...travel to Hong Kong for the Rugby Sevens weekend?

Every year during the last weekend of March, Hong Kong plays host to the Rugby Sevens tournament. Supporters fly in from all over the world during this weekend.

In the spirit of doing something different this year, I made the trip to Hong Kong over the last weekend to take part in my first ever Sevens tournament and it was a really fun experience!

The party starts even before the first rugby ball is played. Local expats and tourists alike packed the bars in Lan Kwai Fong and Wan Chai every night even before the first match started. I was there with KC and we really enjoyed the joyous atmosphere - there was just a party buzz in the air that you seldom enjoy in Singapore.

Of course, there are also plainclothes policemen everywhere, but as I was exclaiming to KC, "they are nothing like the cool ones we see in HK dramas!"

The rugby games started on Friday afternoon all the way to Sunday evening. We skipped the Friday games, but went to watch the games on Saturday and Sunday. I had heard so much about the famous South Stand at the Hong Kong stadium, where all the spectators would be dressed up in costumes of various shapes and sizes and how everyone would be drunk and throwing jugs of beer and even piss, if you believe the horror stories. :)

KC and I went as cowgirls, which was a relatively easy outfit to put together. Thankfully or not, the queue to the South Stand was very long, and so we did not make it in and hence, did not get drenched in beer. As for the games, the Saturday games were kinda boring, as some teams were not evenly matched. But Sunday games were super exciting, and so much more fun to watch! I really salute these Sevens players, they have got to be super duper fit - there are only 7 of them running on the same field that a normal rugby team would play on with 15 players!

Rugby aside, we also had time to go for a private dining experience at Xi Yan. It was my first private dining experience in HK, the food was a bit of a hit-and-miss. Overall, I enjoyed the meal, but there was just too much food for the experience to be enjoyable after a while. There were 4 appetitisers, 7 main courses and 1 dessert! It was not a taster portion, every course came with a super huge bowl for our table, and we could even have 2-3 helpings of everything if we wanted to. Our dinner lasted from 8.30pm to nearly midnight, so really, by the 5-6th course, we were just wondering how much more to go to really enjoy the food. :)

Other than eating and partying, we managed to squeeze in some shopping, though I did not buy as much as I expected to, haha. Did the usual trip to H&M and Espirit outlets, but did not really buy much. I got introduced to a new place to shop during this trip - HK Industrial Centre at Lai Chi Kok. They sell these cut-label dresses for about $80 bucks, which is really cheap, considering that shops in Singapore sell them for about $150! Alas, they did not have the larger sizes of the dresses I picked out, so did not end up buying anything - though I think I will go back there again when I next go to HK. Apparently, we missed out an entire floor! haha.

Lest you think it was all play and no work, we went for a hike on Friday morning! Yes, you did not read wrongly, we went for a hike in HK! The hiking trail is known as Dragon's Back, and it starts at the Shek O Country Park. The guide said it would take us about 2.5 hours for the whole trail, but it only took us about 1.5 hours. :) It was the only clear day the whole time I was there in HK, so I was quite glad we managed to do it. The view from the top was amazing, you never would have thought you were in HK. I thought it looked a bit like Australia! :)

I really enjoyed this trip, can't wait to go back to HK again!