Since we had a full week in Hong Kong, we made sure to find the local swing scene and go to the dances. Â There are two regular dances per week in Hong Kong, run by Hong Kong Swings, and we went to both. Â The first was a Sunday dance at a BBQ restaurant and bar called “Blue Smoke” – interestingly, there is another version of Blue Smoke in NYC which I’ve eaten at while seeing a Maria Schneider concert. Â This venue was quite small and only a handful of dancers showed up, but we managed to have a great time nevertheless.
Wednesday night was a much bigger venue, set at a bar called Grappa’s Cellar, which had a great vibe and a lot more space. Â They essentially cleared the main dining portion of the restaurant to make room for the dance, and there were tables set aside for stuff and for people to sit at. Â We really worked up a sweat at this venue.
Since we wanted to meet the HK Swings people off the dance floor as well, we went afterwards to an ice bar near Grappa’s. Â There we had a number of hijinks including meeting American soldiers who worked at the US Embassy, having drinks with them, nearly getting into a fight with them as they got drunker. Â Also interesting was the bartender’s ability to make 7-layer shots and play a game where 4 random bottles from the bar are selected and then the bartender makes a drink from them.
We had a lot of fun, and made it home safely despite being rather off our heads!