A really big night in Wanchai.

Not even I could pull a bar tab this big. Especially at the Old China Hand. However, according to Hemlock-someone did:

Now that’s a pretty big bar bill-even at 7.76 HKD to the US Dollar.  There has to be a story behind it and there was:

Super Happy Hour has just begun, and the Hong Kong Association of Gwailos Married to Southeast Asian Women of Humble Origins decide to decamp to the notorious bar zone.  In the interests of anthropology, I agree to go too, and after a 10-minute taxi ride find myself in a place that is crowded, noisy, smoky and, above all, dark.  As the eyes adjust, the true gruesomeness becomes apparent.  You would not want lighting in here. A genetic engineering experiment that went wrong sits in a gloomy corner, shoveling ketchup-drenched Cornish pasty and chips into his mouth with bare, bulging fingers.  At the next table, a fat middle-aged Filipino woman with a slightly fetching mother-of-three demeanour nuzzles up to a dozing man who could be her father except he’s white.  At the bar sit a pair of very large and exuberant African prostitutes, a young guy who – according to Ken as he points him out and I turn to stare – attacks people if he thinks they are looking at him, and a menopausal divorcee school librarian who I am told sometimes livens things up by falling off her stool. At the other end, a small mob of Southeast Asian women – charitable average age 30-something – dance while being pawed by surprisingly sprightly, flabby white men who are well past groping, not to say retirement, age.  What did the inventor of Viagra think he was doing? (Except where otherwise specified, all the above are British.  But does that need to be said?)

Truth in advertising-I’ve logged a few hours in the OCH, but mostly as a "warm up stop" before moving on to Jaffe Road where the big game can be found. And now-here in Shopping Mall USA, I do find myself missing it so. But I have to admit-I’m smarter about my bar money. Most times anyway……… These guys are in a league unto themselves.