14.6.13 - What links Queen Victoria and spicy fingers?

Our final night out with Jen and ed was a Hong Kong classic - bite to eat in the
expatty mid-levels then on to Wan Chai for drinking and silly dancing.

Let me tell you a little about Wan Chai. It's one of the two most cliched going out
spots in HK, a haunt of the expat and tourist alike, with a sprinkling of locals and
a generous helping of filipinas.

As such I'd be a liar if I said it's not a little seedy. Bars offering free drinks
for women are common; there are some fairly blatant strip joints; and it's not
uncommon as a chap who is not obviously in female company to be unsubtly solicited
if you walk past certain bars outside which benches of scantily clad, cross legged,
bored looking women wait to pounce.

I know that sounds nasty, but broadly Wan Chai is great fun, not at all threatening
and has barely any trouble or crime, ever [though we did see the crappest punch up ever outside a Wan Chai bar when Vinnie was here. Not that he was involved...!]. So long as you skirt the seediness, you're fine.

We guided Jed through the beartraps and into what is essentially our local - the
Queen Vic. It's a British pub but more importantly, it's the hashing pub. So it's
the closest I've had to a Queen Vic experience in the soaps - every time I've been,
I've met several people we know.

After some amiable chatting with hashing chums (including Frank, who featured as my co-hare in an early hashing blog...not only does he still run at 71, but he still goes to bars at 1am. And used to be a helicopter winchman as a hobby. Legend.), Jed began to tire. So we whisked them off to the night's main event - Spicy Fingers.

This is one of the prime venues for Hong Kong's cover bands. I suspect there are in fact only about 4 of these mainly filipino-manned bands, who circulate the bar venues Friday to Sunday; but the quality of musicianship is excellent.

So good in fact that I often feel a bit embarrassed that they are arguably wasted on
the motley crew of sozzled middle aged expats and gyrating younger women (and then us) that surround them...it's been a while since I've been in a party of 2 couples where we
have comfortably been the youngest present and jumping up and down at the very
front. To covers of songs from Erasure to Jessie J.

Sounds embarrassing and not all that fun to read this back...but I promise you it's
genuinely a great laugh.