Hong Kong's Wan Chai is no holds barred for nightlife

Dewi Anggraeni Contributor Hong Kong

Once upon a time, or rather, at some point of time in the 1950s, novelist Richard Mason came to stay in a hotel in Hong Kong, where he wrote a book about a touching but unlikely love story between an American artist and a Hong Kong prostitute.

The story was set in Wan Chai, a part of Hong Kong Island where the Wesley Mission and the red-light area are almost literally within earshot of each other.

The World of Suzie Wong became a best-seller, and was for a long time a favorite play performed around the world. It was even made into a box-office film.

Years later another novelist, Gavin Young, came to stay at the same hotel in Wan Chai, and wrote Slow Boats to China, which also became a best-seller.

So, is there something magical about this Wan Chai?

Magic, like anything intangible, only visits those it randomly and seemingly arbitrarily touches. Maybe that is also the reason people want to see where magic has been.

However, to find in today's Wan Chai, the ambience which invoked the creative je ne sais quoi in writers like Richard Mason and Gavin Young, it is necessary to visit the place in the evening, preferably after 10 p.m.

This is because during the day, devoid of the night atmosphere and colorful incandescent lights at various heights overhead as well as at eye-level, the vibes of a commercial center selling mostly bathroom fittings, Wan Chai could only inspire those who have interior decorating in mind.

In the evening, the place assumes a different personality. The center of Wan Chai's nightlife, Lockhard Road, comes alive with numerous girlie bars, with one or two more "respectable" pubs sandwiched between them. This is such a convenient arrangement, because these pubs serve sensible food as well as reasonably priced drinks.

It is advisable to have your sustenance in one of these establishments before you continue your exploration. Once you enter a bar where scantily-clad young women saunter sexily on stiletto-heeled shoes, or gyrate sensuously on the table, forget about food, if you haven't already by then.

From this point onwards, the jaunt will benefit male more than female visitors, so it is just natural that the costs are also tilted more heavily toward their end. Unless you, and here I mean male visitors, just want to sit and gawk at the alluring women -- in which case you can buy a glass of something innocuous for HK$55 (US$12) and hold on to it for the whole evening -- you need to set aside a budget for your personal entertainment.

As soon as you enter, a very prepossessing woman, usually young and wearing something which may remind you of a bedroom but not necessarily your own, will welcome you warmly, announcing that it is her birthday and asking you to buy her a drink.

So you buy her what is known as a "lady's drink" for HK$220, and she will be happy to tell you her life story. If you become too friendly, your companion will ask for another drink.

At this point a seasoned girlie-bar patron will know what to do. He'll look at his watch then look around. If it is late (or early if you are thinking of the new day) and the bar looks deserted, you can get away with buying a "small lady's drink" for HK$110. Your companion may become a little less enthusiastic as a result, however.

To a fellow woman, these bar girls are generally friendly and happy to chat if the bar is not too busy. Most of them are not from Hong Kong but from the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. While to Westerners they look 19, they are actually in their mid- twenties, and many have families to support back home or somewhere in Hong Kong.

What you get at Wan Chai's girlie bars is a titillating type of a temporary companionship. There are no strip-tease or live sex shows.

When you have had enough of being titillated, you can cool down and recuperate round the corner, at one of the most frequented pubs by expats, Delaney's Irish Pub, where, if you forget to look out into the streets, you'll think you are in Dublin. The decor is heavily Irish, the patrons mostly Caucasians speaking with various accents from the British Isles. Occasionally you hear American or some European undertones. Even the Asians here speak English with choppy accents.

And the Luk Kwok Hotel? It is still there, having been remodeled into a more modern accommodation, and more upmarket compared to the way it was in Mason's and Young's days. However, if you bring your own old-fashioned typewriter, and clutter up your room with some nostalgic items, you may just recreate the atmosphere to inspire a restless soul to write another chef d'oeuvre. Good luck.