Rat Alley

I haven't been so good at blogging, but I have other skills.

This beautiful cul-de-sac of dining is a collection of outdoor restaurants: Thai, Malaysian, Indian, Vietnamese, and an unfamiliar diner may become overwhelmed by the "greeters" along LKF who drag you in to eat their food. Lonely Planet tells you to go for the guy with the chops, but I've eaten from all of the restaurants, and they are all pretty dang good.

I recently went there for Team Oz's bday dinner, late-night grub post-Bierfest, and I just had to take my sis to a place we endearingly call Rat Alley.

This picture is taken from a dangerous little pathway that leads to a tucked away pub called Le Jardin. It's in the middle of everything, but the speakeasy factor weeds out the riffraff. And I dig that.

Beware of vermin.

Hongkoweenathon

My sister had the chance to visit the Hongk just in time for Halloween. Yeehaw!

My previous two Halloweens in the Castro and WeHo were preparing me for this night. We put a lot of thought into our costumes but really came up with nothing. We put fate into the hands of Pottinger St, the place to buy costumes, and the selection really had left much to be desired. We ended up as Batgirl and Supergirl.


On this Friday night, my aunt, uncle and cousin randomly showed up and we met them for dinner. I was a bit frustrated but everything ended up working out ok. After dinner, we ran home to get suited up and headed to Powers'.

That's us as International Crimefighters... with a traditional Vietnamese hat and Sombrero!


We showed up right on time for the pre-party madness. Me and Cang the Geisha.


Oh dear. And there's our gracious host with his blow-up doll Tanya costume.


Jag Sisters with Katy the French Maid.


Me n MJ. MJ had his mamma send this amazing leather jacket all the way from North Carolina.


Joining the team of international crime fighters is the Thai Policeman.

When we had polished off the bottle of tequila, it was time to hit the streets.




Chum attacking a local restaurant.


The blow up doll is likely to have sent some youngsters to therapy.


MJ performs for some adoring fans.


Our invasion of SOHO.


Little Vampires attacking Alex the Mexican. A perfect pic, it says Mexican Cuisine in Chinese behind him.


Next Stop, Club 7-1-1




Wyndham St, above LKF. We did not even make it to ground zero.


But I did find a friend.


And more friends.


And this one, which the photographer commented: That was SO counter-productive.


Also ran into the Star Wars crew at Yumla.


And on the way home, ran into the queue for LKF, which was practically to my front door!

Oktoberfest @ the Races

Wednesday nights = beer and horses. On this very special mid-October Wednesday we celebrated Oktoberfest with sausage, pretzels, games, and lots and lots of beer. It was a super fun night.

Can you spot me in between the red and green tents? This picture was taken by my German friend Lory from the other side of the racetrack.


This is me n my friend Willis from LOS FELIZ. Yeah, us Angelinos gotta stick together. I also met some dude from the OC that night. It's funny to me that people get all excited to tell me that they're from the Orange Curtain when they learn I'm from LA. And really all I want to do is bitch slap them.

After the crowds were gone, I headed to the Pawn for a drink and a round of fooseball. THEN ended up at Carnegies for many many more drinks and dancing on the bar. Oops.

The Most Painful Thing of All Time

An afternoon of wakeboarding can really wear you down. We thought we would take the easy route and enjoy a ride on the banana boat.

I did not realize that the drivers do everything possible to get you to fly off said boat. It was fun and fabulous until we went flying, and hit the water at such an impact, I swore my head popped off. It was like crashing into a brickwall and I got the wind knocked outta me. We were so stunned by how much it hurt, we couldn't stop laughing.

And I mean screaming laughing.

This is Kar-wing, me, and Daven trying to hoist ourselves back in the saddle.

KAREOKE!

I am now a certified Hongkonger, because I finally have kareoke under my belt!

Me and Sebas took his couchsurfers out for a mad night of kareoke. It was a Tuesday, and therefore, dead.

We opted for the drinking towers since I don't know the kareoke scene quite so well yet. We started at the top and were aiming to work our way down. 25th Floor didn't seem too interested in us. But on the 24th floor we found our calling.

While ordering our first round, our host and server for the evening Ivan informed us that for a small fee, we could have all-you-can-drink. This is like, the most dangerous thing we ever heard of. We shot the idea down at first, because it would lock us in to the 24th instead of being able to crawl our way down the flights, but after thinking about it, we would end up paying much more if we paid per drink. Since this was our first real kareoke in Asia, we thought we needed the liquid help.


We started off slowly and then realized we needed a lot more help. The place was pretty much dead and we had the kareoke floor to ourselves. To make things a little more interested, we played the kareoke challenge. Which means, someone else is picking your songs for you, and at the end of the round we do a group sing.


Doris and Claude started us off with Total Eclipse of the Heart. Great idea in theory, but man is that song epic! I give the couple from Dallas props for being able to hang with us in the most ridiculous of circumstances. They were so much fun, and Claude won the kareoke challenge with his first song, Britney Spears' I'm a Slave for you.

We hit Madonna, MJ, Ace of Base, Lionel Ritchie, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, The Little Mermaid, Air Supply... you know, the kinds of things you'd expect from me anyway.

We sang the night away and rode that kareoke challenge almost into the sunrise. They kicked us out at 4AM, and I was amazingly productive at work the next day. Not.

Pizza by the Meter

After an entire day at sea dressed as Ninjas and in other Japanese wear, we were hungry. Really hungry.


And it was really good.

Cafe O saves the day again. I'm lucky it's 10 seconds away from my front door.

Besos

It pays to have friends in the wine industry.
Cora, Me, Joel, Phoebe, and Kiran
No one pictured is in the wine industry.


Here we go.
Me and Chun Ling, my wine friend.

I met Chun Ling at Rachel's going away party early spring, and I've been a regular attendee of her monthly wine tastings. Being friends with an insider is pretty sweet. We drink for free, and then continue to guzzle once the regular crowd is gone and the shop is closed. One time we even ordered pizza. Then we head out for more drinks, and all of this is very dangerous activity for a Wednesday evening.

Chun Ling has the most divine British accent, and on special occasions throws a party or two.


This special event was held at the NoHo bar Beso, featuring indulgent chocolates shipped in that day from Europe, and tasty chocolate infused cocktails.


It was also the scene of my first Flaming Lamborghini


I think I caught a little fire down the throat, but at least none of the flames scorched my hair.

DOLCE BAYSOS!

Beach, Beeyotch.

Deep Water Bay, Hong Kong Island

The new speakers' beach debut.

"Cow Beach," Lower Cheung Sha, Lantau Island
Have I mentioned I've been going to the beach a lot? My weekly jaunts to the beach are still hold strong. Here's two Coronas and some tunes.

Also crossed off the checklist:
Shek O
Stanley
Tai Long Wan, Sai Kung

Still on the To-Do list:
Gold Coast
South Bay Beach
Big Wave Bay

I'm hoping the mild/warm weather will keep up until the end of the year. Mild is a nice way of putting it. It's still pretty f'ing hot.

Drinking Towers

I think I've been slow on the blogging because I don't have a camera. The 5 megapixel camera phone doesn't quite cut it, and I've just been relying on friends to cover for me. I don't feel the same without one :(


The Drinking Towers.
The first time I went was probably a couple of months ago. I was meeting some friends there and I was pretty cranky. I got to Causeway Bay a little late, found where I needed to be which included a long line. Of locals. This is kind of special because gweilo activites are usually different from locals activities, but I went with it. The line to use the lift was super long and I should have grabbed a beer at the 7-11 on the corner. I was in line forever.


Drinking towers are just what they sound like. Two tall, thin buildings, and each floor a different bar. Maybe about 25 floors of bar. I finally made my way to the 17th Floor, or wherever my pals were and the crankiness slipped away immediately.

Chum and Daven with the mics, and Daven's friend from home.


I was expecting some kind of crazy club, but it was very chillax and loungey. I appreciate any pub where you can sit. Each floor is pretty small but offers an assortment of games, refreshments, and KAREOKE.

I strayed from the singing, and stayed with the Jack.


The kids picked some pretty good songs though, including
What's Love Got to Do with it? and a slew of Ace of Base.


Powers and Me.
I also dig this place because it was amazingly friendly to the wallet. There were about 7 or 8 of us and after purchasing one bottle of Absolute, one bottle of Jack, and several rounds of free shots, our total was only $200 HKD each, which is unheard of. I'll put that into perspective for you. Last night I paid half that for one really really crappy lychee martini that I waited forever for.


Chum, Fred, and Wing.

Let's not talk about what happened after the Absolute and Jack. Cause I ended up at Beijing Club, and that's not ok.

PEACE.

Pirate/Viking Disco Dance Party Junk

It seems that I've had my fair share of junk this summer. This one was organized by the guys I went camping with, for Alex's bday. I love this picture. Can you spot the beer mid-flight?


The view as we leave HK Island.


They were serious when they named it a disco dance party. Alex even brought his 'fro.


Birthday boy with the jello shots.




Peter getting ready to jump from the upper deck.


A friend was gratious enough to let me borrow his waterproof camera for the day, so I got some coooool pics. Here's me and Powers.


Wing, Chum, Fred, and the turtle.


Me with our junk boat.


I've never ever hit the beer bong before. If you can't burp it's kinda hard to chug. Well, I didn't wanna be a weenie and not go for it, and when I did I found it so alarmingly easy that I kinda had to do another one.

So that, combined with the tequila-ritas and jello shots earlier made me completely unaware of the rest of the day.



After a lot of dancing which I don't really remember, I passed out at the front of the boat and woke up a tad sunburnt. But I woke up just in time for the sunset.