Designing a day of meandering

October 10, 2007

We were tired today, and tired of all of the smells and noise of Tsim Sha Tsui, so we decided to spend the day leisurely walking around in the Central district of Hong Kong. We went to a buncha art galleries, which I will write more about later, after I can backtrack and figure out what was where and the names of the galleries. Wyndham Steet, which eventually turns into Hollywood Road, is a great little area of galleries, upscale shops and shishi little eating and drinking spots. My favorite trendy stop in the area is a beautifully designed space called Dragon-I, apparently a pretty happenin night club (way too happenin for the tourist geek-wear complete with over-sized camera and desert-sized water bottle I was sportin at the time), but also a good spot to stop in the afternoon for tea and dimsum (or, if it’s particularly hot, I recommend the Pina Colada). There was hardly anyone there in the afternoon when we arrived, so I managed to get a few pix in b4 they told me not to take pictures. They have outdoor and indoor lounge seating, another loungey bar area, and even the bathrooms are so swanky you could spend a while in there, just enjoying the ambience. There are bird cages everywhere outside, and there’s even a big 10ish foot birdcage, which I will not show you pix of so you can enjoy it fully when you go.

After we had our fill of the 2-for-1 Happy Hour specials (a delightfully consistent daily celebration in Hong Kong), we trekked up to the Zoological and Botanical Gardens. In the congestion of the city, Hong Kong has some fairly nice and relaxing green areas. And people really take advantage of it…families, folks reading on benches and one or two people around every turn doing tai-chi. Also, it seems to be fairly common that they have semi-exotic animals in cages in the parks. In this one, there were lots of different birds and monkeys, and there was one really fat jaguar sleeping in a cage way too small for an animal built to run.

One of the weird things we saw was their approach to erosion control…just cement over everything…

We saw the sun go down from the top vista of the park. From that direction, the I.M. Pei Bank of China building steals the show.

We then trekked back down to Wyndham Street for another cocktail. A truly great spot to go for a drink and be in the thick of it while being outside of it at the same time is the rooftop terrace at The Fringe Club. It is only 3 floors up, so the skyscrapers surround you and make you feel like you are actually in a room with walls. It is also, different from the other bars of the area, which is to say it is completely unpretentious, complete with astro-turf and plastic chairs.

We ended the night in the Lan Kwai Fok district, which is an expat frat boy haven/heaven. 3 full streets where cars basically dont drive, and it’s all lined with bars open to the streets. We people-watched for a while, periodically commenting on how all those girls could possibly walk down the steep hill with 4-inch heels on. It was funny, because it seemed like the largest singles bar in the world…we saw the same people over and over again, as they just did laps around the streets. I think this sign says it all about the area. Hopefully you can read the subtext…I wont right it here cause who knows what kind of ads we’d end up with…