Last Man Standing

Yesterday was Annie's birthday. There's been drinking going on among the exchange MBA's since I've been here, but last night there was a good excuse to really go crazy. We drank for a bit in the dorms in order to blunt what we expected to be an expensive bar tab and then headed out to Causeway Bay at about 9.30pm.

A few of us were hungry so we stopped in for Thai food on our way to the bar. It was by far the best Thai food I have ever eaten.. So authentic that the pad thai wasn't called pad thai. We bought two large servings of fried noodles, a huge plate of chicken skewers with peanut sauce, shrimp spring rolls, and some French bread for about US$30. It was a ton of food for cheap.

Someone had found a bar with a karaoke room and we were allowed to bring in our massive bags of take out. Now here's the kicker. With nine of us we were able to negotiate an open tab.. all you can drink.. for about US$20 each with the birthday girl drinking for free. And they meant it. We had iced buckets of Carlsberg, a bottle of vodka, and a steady stream of colorful shots from the bar brought to us in large trays.

Needless to say we trashed the place.. And by we I mean the frat boy from California. I shudder to think about the outcome if there were a $20 all-you-can-drink bar in the US. I don't think that the damage was totally unexpected though. Toward the end of the night the boss of the place came in and had a few drinks with us. He seemed happy to have gui-lo (honkies) in the bar and not disturbed at all about the state of his karaoke room.

Eventually the cops came and we had to leave. I'm a little bit fuzzy on why law enforcement was involved, but I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with us. It was very late at this point and the cornucopia of alcohol consumed was catching up with people. The French guy and I were the only ones still functioning, (He claims that Sinatra's My Way is a French song btw which a total lie.) so we herded what was left of our group into a cab and back to HKUST. I'm pretty sure everyone made it back to their rooms although some had to be carried.

Here's a short series of photos that almost tell the story.