KARAOKE

When I say karaoke, what do you see in your mind?


A drunk in a pub singing Midnight Train To Georgia very badly? A hen party singing that song from Grease again? In England, the spectacle of karaoke is open to all. Everyone in the pub is subjected to it, and in turn, every karaoke singer is open to the criticism and praise of those standing at the bar.

Not so in Hong Kong. Karaoke is quite a different experience here. Rather than an individual turn, karaoke is a group experience - and for their entertainment only. There are no Greek choruses here.

When we descended upon the Karaoke place, we got a small private room with en suite bathroom to ourselves. There was a C-shaped sofa, a coffee table and a large screen for the music videos.

The group I was with were quite adept at this karaoke experience and wasted no time in picking up the microphones to warble out a K-pop classic or two. (K - pop is Korean Pop, a dire type of pop music where generic songs are mimed to by cloned teenagers).

The final ingredient of the Hong Kong karaoke experience is alcohol. And lots of it. My generous hosts ordered in several bottles of lager and a very large bottle of whiskey. The whiskey was gradually depleted as we played endless rounds of a dice game akin to poker.

And... I'm afraid I can't remember the rest of the night. Suffice to say that I've never had a hangover quite as Biblical as that before. I was just glad to have (somehow) woken up in my own bed.

As an innocent bystander said, "He woke up and went into the bathroom. Then he was sick. A LOT."

I've always been a bad singer. And even worse drinker.