After the gorgeous dinner(s!) on Friday evening, I was glad that Saturday was a lower-key day.  Various errands were run in the morning and then I headed to the Renaissance Harbour View Hotel in Wan Chai to check in.  Because Chris and Tehlin had already committed their guest room to a couple who was visiting from Australia (whom I had also met at their wedding) for Saturday night, I cashed in some Marriott Rewards points for a room at this nice hotel, located just behind the convention center.

Chris and Tehlin had arranged for another dinner, this one at JJ’s, a former steakhouse that had become a Thai restaurant.  While still looking very much like its former self, the restaurant, which is located in the Hyatt hotel just next door to the Renaissance, serves very nice and pricey Thai food.  I think I was brought in as the defacto expert on Thai food – a mantle I do not claim – to help guide menu selection.

The restaurant itself is very nice.  Flawlessly attentive staff took care of us and we had secured a private dining room for our party of eight.  This was nice as Sam was able to wander around without disrupting other diners, although he made a break for the door once or twice and was herded back by staff members posted discretely outside.

The cuisine could best be described as palace cooking (I’m not making this up, by the way), some of the more refined dishes in the Thai cuisine canon, in addition to some of the more expected “commoner” dishes such as som tum (green papaya salad).  Portions were small, necessitating double orders of some things so that everyone could have a taste. 

While it was really tasty, well-prepared and with the best quality ingredients, there is a part of me that thinks, “okay, why are we paying this much for Thai food?”  One of the benefits of living here is that you can get really, really tasty Thai food for a much more reasonable price.  But then, the experience and atmosphere and attentive staff were part of the equation and they definitely made for a very nice evening.

After dinner I headed out to meet up with Edward in Central.  When I lived in Hong Kong back in 1998-99, I met Edward at Club 1997 in Lan Kwai Fong just three days before my birthday.  He became a good friend and showed me around Hong Kong, taking me to interesting temples and other off-the-tourist-beaten-path attractions.  Unfortunately, his boyfriend Terry was feeling a bit shy so had headed home already, which was a disappointment as I was excited to meet him.  Next time, perhaps.

Edward played the perfect host, and since I wasn’t sure where to go (how many years has it been since I’ve been out on the town in Hong Kong?) he took me first to Lan Kwai Fong, then up a few blocks to Hollywood Road where the greatest concentration of gay bars is.  Nothing was looking terribly interesting, with LKF packed on the lower blocks with overcrowded straight bars and nothing yet was happening along Hollywood Road.  So he suggested we walk over to Sheung Wan and visit Rice Bar.

Along the way, I think I spotted Ben Chan with whom Tawn worked at the Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center in San Francisco.  I know that Ben moved to Hong Kong several months ago, but am not sure if it was him.  He was a block down the street, walking in the opposite direction with two gweilo.  Since I wasn’t sure it was him and didn’t feel like hollering out on a crowded street, I just let him continue walking.

Rice Bar is in a quiet section of Sheung Wan that Edward tells me “they” (unsure who they are) are trying to make into a bit of a gay district.  So far, Rice Bar is the only thing there, as all the regular businesses and shops were closed for several hours already.  Rice Bar is notable first and foremost because it is one of the few non-smoking bars in Hong Kong.  The space is small but nicely appointed with lots of mirrors and fashionable lighting.

The bar itself is square in the middle of the room, covered (beneath a glass countertop) with rice – thus the name.  At least on Saturday nights, there is an offer where you can get free well drinks if you are shirtless.  Only a few customers had taken up this offer, but the four bartenders were all participating, I’m sure encouraging the crowd to linger.

While Rice Bar is known primarily as a “sticky” bar (from the term “sticky rice” which refers to Asians who are attracted to other Asians, as opposed to “rice and potato” couples), there was actually a nice mixture of people including several mixed couples and a few lesbians.  Edward and I settled in and were catching up, watching the crowd, and enjoying the scene.

As I’m sitting there looking around, I notice that someone has walked in the front door who looks a lot like… could it be? … Corey from San Francisco.  Sure enough, Corey, the former director of the SF Int’l Asian American Film Festival and now an independent film producer, was with a group of people and heading slowly through the crowd.

Figuring that the tide of people would circulate him past me, I just waited patiently.  Sure enough, a few minutes later he comes up to the bar, turns to order, looks at me and does a double-take.  It was precious.  So it turns out that he’s in town on business and will be around for a few days.  Introductions, chit-chat, etc.

A few minutes later, another familiar person steps up to the bar on my left.  I turn and look and there’s Tim, the symphony director with whom I had dinner just last night.  So I say hello and we chat for a few minutes. 

Add to that Edward’s running into one of his colleagues, and the evening was just chock full of crossed paths.  Which actually makes one wonder just how large (or small) the world is, after all.

As the evening wore on and Edward decided to return home to his boyfriend, I ended up speaking with a pair of friends who were in town from Kuala Lumpur, one Malaysian and the other Singaporean.  They travel to Bangkok frequently and one, Richard, is actually going to be here in July, so we exchanged email addresses.  Tawn and I have talked about visiting KL and it would be nice to have more people who can shed some light on the local scene, where to go, where to eat, etc.

“But wait!” you exclaim, “Isn’t talking to strangers dangerous?  What about your husband?!”

I’ve discovered that there is a very effective litmus test to determine the intentions of other gay men who start chatting with you (and I suppose there is a straight corollary to this, too): I simply mention early in the conversation that I have a husband already.

This is an easy subject to introduce as one of the first questions people ask is, “where are you from?” to which I respond, “Bangkok.”  Which leads to the inevitable, “what are you doing in Bangkok?” which then very neatly arrives at, “I moved there for my husband of six-plus years to whom I’m dearly committed and wouldn’t leave for you no matter what you’re hoping.”  Of course, I don’t usually need to be quite so explicit!  They get the point.

So from there, if they drift away rather quickly, it is apparent where their intentions lie.  If they are still interested in continuing the conversation, all pretense and potential misunderstanding has been cleared away.

As the Rice Bar crowd began to dwindle I decided it was time to call it a night: I had an early day or saililng on Sunday.  So I said goodby to my acquaintences from KL, made plans with Corey to meet for drinks on Monday and then caught a cab back to the hotel, thankful for the inexpensive and plentiful taxis in Hong Kong.