Hong Kong's Lan Kwai Fong and Wan Chai: Party, and Party Hard
If you want to get liquored up a little and get your groove on, you’ll find Hong Kong’s Lan Kwai Fong quite inviting. The mix of British and Chinese culture equate to a vivacious vibe – the backdrop which hundreds of partygoers from all over the world relax and put their hair down. The diversity of cuisines has equated into dozens of bars in the area, ranging from honky-tonk dive joints to sophisticated wine bars. Restaurants and clubs offer a cornucopia of options for any traveler. Even weekdays see the place filled to the brim with tourists, expats, and locals who wander the streets searching for a great time. The energy is everywhere, seemingly tangible, as sunset sees the beginning of parties which may end well into the morning.
Some of the more popular bars and restaurants in Lan Kwai Fong include The Fringe Club, Hong Kong Brewhouse, Drop, Stormies, and Dublin Jack. Dublin Jack is more of a genteel kind of Irish pubhouse (where, reportedly, the proprietor knows his regulars by face, and most by name. Drunken hijinks are a-plenty at Stormies. Drop is home to the more chi-chi crowd who have money to burn. Hong Kong Brewhouse provides some of the most superb local beers, while the most breathtaking views you can see while enjoying a good martini would be at The Fringe Club rooftop.
Many of the more hardened alcoholics treat Lan Kwai Fong as an aperitif; a place to stretch out before heading (or rather, staggering) into the relatively hard-core hedonism of Wan Chai. The vanilla tourists and club crowd typically remain in Lan Kwai Fong, which is pure as the driven snow, compared to the pleasurable morass of seedy Wan Chai (home to quite a number of Asian escorts).
Wan Chai’s allure has led many to say that what happens in Wan Chai stays there, much like what a lot of tourists state when in Las Vegas. Hong Kong’s version of Sin City has long exuded this aura, especially after soldiers from the Second World War made Wan Chai their playground. The GIs were flush with money, and heady with the incipient thrill of R n’R, which possibly led to the growth of the flesh trade along Lockhart Road.
Nowadays, Wan Chai is just a shadow of what it used to be, although it still shows traces of what it used to be, with the establishments and patrons being more low-key and down to earth than the Lan Kwai Fong crowd. Some nightclubs still abound, and the Japanese escorts, Chinese escorts, Thai escorts, or other Oriental escorts still bring to mind what Wan Chai was like more than half a century ago. Delaney’s, Joe Bananas, Mes Amis, and Dusk ‘Til Dawn are just some of the establishments that close up when then last merrymaker stumbles out the door.
