Nightlife in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is all about the area around Central called Lan Kwai Fong, which is the biggest bar and club mile in the city. Apart from a few exceptions there us this street which goes into a circle and to the left and write are only open bars where everything comes together. Tourists, banker, chinese or western ppl are hanging out on the same streets drinking singing and dancing. However it is quite phascinating how the level of craziness starts rising and one might think it can escalate quite easy but it doesn't. The bars and clubs are so close together that if you stand inbetween them you can here both sides of the very loud music which is a bit irritation and not for wverybody.

The drinks are normal european prices but there are special offers such as happy hours where you buy 2drinks get 1 free or sonething. Shi-Sha bar next to hip hop club. Techno meets fancy posh bar and so on but if somebody has a specific taste of music or interest in DJ it's not the place to be as there is mainly music ala david Guetta, Pitbull or Usher just as an example...
Nothing for a weak heart or shy personality but worth to experience and fun if your out with your mates and drubk as hell ;))

In between these free of entry open bars are a few clubs were girls are usually for free and guys are paying between 150-400 HK$ but if you are with a girl and good in talking they might let you in fir free too, but don't expect any other type if music than commercial house or RnB inside these clubs.

However, there are a few small exceptions to Lan Kwai Fong which includes snall legal and illegal raves which is mainly Drum and Bass based, but usually only 1 or twice a month.

One of these locations are the XXX club in Sheun Wan. The space isn't big but the crowd is much more relaxed, serious but fun and music orientated than in Central.

It's allowed to bring your own drinks smoke inside. This location is always looking for new underground artists and a nice change to the craziness in Lan Kwai.

The middlevel escalators

On the second day I first decided to visit Sheun Wan, the very last stop on the island line. Where I made a traditional chinese seal stap carved into a stone with my name in traditional chinese. The colour of the stone is up to you and the icon animal on the top should be usually your chinese star sign, which isn't like ours about months. It's about the year you are born in. Me: 1987=rabbit!
Cost:150HK$ includes the red ink and a small box in red ir green.
Time: abou 1-2days

Recommended as very personal present for friends and family. ( see first picture underneath)

Later on I met a friend from my hometown in Graz who was visiting his relatives here. We decided to go central and duscover the middlevel escalator which go from the very bottom to the top of the island hill as this part of the city is build quite high up.

The fun bit here is the fact you get up pretty fast without walking or doing a lot. The escalators are inbetween the housed but higher than the streets and an interestin viewpoint you usually never experience or only inside houses.

Fun city discovering attraction!

Traveling in Hong Kong

The traveling systems in Hong Kong are very good. A lot of locals don't even own a driving licence as there are various buses the MTR(that's how they call the tube/ubahn) and trams.

Usually the doubledecker-tram is only going from one side to the other on Hong Kong island so there is not much which can go wrong if you want to go from one side to the island to the other. cost per travel: 2,40GK$ and you have to get on, on the backside and get off at the front where you pay before you leave not beforehand.

The tube or MTR (metro) is the fastes public transport which is a lot smaller than the london tube system. You will need to buy and top up the "octopus"card which is the "osyter" card in london. Once you are on one of the tubes there are little LED lights in the station poins. The red ones are the station still to come and there is a little arrow which shows you the direction you are going which makes it a lot easier to realise if you are on the wright ir wrong tube. Central(for example) is one of the connection station to another line which where all of the the LED lights/stops on this line will blink on the board inside the tube while you approaching the stop(see picture underneath). This makes it again easier to know that it is possible to chance here.

Furthermore, there is another button on the very right top bit of the tubemap inside the MTR which tells you which side to get off(see picture underneath).

Some people think that HK has a overgrowded tube system and seen the documentations where ppl squeezing other ppl inside a train. THIS IS JAPAN! Not china! Here it's quite relaxed even in the rush our are the trains full but there are so many coming after another that it's not a big deal to wait for the next one.

You will come across another very clever system while waiting for the train in front of the tracks. EVERY stop has a glass wall so ppl can't jump or fall onto the tracks. There are marked waiting lines(see picture underneath) where you start lining up as the doors are exactly opening at these spots and you don't have to guess.

Purchasing a travel ticket is very easy as you only have type on the station on one of the ticket machines inside the MTR stations and it will show you the price from your station to get there.

Another public transport are the feries from the piers in the harbour which are going to the various small island around HK. (see last picture)

Austria-London-Hongkong in 17h

As I've chosen to fly with british airways I started ny exciting journey on the 06th of Feb. 2013 and had to change in London Heathrow Terminal 3-5.

The flight itself was really relaxed. I guess if you know that such a long journey is ahead you, your system and mental mindset is different.
I watch 2 movies on the plain in the economy class. I was quite luck as the seat next to me stayed free and emty so I had the same space as in the first class ;)

The food wasn't really exciting as we had cold wraps, but then the warm kutchen was better:chineses chicken with salat and orange chocolate mouse.

After my 2 movies I fell asleep and when I woke up the pilote saud it's just 20min before landing. I was never really good in sleeping on a plain but this time a bought a neckholder thing for sleeping and it was the best thing I ever bought. Especially as the next flight to Melbourne in 1week tine will be an 8h nightflight.

The reason why I've choosen to stay in HK for 1 week is that I live here last yr from Sep.-Dec.2011 because I got the amazing opportunity to work for a small design studio in Sheun Wan on the island side called C7Design studio.

Ever since I stayed in really good contact with them and I'm happy to call them my friends as well. Dennis Vetu is the founder and started his company with Twiggy, his Hongkong/Chinese wife.

After arriving at the Hongkong international airport, you have to fill out an immigration slep with your contact details and where you going to stay in the country.

Hongkong is a very friendly city for visitors, as an Austrian or Europen you get the chance to stay 90 days only with a tourist visa in the country. Twiggy once told me that they even changed the law recently, so if you live in Hongkong for more than 10yrs you get the citizenship/nationality.

The train from the aurport to the city costs one way 100HK$ that's like 10€ and it inly takes 24min.

After the train arrived in Hongkong Central station I bought an Octopus -underground travel card which is the same as in London but in the UK it's called Octopus card. I guess the name is similar as HK once belonged to the british colony.

However, I took the blue island line with straight to "Causeway Bay" the shopping heart of HK and one of the most central and exciting parts as there are a lot of shops, restaurants and always people on the street all night long.

My hostel is called "Hongkong Hostel" and next to the Burrbery entrance. I chose this hostel as from my first experience when I was here in April 2011 the price was cheap and the rooms nice and clean. There is no real luxury but you don't have to stay in an expensive hotel dependi g on your standards. For me, it's only important to have a save, clean, warm water an airconditional stay as most of the time I'll be out anyways.

The first problem I was facing was the fact that the reception didn't know about the fact that I won the money back on hostelbookers.con so I had to pay the full price myself, which later on after a few phone calls went back on my Visa account.

From my experience when you travel a lot it is always good to have a visa card as a normal depit card can damange easily, suddenly stop working ir not every bank will accept it, while a Visa is well known everywhere!

Anyways, for 6 days I had do to pay 2500HK$+100 for deposit +20 for every extral towel. Later in I'll get the 100 back if I bring them they key.

Further on I saw my room for the first time. It is on the 13th floor with an overlarges single bed with nice ticker badsheeds ( as the nights are not that hot any more. A fridge and a TV is provided. I have my own bathroom with a toilet and a small shower, just perfect for myself. The heater needs to be switched on 10min before showering. I appriciated the large windows to the backside if the building as it was really quite eventho you are right in the center of HK.

After a quick shower I decided to visit Dennis and Twiggy but as I wanted to suprise them and didn't tell them beforehand that ai'm coming they went out and I was standing in front of closed doors. Anyways I'll try it again tmw!

For this evenIng I took the doubledecker-tram back to Causeway Bay and decided to wonder around in my area. I realised pretty quickly that I missed HK too much and at 8pm I went for a massive sushi dinner in Causway bay and a bit of shopping as there was sale everywhere.

Ggod night day 1