Lunikon

Yes, it has been that long again and I haven’t even noticed. As classes start tomorrow we tried to do as much as we could over the last week and were quite successful doing so. As you can see in the gallery we have visited quite a bit of places in HK so far although more would have been possible if we hadn’t been out partying every single night from monday till friday…and that’s what I want to talk about in this post.

Hong Kong is huge, everybody knows that. Over seven million people live here on just about 250 urbanized sqare kilometers, squeezed together in highrise buildings. Maybe that’s why they have developed the party-culture we were to experience over the last couple of days. As I said we went out every night from monday until friday and got some rest on the weekend. Due to the jetlag the night felt like day-hours and since we had no appointments we were able to get the necessary sleep by staying in bed until 11 or 12 o’clock every day. Otherwise some of us might aswell have collapsed by now

We’ve stayed on Kowloon twice (that means in the district of HK where our dorms and the university are located). Once in a third-class karaoke bar and the other time in two bars of which the "Bubbles" is the most mentionable. It’s a dark but stylish bar with comfortable couches and space for bigger groups. The latter was very important for us since our group grew larger and larger with every day new exchange students came in. A nice touch was that they were screening "Jackass" on one of the walls allowing for some entertainment if you weren’t into dancing that night.

The real party districts can be found on Hong Kong Island though. Notably Wanchai and Lan Kwai Fong. Both offer a wide variety of different clubs, bars and restaurants while Lan Kwai Fong is a bit smaller then Wanchai. We personally spent most time in "Club 97" in Lan Kwai Fong. They play a realy nice mix of house, techno and trance and offer a small dance floor which usually is filled with people by 11 o’clock already even on workdays. To get startet I recommend the "Coyote" in Wanchai. Besides the usual drinks it has some nice nacho plates if you didn’t have dinner that day (as I did). Afterwards we went to "Les Amis" to dance. Something one should know about Hong Kong dancebars: The prices for drinks are quite high and compare to European/German prices. Usually no entrance fee is charged but the waiters come up to you quite regularly and insist on you ordering something which tends to be annoying after some time. We surely spent enough money on drinks last week

The greatest thing about these bars and the streets they are located in is the matchless atmosphere though. Hong Kong and especially HK Island are places of banks and offices. But instead of going home after work HK business men/women seem to stop-over at a bar of their choice on a regular basis so the bars are packed with people at a time of the day the first guests would arrive in Germany. This also results in an interesting mix of age-groups in the bars ranging from students like us to managers in their fifties. Besides that Hong Kong is neither China nor Britain…it’s Hong Kong. And it shows better in the clubs then anywhere else. People from all over Asia, the Americas and Europe come together to end the day and have some fun. By asking "Hey, where are you from?" you get into a conversation with anybody at any time. I’m actually not that much of a "party person" as some people might know but I could get used to this…you just have to love this flair!