New Year's Beijing Style

Well it is now Wednesday and I can safely say that I am now recovered from the weekend. Sunday however was not pretty. Spent most of the afternoon curled up on the sofa unable to focus on whatever it was I was trying to watch. New Year’s eve started with drinks at Jaque’s apartment before heading for an excellent dinner at Cafe Sambal. Lot’s of goof Malaysian food to say farewell to 2005. We had planned to get to Ruud’s house party in time for midnight but after much back and forth with the group, I was out voted and it was decided to spend it in Bed Bar just up the street. Apparently there was concern over not getting across Beijing in time and seeing in the New Year en route in a xiao li (beijing cab) gan bei-ing (cheers) with the driver. Some people have no sense of adventure…. bah!

New Year done and dusted, we hot-footed it over to Ruud’s penthouse apartment in Ocean Paradise. Things did not look good on our arrival when we met the police in the lift on the way up, but our fears were quickly dispelled once we got upstairs. Ruud and his entourage had done an excellent job of turning his enormous place into a venue to rival most night clubs. Excellent fun with lots of bubbles to keep us in the style to which we are accustomed :)

Later as things were winding down, we headed on to Suzie Wong’s (with a quick detour for a whizz around Tango) where things may or may not have taken a turn for the worst. Suffice to say I found myself stumbling home after dawn. My name at that point escapes me….

Other photos at Ruud’s party were also taken by Ruud, Denise and Jessie.

Photos: Denise

Photos: Jessie

See the whole album on Flickr →