HONG KONG: Great Night, Great Contrasts, Steve and Family

Wednesday 11 April – Bye bye BK, HELLO HONG KONG!!!

10.00am: I am by the hotel pool in a great sunny day. I skip the gym and we are leaving at midday for the three hour flight to Hong Kong. ‘It is 10.00am and I am sunbathing and in the pool, in Bangkok’, I say to myself again; ‘I should do this more often’ I conclude.

One final swim before Hong Kong - thank you Bangkok

Shortly afterwards we head to the airport and on our way I see a big billboard with Cristiano Ronaldo promoting some tyres, on a suit. Very different to Messi’s ad... just like their style of play, character and popularity. Oh well. As we get to the airport, there is one final big photo-tribute to the King. It is highly present in everyone's life here.

Even the King makes sure we leave the country - watchful eye

8.30pm: We are taking the airport train to central Hong Kong, which takes 20 minutes. It is my second time in HK after I visited Steve and Pabs three years ago. 

Since I live in London, I find it very easy to feel comfortable in Hong Kong – the main differences for me being the density of the population here, with endless towers and towers of flats and more flats, as well as the very limited space it has and how well they maximise it; it is a little less clean too in some areas. At night the city and bay become a spectacle of multiple lights of all colours and at all heights.

Festival of lights, colours, traffic, high towers - HK at night 

Skyscraper staircase to heaven, maybe

I am here to attend my friend Steve’s wedding with Carol on Saturday, where I am honoured to be part of the five groomsmen, or best men – or one the five closest friends he has.

Steve and I met in London in September 2003, when I moved in to a super tiny room –aka ‘the matchbox’- in his flat in Clapham Junction, which was all I could afford at the time. It probed to be one of the best decisions of my life to this date. Steve and I quickly became good mates and that friendship is still very, very healthy today even though he moved to HK in 2005, less than two years after we met.

For months I have been emailing with the other groomsmen, Rich, Dan, Tobs and Pableras, but I only know Pabs from before, so it is great to finally get to meet the other guys too. If they are so close to Steve they must be great guys – or at least as great as I am, because I am great, Pabs is great... we all are, surely, if we have been able to put up with Steve's terrible jokes all these years.

David has not been to HK before so he is also excited to be here and will have time to explore the city on his own whilst I attend some of the wedding activities.

10.00pm: After dropping the bags at Pabs’ mansion on the West side of HK island, we get changed and meet Steve, Carol, his sister Leanne (who flew in from Canada with their Mum) and a couple of other of his friends in the Luang-Kwai-Foon area (forgive my spelling, I am still working on my Cantonese) at the Solas bar.

A first drink with Steve (middle) - Alan Thor back is on the right

It is a popular night spot with several trendy bars with a good mix of expats, locals and some tourists. They are all next to each other so it is very convenient.

I saw Steve briefly for an hour, between 5 and 6 am, back in Singapore at the beginning of this Asian trip; so it is nice to actually see him properly now, looking casual and relaxed, with his very beautiful and lovely fiancé, Carol.

He goes off in his usual trash-talking Spanish-sounding loud words 'Que pasa capulloooo!?!?!?!?!' and we laugh loud again; we've taught him well. 

He has by now recovered from his injured arm from that Singapore night – and no, in case you were worried it wasn’t broken, he was just being a lightweight at the time.

11.30pm: We make a move to a more bar-club nearby where we decide to get a couple of bottles of vodka. We also get mixers and a few Red Bulls, phew. In addition, when you order lemonade here they do not just give you Sprite or 7Up, they give you proper, fresh, just made lemonade. That is the type of service we are talking about.

Thursday 12 April – The night before, old meets new meets newer and a great dinner

12.30am: It has not taken us too long to be dancing around. Everyone is in GREAT SPIRITS and we feel that ‘tonight is gonna be a good night... tonight is gonna be a good night....’

The Bolt strikes in Hong Kong

2.30am: And we have literally taken over one of the reserved tables, some of us are dancing on the couches. YES, IT IS ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS. And it is great fun... By the end of it well past 4am we all leave at different times and ways with the feeling that it really was a good night. It was great.

9.00am: Works on the street started around 8.00am. They are LOUD, very – added to the ‘morning-after-the-night-before’ feeling it all makes it more intense.

We are at the 17^th floor in Pabs tower of flats. It is one flat per floor – and they are about 40 square metres, or I may be wrong and they may be bigger – they are cosy in any case.

View from Pabs 17th floor flat - towers, towers, towers 

Food vendor - one of many

1.30pm: Pabs, Alan and I meet Steve to go and hire our tuxedos for the wedding.

Alan actually only has to make some adjustments to his brand new trousers as his tailor got them wrong. To clarify, his tailor is in Singapore and has not met him for over two years. In this time Alan has become Thor, with muscles everywhere so he does not really fit in those trousers as they are. “Easy job” says the grey haired, pony-tailed tailor.

Pabs and I arrange our tuxedos - I get carried away and order three tailor made shirts I will be unable to collect before I leave as they will be finalised in a week’s time. I hope they are good.

6.00pm: It is an afternoon at leisure walking around this incredibly lively city, taking pictures here and there –particularly of the fully covered trams in ads of all major and local brands- and getting lost a number of times.

HK trams brought to life

The right spirit, right there

J'Adiore her

A rare moment of peace and green

Old and new constantly meet everywhere, at every corner.

Back streets - contrasts right, centre and left

Constant renovation, repairs or building from scratch - there is never a dull moment in HK.

Street works - not even the funny little man makes them any quieter

I also spot a big ad with the Angry Birds and the local transport, some sort of discount – they seem to be everywhere. 

E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E.

When I get younger I want my school bus to be like that

New meets newer and time travelling is forwards, not backwards.

Modern meets ultra-modern C3PO where are you?

Glass, height, roads, green, towers - HK

8.00pm: Pabs and I arrive at the same time at the Old Bank of China building where Steve has kindly invited us for dinner with his mum Frances, his sister Leanne, his always colourful cousin Vincent, lovely Carol and Claire, aka Ultra-Fit Macca- and Avril –both friends of Steve from London who I have met before. Alan arrives later on.

We have a drink at the rooftop terrace, next to the HSBC Headquarters, designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster and to the New Bank of China building.

It is a very pleasant evening and the view is great, with the waterfront not far away and the constant cocktail of high towers, skyscrapers and lights of all colours everywhere.

This is a members’ only club, and the joining fee alone is north of US$20,000 (plus monthly fees, plus the actual cost of food and drinks and service – in other words, not my usual hang about place). 

Fortunately one of Steve’s clients has let him use his membership for the night. It is decorated to the highest standards with an array of great paintings of both Western, Asian and Chinese artists, very high end wooden floors and very nicely finished walls with touches of green and white, with red light bulbs. It is something I have never seen before. There is a Mao and Whitney Houston painting that calls my attention – contrast, art, colour, both symbols.

Mao - Whitney - Smiles - with love 

We then pass to a private dining room just for us, where four or five waiters and waitresses will look after us all night.

Dinner. Dinner is... fan-tas-tic.

Or I should say FAN-TAS-TIC.

It is a Chinese degustation menu of eight or nine dishes. With a great variety of ingredients, tastes, flavours, spices and styles it really is a pleasure.

But the main standout element of the night is seeing Frances sitting around the table and clearly enjoying the evening - it is GREAT TO SEE HER HERE for the wedding.

Steve's mum Frances, so great to see her, and sister Leanne

Not only is she a lovely lady, she is very funny, very modern and engages in conversation with you so naturally you feel you have known her for years - 'I hope you keep dancing Alfonso'. In addition to all of that, she truly is a super mum and it is an honour to be sharing this evening with her too.

It is a very enjoyable dinner all round and, to top it off, today is Carol’s birthday – Steve has arranged with the service to bring a few cakes and a candle for her, while we all wish her Happy Birthday.

Carol's birthday Chinese cakes surprise - What a great week for you guys!

After dinner we go for a couple of quiet beers in the hotel the wedding will take place on Saturday, the five star hotel Shangrila. The first round we are served with true silver glasses, which not only help the beer be colder, it also makes the whole experience even cooler. Just like us all, great. We call it a day soon as tomorrow, Friday, we have The Twin Peaks to climb...

What another great day that was - bring on the rest of the week.