This Thursday I am heading off to Indonesia for nine days, so I am sure a WONDERFUL blog post about temples and tropical beaches and beautiful landscapes and monkeys crawling on me is coming soon but for now I am stuck in the land of group projects and essays. Give me two more weeks and I will never mention group projects again, I promise. Now that my school work is more spread out, I don't hate it as much. My research papers have been pushing me to really take school and my studies 100% seriously since the tests and research papers are a lot harder than back home. With that being said, I would still much rather have pass/fail here because if I didn't have to worry, I would be able to explore more! But I had to find a positive side to all of these torturous assignments so there it is.
Anyways, my week has been full of fun activities like getting my Visa for mainland China, souvenir shopping, and editing various essays. The highlight of my week was this past Thursday night. Inspired by the bucket list, Taynah, Anna and I attempted to close LKF (meaning stay out until LKF closed) thinking we would be in bed by 4 am or so. We got back to the halls at around 5 am...and people were still out. This brings me to the topic of this blog: HK nightlife and my favorite place to go as a legal adult--Lan Kwai Fong.
There are only two options for cheap college kids to go to for nightlife. While there are beautiful rooftop bars and ritzy restaurants full of $25 cocktails, the broke kids will be found in either Wan Chai or Lan Kwai Fong.
My first week here, my friends and I went to Ladies' Night at Wan Chai, after going to the Happy Valley horses races. Wan Chai is pretty typical of what I imagine a "downtown club area" would look like. There are one or two streets full of bars, overpriced drinks and cups of free champagne for ladies. The bars in Wan Chai hire these old ladies to stand in the corners and make sure that men don't as much as take a sip from our free drinks. Wan Chai felt pretty stereotypical to any other bar area, except for the fact that I can actually drink in Asia. All in all, Wan Chai is pretty fun...but it has nothing on LKF!
Most of my friends have heard me talk about (or seen the snapchats) of my dear Lan Kwai Fong. LKF is like nothing I have ever experienced. During the day, LKF is an upscale business district full of older, rich men in suits. LKF is built on an uphill slope (quality location...) and is technically a few streets in a grid. When the sun goes down (aka 11pm), the grid of streets transform into packed streets full of clubs and bars (a lot of the clubs are in multistory buildings that serve are business offices during the day). These streets are so packed with people that cars cannot even drive down them at night. During a Friday or Saturday night, you can barely walk these streets because so many people are socializing and standing in groups. Why is everyone outside and not inside, you may be wondering? No one buys drinks from the bars. It is about $10 (USD) less to buy from a 7/11 conveniently located all over LKF and just drink it in the streets. Also, there is no open container law so it's completely legal.
In my opinion, the streets are much more fun than sweaty bars full of 50 year old men in business suits. Most of LKF's visitors are international so PolyU exchange students are constantly bumping into each other in the streets. In addition, the music from the bars is loud enough to hear outside so you can just use selective listening to pick your favorite songs. I have seen breakdancing battles, dance circles and choreographers teaching Taylor Swift routines in the LKF streets. It doesn't get much better than that.
I wish I could do LKF justice. It is such a high energy, fun place to be (drinking or not) and a great way to destress and dance the night away (literally. 5 am--how long can these people go?!) with my friends after a long week of school work.
Anyways, my week has been full of fun activities like getting my Visa for mainland China, souvenir shopping, and editing various essays. The highlight of my week was this past Thursday night. Inspired by the bucket list, Taynah, Anna and I attempted to close LKF (meaning stay out until LKF closed) thinking we would be in bed by 4 am or so. We got back to the halls at around 5 am...and people were still out. This brings me to the topic of this blog: HK nightlife and my favorite place to go as a legal adult--Lan Kwai Fong.
There are only two options for cheap college kids to go to for nightlife. While there are beautiful rooftop bars and ritzy restaurants full of $25 cocktails, the broke kids will be found in either Wan Chai or Lan Kwai Fong.
My first week here, my friends and I went to Ladies' Night at Wan Chai, after going to the Happy Valley horses races. Wan Chai is pretty typical of what I imagine a "downtown club area" would look like. There are one or two streets full of bars, overpriced drinks and cups of free champagne for ladies. The bars in Wan Chai hire these old ladies to stand in the corners and make sure that men don't as much as take a sip from our free drinks. Wan Chai felt pretty stereotypical to any other bar area, except for the fact that I can actually drink in Asia. All in all, Wan Chai is pretty fun...but it has nothing on LKF!
Most of my friends have heard me talk about (or seen the snapchats) of my dear Lan Kwai Fong. LKF is like nothing I have ever experienced. During the day, LKF is an upscale business district full of older, rich men in suits. LKF is built on an uphill slope (quality location...) and is technically a few streets in a grid. When the sun goes down (aka 11pm), the grid of streets transform into packed streets full of clubs and bars (a lot of the clubs are in multistory buildings that serve are business offices during the day). These streets are so packed with people that cars cannot even drive down them at night. During a Friday or Saturday night, you can barely walk these streets because so many people are socializing and standing in groups. Why is everyone outside and not inside, you may be wondering? No one buys drinks from the bars. It is about $10 (USD) less to buy from a 7/11 conveniently located all over LKF and just drink it in the streets. Also, there is no open container law so it's completely legal.
In my opinion, the streets are much more fun than sweaty bars full of 50 year old men in business suits. Most of LKF's visitors are international so PolyU exchange students are constantly bumping into each other in the streets. In addition, the music from the bars is loud enough to hear outside so you can just use selective listening to pick your favorite songs. I have seen breakdancing battles, dance circles and choreographers teaching Taylor Swift routines in the LKF streets. It doesn't get much better than that.
I wish I could do LKF justice. It is such a high energy, fun place to be (drinking or not) and a great way to destress and dance the night away (literally. 5 am--how long can these people go?!) with my friends after a long week of school work.
LKF is always a fun time with friends like these!