Below Belief

Late to bed means late to rise. Sloth-like Llew stays in bed after being woken by Andy and his mates in the middle of the night. It takes a huge cooked breakfast wafted under his nose just to get him to open his eyes. We leave at a shameful 3pm to go to Stanley Market. It is raining. In the bus queue there are some Chinese who seem to think that “SAR Day”, as today is being called (Special Administrative Region), and the end of the British rule means that Brits stay at the back of the queue.
We eventually get on the fifth bus which comes along after some forceful pushing. Stanley Market is touristy and tacky but quite cheap, but we’re not really looking for souvenirs this early on in the holiday and besides most of stuff is made in China anyway and will be significantly cheaper bought at source. After a quick bite to eat we return to the flat to get changed for our “Big Night Out”. Llew is eager to relive his rookie Lawyer days, which seem to have consisted largely of doing very little work and drinking inordinate amounts of beer.
The Chinese firework extravaganza is at 9pm tonight and something not to be missed. We head out to Kowloon to eat at the first place we can find – Spaghetti House. The streets are so crowded tonight it reminds me of Edinburgh at New Year. We have an hour before the fireworks are due to start outside and the feeling in the queue as we wait to be seated is one of polite but aggressive impatience to eat as quickly as possible. It turns out that the Chinese couldn’t organise a piss up in a Tsingtao factory. Supposedly experts at firework displays, they don’t do very well in making them easily accessible. Our view of the proceedings, packed as we are into the end of Nathan Road with a million other Chinese and their families and cameras and mobile phones and extra helpings of small children, is further obscured by large buildings in front of us. So much obscured in fact, that for us, the “Fire-and-Lighto experience they promised with claims like “three times as expensive as the British fireworks” ends up being something that happens to other people.
Needless to say the more cost efficient British fireworks last night were a resounding success. We are left with the small pleasure of trying to whip up the expectant Chinese crowd into a frenzy. By cheering loudly and pointing at the sky excitedly we discover we can start a wave of cheering and activity as everyone around us thinks something is happening. The ten minutes of fireworks we actually see would be quite impressive if they weren’t hidden diffusely by all the smoke produced and the low cloud. At the end of the day $100 million is pretty much wasted on a damp squib. Later we have the misfortune of being enticed into the Beer Castle – another of Llew’s old-time haunts. But inside in the refreshingly cool bar we satisfy ourselves with cold Carlsbergs and enjoy the entertainingly active clientele – a German girl sat in the corner with her mother and two older men throwing beer mats at a fat man stood at the bar.
When the evening grows old we try to stimulate our flagging conversation by sending a red rose to the German girl. She laughs shyly and later, when she leaves, comes to thank us. She has to go home to her hotel now but would we like to meet her tomorrow? In a hazy world we shake hands and agree to meet her at 11pm tomorrow back here. Llew rubs his hands in the most distressing of manners. Two girls sitting behind us turn out to be a good laugh although it is long past quality conversation time. ‘Liz and Bryony’ are Brits who live out here but are at university in England. They are rich, spoilt and obviously spend their holidays boozing on Daddy’s money, part of the lively ex-pat youth scene upon which Hong Kong bars thrive.
Chris and I, with too much Carlsberg inside us and thoughts of girls back home decide at 3am it is time to call it a day. After all it is 12 hours since we got up. Llew is still going strong (well, still going anyway) so we leave the man to his rabid death at the hands of Liz and Bryony and grab a taxi home.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 1997 at 1:51 pm and is filed under China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.