We met up with our friend from Shenzhen and she took us to dim sum, shopping, then dropped us off at Window of the World (she is too nice!). Dim sum was really good and relatively cheap, except certain starving kids got carried away with ordering food, and we had way too much leftovers.

This is like maybe 1/3 of what we had

The Shenzhen Metro is a lot like the ones in many other large metropolitan areas. Declining-balance card, or single journey tickets. Only stupid TTC runs on prehistoric non-electronic ticketing/tokens. I realize I bash on Canada/Toronto a lot, so I will say that the one thing TTC does right is having the ‘next stop’ announcements on their buses. Buses in HK all have crazy windy routes, so knowing when it’s your stop without knowing the area is extremely difficult and non-intuitive. I’ve under/overshot my stop countless times.

Shenzhen shopping was super cheap. I got a couple items including A&F (probably fake but look pretty legit) flipflops for around CAD 2 and they are the most comfortable flipflops ever! I need to go back and buy more pairs in other colours.

Shenzhen's oldest McDonald's

Window of the World is a theme park-type-ish attraction that has miniature replicas of famous worldwide structures. I found it rather gimmicky overall, but a few models were quite opulent.

Window of the World subway entrance: Mini-Louvre

We started off in Asia (Azn pride, yo) and worked our way through Oceania, Africa, the Americas, Dinosaurs (wtf?), and Europe. Europe not really because we arrived pretty late and a lot of the buildings were closed off already. LAME! A lot of the models look pretty good from afar, but when you go up close, you can tell they are really dirty, and not very well maintained.

Grand Palace in Thailand!

Taj Mahal in India

Sydney Opera House in Australia

Italy, and Eiffel Tower in background

Egyptian desert

Notice the WTC. You know they haven't even bothered within the last 9 years.

Dinosaurs! I dunno why

At around 7:30 we went to the main stage area to watch a dance show. They re-created some classical stories such as Cinderella and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The costumes, choreography and sets were all very impressive but by then we were all so tired, we didn’t stay for the entire thing. In fact my other two companions were asleep for the majority of the performance.

We grabbed a quick dinner at Ajisen Ramen (in Toronto they would be considered ‘pretty good’ but it’s just a waste of money to have it in Asia) because we really couldn’t find anywhere else that was decent to dine, then tried out the egg tarts at KFC. They had these egg tarts with some kind of mochi filling, and it was SO GOOD.

YUM

After that, we really needed to head back to Hong Kong, else the MTR would shut down. Instead of Lok Ma Chau, we went through the other border crossing, Luohu Port, because we were closer. Sketchiest border I’ve ever crossed in my life.

To HK? Or to the fiery mouths of doom?

On the way back, we called up a few other friends to see what they were up to, and decided we could all meet up in Central to chill at an LKF bar for a while. Little did we realize there was a huge celebration going on at LKF for the Rugby Sevens. It was crazy, jammed with people dressed up, drunk, high, cheering, yelling, and just all-around merry. In the middle of a street, between several bars, there was a group of Canadians warbling our national anthem, so Karen and I joined in for a round of O Canada.

Rugby Sevens madness at LKF. This is just one small area. Many ex-pats!

We hit up a couple bars (the first one had crappy music), ran into a few other exchange students, and despite being exhausted from Shenzhen, somehow managed to trek to 3am dimsum and back home.

Disclaimer: Photos from this post are courtesy of Mr. La.

I had heard a lot about LKF. The types of people that frequent it, the crazy stories, and the rumours. What I was not prepared for were the pools of people, mostly in their 20s or 30s, and a lot of businessmen, just swarming the streets. If you go to the clubbing district in Toronto, there are random spatters of club-goers lined up outside a few venues, but LKF was almost like a party on the streets.

Some basic LKF club scene facts I have amassed:

• For the most part, covers range from 100-500 depending on the venue, and it’s usually open bar.
• Thursdays are Ladies’ Night. Ladies get free cover in many clubs, and free open bar. Mens’ covers start at around 200+. This makes it very convenient for girls who want to go club-hopping.
• Many people just wander the streets, swigging alcohol.
• If you befriend the bouncers or DJs, you can get free cover and alcohol anytime.
• It’s very easy to get into clubs if you have no guys in your group. Also helps if you are a group of hot girls.
• The clubs have pretty good music, playing both Asian and western genres. ‘Nobody‘ comes on a lot. It’s fun, and everyone goes crazy singing/dancing to it.
• The clubs are open until very late. Back home, people start emptying out around 2:30 am. We left at 4:30 am and the place was still packed.

Some basic club-goer facts I have amassed:

• Most people are expatriates. LKF is the only place where you will find more foreigners than locals.
• Although smoking is technically not allowed indoors, everyone does it anyways.
• If there is a lack of space on the dance floor, people will just use their body to push you until you realize you aren’t even on the dance floor anymore.
• The guys in the clubs are very direct. They will dance with you and try to feel you up, make out with you, or both. Sometimes they will ask before they attempt to do so. Sometimes not. They will also try to isolate you from your friends, if you were dancing in a group. These are usually the locals; the foreigner guys usually just stick with the group they came from.
• A lot of girls are very willing to make out and/or go home with these guys.
• There are many creepy older guys who probably make a lot of money but club frequently looking for one-night-stands and hence are creepers.
• Bartenders are cute.

So those were my initial impressions. It was overall very fun, and we acquired some interesting stories to tell, so I think I’ll be making my way back there in the near future. Sorry, I forgot to snap some photos for this post. I am so behind in blogging. I swear I will try to be more diligent.