Let's face it, balls are usually boring stuffy affairs where you get all gussied up and have a civilized conversation over dinner. If you're lucky, you might end up doing some ballroom dance moves with some feisty seniors. The yacht club ball was nothing like that. It was actually fun! (Maybe this is "the real world?")
The crowd was young-ish (mid twenties-mid forties) and there were at least 1000 people there.
The Yacht Club is a stunning venue. It’s a nautical/colonial building with roofs, terraces and a swimming pool overlooking Victoria Harbour and the twinkling city lights. On top of that, it was the night of the full moon.
The theme of the ball was “Shanghaied- Pirates of the South China Seas”.
Everyone looked so glam in their tuxes and gowns. Alternately, some people came in costumes (and I thought Halloween was over). Some people were wearing Chinese cheongsams, some were dressed like 17th century pirates with wigs and feather hats and one guy even had on a super hilarious costume that made him look like he just washed up from a shipwreck. He had a life preserver around his waist and real cuttlefish attached to his back! Obviously he stank and by the end of the night, he had either lost the cuttlefish, or got hungry and ate them.
At 7:30PM, they had an outdoor standing cocktail with free-flow champagne and a light show with dancing dragons. Then at 9PM, people were seated for dinner in all the colonial rooms with the wooden shuttered windows. By 11PM, the al fresco dance floors were full of people getting their groove on. One floor had a live band and one level had a DJ who was spinning all drunken people’s greatest hits: Dancing Queen, YMCA, Barry White etc…As the night wore on, women started to take off their designer stilettos so they could boogie down. On a surreal note, someone dressed as a chicken started to spin me around the dance floor. Another French guy cut in for a twirl and he literally picked me up and flipped me around. No joke! I was airborne! Thank God I landed on my feet…At 1 AM they put out the much needed ‘after midnight buffet’ to fuel the dancers appetites. We tried to make it to the 7AM survivor photo, but we didn’t even make it to the 5AM breakfast buffet. My feet were throbbing after all the dancing and there was no way I could get the shoes back on. By that time, almost everyone was barefoot.
SEE PICS AT THIS LINK:
http://www.seoulstyle.com/liza-world/yacht/neon.htm
The day after was perfect despite the fact that we woke up late and hungover. We were going to revisit a flat that we liked in Repulse Bay that has an enormous terrace overlooking the sea . The terrace alone is 1100 square feet! And the view, Whoa! There are no words to describe it. The flat itself was pretty crappy but the landlord intended on doing some major renovations. When we revisited, the renovations had just begun and the workers had knocked out all these walls to make room for picture windows and floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors. The flat looked like a construction site but you could tell it was going be stunning. Absolutely speechless stunning. We didn’t want to get our hopes up, but there’s a very good chance we will be living there by the New Year.
Afterwards we decided to hop over to Deep Water bay beach where one of the most gorgeous afternoons in Hong Kong history was taking place. The sky was so clear. There were no clouds and not a trace of smog. The air was dry and temperate and the sun was just beginning to cast its golden light on the sandy shore. There’s a beach bar there overlooking the water called UNO. It’s flanked with palm trees, bamboo fencing and it’s painted a happy blue color. They were playing this really snappy French reggae music. Rastaman vibrations, yeah, positive! ooohhhooohhh
We stopped here for a cold beer and a swim. Then we made reservations at this funky little resto in Shek-O called The Black Sheep. We had some time to kill so we wandered around Stanley market for about an hour. Finally we made it to dinner where the atmosphere was tropical and candelit. The Black Sheep is this eclectic little thatched roofed house with disco balls and an outdoor terrace overlooking a cool old Chinese temple. It didn’t feel like we were in Hong Kong. It felt like we were in Thailand or Indonesia. It felt like we were on holiday. That’s what life is like when you live on the Southern part of Hong Kong island. I’m so looking forward to living there! I can totally see myself strumming my acoustic guitar on that terrace. Nevermind that I don’t have a guitar yet, nor do I know how to play. One needs to dream….
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