So how did I spend my evening in Hong Kong? By celebrating Queen's Day, of course! No, not a celebration of Elizabeth, but a celebration of the Dutch queen, specifically the birthday of Queen Juliana.

A bit odd? Okay, perhaps I should back up a bit.

After shopping for a new camera battery, some much-needed hair cream, and a few DVDs, I met up with my friend Matt, who was attending a get-together at another friend's house. There was delicious chicken lasagne, vodka mix drinks, and the chance to enjoy such cable TV delights as "The World's Most Amazing Videos" (ie. one hour of people almost dying from various disasters), and the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds. And of course plenty of talk.

After this, one of Matt's friends insisted on heading to Dragon-I. The problem with this place is that it's members only. None of our group were members, although the person wanting to go knows a few. Matt complained that once again all the girls would get in just fine, but the guys would have to pay the cover charge. This happened. So myself and Matt (the only two guys in the group) decided not to bother.

But one of his friends was at a bar nearby, in Lan Kwai Fong, celebrating the Dutch holiday. So we headed down there.

My god it was packed! I've never seen the street so packed apart from on New Year and the Handover. And it was packed with Dutch people. Shoulder-to-shoulder, the whole street was just filled with Dutch people. I've never seen so many Dutch people before in my life, and I've been to Amsterdam!

But we joined in. It was festive, and it was good company (although some of the music was a bit strange - though most people there didn't seem to mind so much.) Also, La Dolce Vita (the bar I ended up in at midnight on the Handover because I couldn't get further up the street) was all done up in orange, and pictures of the current Dutch queen, and her mother, whose birthday is the cause of the celebration.

We got to talking about F-Stop (a bar on Lan Kwai Fong we used to often go to, the one I was trying to get to by midnight on that fateful evening). Matt was sure it was much further down the street than I had said, but I knew otherwise. Back in 2002, I'd been to the place, though it was no longer F-Stop. Now, it was a place called Lost. The tables and chairs are different, but everything else in the interior (apart from the lighting and the choice of drinks) is exactly the same.

I had a pint of Desmond, Matt had a Bloody Ben Linus, and Matt's girlfriend, To Mai, had a bottle of Penny. Okay, so I lied. There was no smoke monster, no magic room, and no conspiracies. Although we were on an island.

It was a great place to finish the night.

I decided to take the bus back to my hotel, instead of a taxi, because that's what I used to do when I lived here before. Not as fast as the taxi, but much faster and more convenient than trying to take the subway home late at night in New York. I only had to wait about 5 mins for the bus. Didn't take me long at all to get home.

Today I have a similar fate ahead of me as yesterday - have to leave in three hours for the airport. But at least it's a longer flight this time. I have to say, though, that I almost wish I wasn't going to Tokyo right now (and not for that reason). Though I'm sure it'll be fun.