Hong Kong Dragon Boat Race

Hong Kong
I woke up around 9 am, Chris and I made our way over to Sha Tin for the Dragon Boat Festival. Armed with information from some guys at the office, the races should run from 10 am to 3 pm on the Shing Mun river in Sha Tin. The Sha Tin KCR station let out right into a mall, and our written directions told us to walk through the mall.

Easy enough, except for the fact that the mall is more like 8 malls, connected over roads and other non-pedestrian friendly places. I stopped to buy a dragon  carving made from Sou Shan stoneware for my travel trinket collection.

We ate at Pizza Hut on the way, and stopped in Toys 'R' Us, where I saw a Return of the Jedi action figure set including Klatu, Barata, Nikto. Pretty cool. If you don't get the reference, watch "The Day the Earth Stood Still" followed by "Army of Darkness."

We arrived at the race course before noon, and there was nothing going on. We sat by the race course for a few hours, thinking maybe they took a break for lunch. There were boats moored by some lane lines, so at least we knew we were in the right place. A Chinese family approached us and asked if the races were over. "Um, yeah, we're just stupid gui-los" should have been our response.

After we got back to our place and changed, we headed down to Central to meet Austin & twelve other people at Igor's. Igor's was a theme dinner restaurant--Rocky Horror style. Paul, Denise, Vanessa, Justin and more were there. I believe there were 14 pitchers for 15 people, as well as a very weak (by frat boy standards) table shot which was served on a 12 foot wooden beam. Three serving trays were on tracks that ran the length of the table, carrying some delicious food. And they had great music. Eighties, and other fun music, then after the show they had a cover band "The Rolling Bones" and we were all dancing on the benches (the table tops were prohibited because of those sliding trays...table surfing?). At one point during the dinner, before the third act in the show, the Elvira character came over to ask me some questions:

Elvira:"Are you enjoying the show so far?"
Me: "mmm. Yeah."
El:"In the event that the Count can't fulfill his duties tonight, would you be
willing to fill in?"
Me:"Uh, sure."
El:"Then let me take off your shirt."
Me:"Eh, okay."
El:"Both of them....Ooooo, You'll do nicely!"

She leaves, and a bit later I put my shirt back on. As it turns out, the Count was akin to the Dr. Frank N. Furter character. I could have had to go in drag. Yeah, baby! After Igor's, we went over to Sherman's (a bar) and had a drink. Then about 10 of us caught cabs to Repulse Bay and laid in the sand watching the stars and stuff. We crashed at Austin's again.

Related Links:

• More posts from: Summer in Asia: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, China, & Indonesia
• End of Tour Summary: Korea
• Our Adventures in New Zealand and Australia