crab covered in a mound of breadcrumbs, garlic etc. Seafood is so amazing and delicious in HK - I just hope that it is just as good in Sydney! Needless to say it was another late night at Devil's, so bed at 5am - but first had to quickly download the 'can you feel it' song so that it could be played for the Kenyan rugby team (given the Virgin slogan of 'kenya feel it' that adorned the sweatbands).
Friday arrived and so too did the start of the 7s, but first we had the trip on the junk to Lamma - travelling across the harbour was a little bit bumpy but the views of the HK skyline were amazing, although I had to 'pass' on the beers that were being offered around... Lunch was spent with our HK 7s party of 30+ people at a restaurant where the salt & pepper prawns lived up to all my expectations! Walking past
the restaurants in Lamma was unlike anything I'd seen before as all the fish and seafood that you could eat were on display in tanks stacked to the roof of the restaurant. The return junk ride back to the island saw us getting 'flashed' or 'mooned' by the New Zealand 10s rugby team (who clearly didn't appreciate the loud rendition of 'swing low...' that came from our boat). Then it was time for the 7s to start - Alice, Gazala and I sat in the 'Boardroom II' box and enjoyed a very entertaining late afternoon and early evening of rugby. Dinner was at The Chili Club on Lockhart Road (with some very spicy chicken) and a few drinks at amazonia (shock horror, not Devil's) and then an early night of 1am...
Up early to experience the south stand on saturday, so left the hotel at 9am and found seats among the multitude of fancy dressed people (american footballers, slash from guns n roses, the nativity story, superheroes etc.etc. and that doesn't even cover half of it!). The sun was out (at last) and it was rather hot and sweaty sat all day in the south stand - and at
times a little bit infuriating as you got the impression that not everyone was there to watch the rugby (as there were lots of people standing up and obscuring views)... At least we didn't get too soaked when people started throwing their beer jugs and pimms jugs around in the afternoon (as they weren't always empty). The rugby ended (for us) with England beating Samoa, which was the second to last match of the day - and we dashed back to the hotel to have a much needed shower and get ready for dinner at Jimmy's Kitchen in Lan Kwai Fong. We all went out in Lan Kwai Fong after dinner and it was packed - lots of people still in fancy dress having come straight from the rugby and several boys with a pechance for 'dropping their trousers' (hum, boys please don't assume that we are all interested in seeing what's down there!). Drinks at Stormie's continued whilst wearing newly purchased pink furry bunny ears and we spotted Matt Burke (Newcastle Falcons and Aussie rugby player) - who 'demanded' HK$10 for a photo, but we told him that he should pay us (and then we had a 'little feel'
of his @rse, tee hee). The night continued in Wan Chai and ended up with us all dancing on the bar in Carnegies until gone 4am (and sampling their yummy malteser vodka shots)...
The south stand wasn't braved on sunday and instead we were up early (again) and sat in the 'public' seats behind the box in the west stand as wanted to enjoy the rugby... Spent the day drinking bloody mary and eating KFC, so classy! The kiwis won the cup tournament and looked very impressive in beating the boks. Then, surprise surprise, it was out again in the evening for a 'few' drinks in lan kwai fong and afterwards the 'wanch'... The players weren't out in lan kwai fong (or not that I could see anyway) so after a few vodka jelly shots and a bit of a dance on the stairs opposite stormie's we headed to lockhart road and amazonia for more vodka shots (and the player spotting began) a bit of a 'bar crawl' followed with devils, joe bananas and typhoons all being visited. The night ended again at 6:30am, but was beginning to suffer the effects from not much sleep and a lot of alcohol... Oh and to top it all off, somewhere during Sunday day I lost my voice so was croaking away all night.
Monday, you won't be surprised to hear, was a total write off... Got up late and then ended up going to sleep at 4pm (and not waking up until 7am this morning!). Off to sydney tomorrow afternoon, but hope that the cloud and rain that has desended on HK today will clear by tomorrow morning as I want to head up the Peak first. All in all HK has been an amazing experience - and I would definitely plan on coming back next year!
Lots of love
L x
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Emma
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so clearly i am having a much better time back here in work, than you are out there. x