HK: Fun with Foreigners/I only talk to Mexicans/I rode in a car

So Tuesday I bopped about HK island, roaming from mall to mall. I took the tram up to Victoria peak (the highest peak in Hong Kong) to checkout the view. I also hoped to checkout the sunset, but it was rather foggy, and it wasn't all that.

During the afternoon of useless mall wandering (in the fancy Causeway Bay malls) I decided I needed to have some human interaction. So it was time to go to Lan Kwai Fong, where all the westerners go.

Lan Kwai Fong had been recommended to me by a coworker, and I had to admit, it sounded interesting. HK's 'SoHo' district. I was curious - why DO all the westerners go there? It seems silly to go where westerners go, when I can go where westerners go.....uh, always (before now). But walking around the streets of HK you pretty much get ignored, unless you're trying to purchase something. I felt like a chat - and Lan Kwai Fong I thought would provide someone to chat with.

So turns out (SPOILER. If you want to leave LKF a mystery, do not read on) Lan Kwai Fong is sort of a pub street in HK's Central district. Its one block long, and has bars and German-style (well, German themed anyway) pubs. This is where the tourists to go have a drink.

First, I met a nice old Mexican man, who was here for business. He was actually an old German, and invited me to the bar he runs in Mexico. Perhaps I'll go sometime!

Then, the nice old man left, and I turned to the group of people sitting on the other side of me.

The fellow invited me for dinner with them almost immediately. Turns out they were going to have dinner on Victoria Peak! So I went there twice in one night. This invitation-fellow was also Mexican! (Although he was Swiss, version Francais). He was visiting his friends, so all of us rode up in this one fellow's car to the top of the peak.

I mention this car ride especially, because riding in a car in HK is quite unusual - most people don't have one. It was a Mini, which he recommended I do not buy, due to the poor low-end torque.

We had a nice dinner (he brought his sheep dog, quite a nice puppy) in a fancy restaurant on the peak, then went for mango pudding for dessert. They dropped me at the train (MTR) station just in time to catch the second-last train back to Mong Kok. I left the train station all walked the wrong way for several blocks, then decided to take a cab back to the hotel, because it was late.

Two Mexicans and a car ride in one night, not bad!