After a day of intensive blog catch up and what i call life admin, rounded off by a brilliantly productive meeting about an exciting new project online i was ready for some relaxation. I had found my next 2 nights entertainment, a jazz gig for Friday night and the local rugby team was playing a match on Saturday evening. Result! I was a little disheartened as i left for the jazz bar though, google had advised it would take over an hour to get there from my little boat. It’s relaxing but not great for the old social life!
You wait for ages, and then 2 come along at once…
The bus station was right next to the police pier which is where the main sampan drop off point is at the Marina in Aberdeen, easy peasy i thought to myself. I can always beat a GPS map time, i walk fast… I did not account for the buses in Hong Kong though! Not being a frequent bus user, it was all a bit of an adventure at first. I’m sure i was beaming smugly when there was a bus waiting at the right stop when i arrived at the station. But the doors didn’t open, it just sat and waited, then it turned into the 75 which was not the 72 that i wanted and drove off into the distance. I waited and waited, and more buses came and went, none were the 72 that i needed. Taxis were cruising in and out and i was pondering grabbing one when finally a 72 pulls in. Hooray! i thought and got ready to board, oh no it’s driver break time and they duly got off and locked up the bus for 10 minutes. Another one came in behind it but still no sign of movement, never was that old adage about 2 buses more true than today!
I was fast running out of time, and a bus to Central came in. I was way beyond being able to make it to Causeway Bay on time so i decided to head into Central instead, surely there must be something to entertain a Cake lady in the centre of the city?! The Jazz bar was just not meant to be. I had absolutely no idea where i was going, i didn’t really know what there was to see in Hong Kong in all honesty, it’s just somewhere that i have always wanted to go as i heard the food was good. So i was totally clueless when i got off the bus at Central and decided i would be lost and found in Hong Kong, with a view to working up an appetite for a fabulous local supper.
I started my wander through the madness of Central, immediately coming across a narrow network of steep streets littered
Pottinger St, this Potter’s beacon in Hong Kong
with small food vendors and salons. I was looking for a sign to show me where to head next and saw a little beacon in the midst of all the neon signs “Pottinger Street” it said, well i had to didn’t I?! I pootled off up Pottinger Street, almost ducking into the Pottinger Hotel itself purely for the name, but it was very formal and not really the kind of atmosphere that was looking for. So i continued my quest in awe of all the small hole in wall vendors, making mental notes of places that i wanted to head back to during the day for eats. I got a bit wrapped up in my wanderings and 9pm crept up on me.
By that time I was in an area that was heavily populated bars full of people that looked like they had been on a wine O’clock night out since 5pm. Not really ideal for dinner, and was starting to get a bit hangry when the beacon of the Hard Rock Cafe flashed
Fancy pants Pottinger Hotel, Central, Hong Kong
it’s cheeky lights at me. Now the Hard Rock is not generally my kind of place, but i have a long running joke with a good friend of mine who seeks these out wherever he goes in the world. So i popped in for one Long Island Iced tea to toast him as i promised i would. A few more than one long island Iced teas and a pulled pork sarnie later, i had enjoyed many songs that my Mum and Dad used to play in the car on school/ holiday runs live. I really enjoyed it! From Queen to some other rock stuff that i know to listen to but not the names, it was actually a really good evening! Thanks DW!
Long Island Iced Teas at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hong Kong, they got stronger and stronger as the night went on!
The crowd started to thin out and the banker friend that i had made and i decided to move on somewhere else, he was here on business and was nice enough to chat to. Things got a little tasty though when another guy started chatting to me at the bar, they ended up throwing insults at each other in some sort of odd quest for my honour. I’m not sure what it is about being away that has triggered these quests for my heart, this is not something that this cake lady is used to. I dipped out at that point excusing myself for a trip to powder my nose and to see if a tall, dark, handsome stranger that gave me a huge grin across the bar as he came in was still in there.
He was, and a whole other chapter in Hong Kong started…
Ciao from a tired and slightly hungover cake lady x x x
