SupperClub, London

It has been a request of one of my friends, WW, to organise a SupperClub night for almost a year and finally another friend, P, took it up as part of our “No More Secrets-London” group. Not realising it until a week prior to hitting the Portobello club, I have actually been to both the Bangkok and the Istanbul flavours of this clubbing sensation and seriously enjoyed both… SupperClub is basically an experience rather than just a club….

Rocking up at 7PM you are invited in to an average looking bar where you liquefy yourself with overpriced but well made cocktails. At 8:30 the huge double dours swing open to reveal a large white room, surrounded by Huge white beds with little glass tables supporting a selection of crystal!.... As the night goes on your 5 course meal is served and the entertainment is put on, this ranged from cross dressing overweight opera singers to cross dressing fire breathers.. pretty immense…

High lights of the night would be rugby tackling each other across the beds and the masseuses doing their thing!

I would definitely recommend this place, putting it above Istanbul and Bankok simply due to the club layout, but make sure you go for the whole package rather than just the clubbing, as the groups that arrived later 11PM and on, didn’t really get much more of an experience than you would heading to any other standard club…

Song:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2vLiQwyGmY&playnext_from=TL&videos=n8hR2wDD1Eg

Drink: Grey Goose Magnum

Type: Bed Club

££$$: ££££/£££££

Best memory: falling asleep to a masseuse while watching a cross dressing opera singer and being fed duck

Worst memory: Jack Cam biting everyone

lIfe iS tEtris

in addition to yapping on about all my little adventrures I have even more to say....

Basically a running commentary of my thoughts....

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Life is Tetris

The Lost Angel, Battersea, London

This place was a huge surprise, being a regular to lost society near Clapham we had never heard of this little place, which turned out to be immense and not so little. Unlike lost society and artesian well, £5 taxi away there is no queue at a pumping electronic location, more a heaving bar than a club, but still an impressive night… The place closes early so heading on somewhere like MOS may be an idea if your still looking to party. This will most definitely be added to the repertoire of random London fun!! 

Ministry of Sound, London

I have only ever been here once before, and all I had in remembrance of the night was a photo I took on my phone. This time however I got to experience what I would call a less hidden slightly more commercial “EGG”. We arrived at 3am to find out the Pete Tong was playing a set at the time…and wow! He did an absolutely mind blowing job… The place is as you expect, very large, full with a huge mix of people from slightly rah to ghetto, the music is immense, considering they put on a 24hr radio station from the building this would be standard and of course it’s very very loud….There is an amazing hot dog stand and huge smoking areas… If you are looking for a safe grimy night which is walking distance from waterloo get involved… 

ROUNDHOUSE, Camden and O2 Academy, Brixton - London

Two for one .... Recently I have been trying to mix up our party experiences and have found that live music is not only amazing, but a total different experience with every different act... Two experiences I have recently had and definately recommend are the round house in Camden and o2 academy in Brixton.

I went and watched Calvin Harris, yes I know it's very 16yr old girl, at the round house and it was very impressive... The clasic center stage with a standing area and a second floor circle for the sitters.... Nice and small, so you really get to have the full blast of the music.....Calvin Harris was actually brilliant and really knows how to get a crowd going slash laughing....

Second show was hot chip and casio kids in Brixton. This place is much cooler than the roundhouse however it is quite a bit bigger and hence you have to push through a huge number of people to get anywhere near the stage. The entire theatre is slanted, giving a good view to everyone standing and almost a colloseum feel...hot chip were immense, much louder and fun than the standard recorded music... Casio kids, the supporting act, were awesome!!! 


Hitting Chemical brothers in May at the Roundhouse - should be immense!!


Get involved!!

Cape Town, South Africa

Following on from my review of my home town, Johannesburg, I feel that
I should let whoever reads this know what I think of the more
entertaining side of south Africa. Cape town is a world renowned
destination at the moment, known for it's St tropez style parties and
it's immense beaches. It is much more designed for the heavy pocketed
individual looking to strut their stuff on the many beach front
bars...

I got to sample la med, a younger cheaper fun side to CT as

well as caprice, which is notorious for silly celebs, but both are

absolute awesome fun, especially in the sun.... What I have been

talking about is Camps Bay, and I would recommend this area to anyone

who enjoys the upper class side of the world...

In comparison, Long Street is very different and yet equally as

awesome. This place is close to q hippy heaven, huge numbers of

chilled out bars and late night cheap restaurants, that all seem to

never shut... The beer is cheap the atmosphere is chilled, basically

what Captonians are known for......

Cape town is of course known for it's wines across the planet... The
garden route has many many wine farms, yes in Sa they are wine farms
and not vineyards. There are multiple ways of experiencing this, the
two I have had the chance to sample and recommend are taking a cheap
£50 group tour, in which I promise you will not remember the end :-)
or organising a true wine trip, in which you stay in b&b's along the
way...

Basically the combination of the above and the recommended climb up
and down table mountain make for an awesome holiday, and this is one
of the places in the world I would recommend to almost everyone ....

Johannesburg, South Africa

This little bit of information is something I really felt I should attempt to share, the reasoning behind this is I am originally South African and from Johannesburg, with 26 years of experience of the city I reckon I should have a good understanding of the place, especially as a tourist due to the last 10 years of my life visiting Joburg as exactly that....

Johannesburg has always got one of two very wrong perceptions from everyone I meet that has either not been there or has not got their international head screwed on. These are either an African Village with people using lions as pets and riding elephants to work OR the scariest place on earth... Both of these are very wrong!!!

Joburg is essentially very similar to any other very large 'capital' city, it has its built up areas, down town, expensive locations, scary places, cultural landmarks and will soon have the reputation of holding a world cup and the landmarks that brings with it... Of course apartheid has given it a bad name to many, this having ended in '94 and the place turning into a rainbow nation has very almost abolished heavy racism, but there are of course some who hold grudges, but you do not get to see this unless you know people on a one to one basis, in their own homes... The violence is rife in areas, a number of my friends have been hijacked, but this is mostly in dodgy areas in which you shouldn't be travelling and any local tourist adviser will openly tell you this... I have personally experienced much scarier things on the night beaches of Thailand or running through the Favelas in Rio....

However I must say Joburg is not the place in South Africa I would suggest to my friends to go visit if they wanted to party and live the sunshine life, that would most definately be Cape Town or Plettenburg bay... Joburg is where you go to see some culture, learn about apartheid, see the monuments, visit Soweto (the largest shanty town), get to know the real South African people and now of course visit Soccer Stadium.....

I have had the luck of living in this awesome city for a long time, and now visiting it yearly. With a good group of friends in the area I have the local knowledge on tap and when it comes to going out there really are some sexy joints... A nice chilled night may start in the very nice Grill House in rosebank, for a steak and a couple of South Africa's best reds, followed on by a short drive to Attic in ParkHurst for a couple of beers and then an ending to the night in Tokyo Star just up the road... It is simple, take radio taxis everywhere and stick where you feel safe and you will have an off the hook night, the trouble comes exactly as it does anywhere else in the world, when you get to drunk and start wondering the streets alone, stumbling and basically attracting attention... Silly Silly, and I am the worst at it, but have had a few hundred nights out in this place and never had a "bad experience" worse than getting pushed in a club for drunkenly stumbling....

There are a number of smarter clubs which I would easily compare to Mayfair style London clubs, such as Manhattans.

If you want the "African" experience make sure you visit Moyo, the food here is immense and there is definitely a push for that African feel.

If you want to get a feel of an old school, South African pub, make sure you visit the Radium Beer Hall, there is nothing that special about the place, except good cheap food like Lorenzo Marks prawns straight from Mozambique, good live music, Castle draft and a local feel... in fact it's perfect... and the pizzas are pretty immense to...

My overall view is that I love Johannesburg, and feel everyone should visit it once in their lifetimes, for all my UK friends what I would suggest is to make it a 4 day add on to your wine tasting. sun soaking trips to cape town, Durban and the game farms....

X

Borough Market, Southwark, london

Sometimes I like doing things that do not involve loud music, alcohol and memory loss... Borough Market meets most of those pre-reqs... Jump off the tube at London Bridge and take your taste buds on a cultural journey on the streets of London... This is basically a food market, where locals come to display there goods, from warm cider to raclette this place really does have everything for your culinary delight... I have been here a few times now and always land up eating somewhere random and drinking something odd, my favourite food has to be the boring turkey baguettes underneath the railway bridge and I must admit warm cider on a hangover in the cold is perfect to start the day off... Take some cash as there are the random good bottle of wine, red meats and of course cheese, that should all be tried and enjoyed... Plan to walk around for a while, my view is to turn up an hour before lunch and leave maybe 2 after... There is an impressive restaurant above the market called "Roast" which I think you can guess what they serve... go enjoy 

Guanabara, Holborn, London

This is a really good late night Brazilian venue... There is a serious amount of impressive live music played on the front stage in which everyone dances around, drinking Quilmes (argentinian beer), Brama (Brazilian beer) and of course there are ready to rock caprianas lined up behind the bar... The crowd are mostly foreign, Latin American, which means it is hard to strike conversation but they are all friendly and all there to party... It's a short walk from Covent garden and only costs a tenner to get in, Guanabara  I recommend to all who are looking for a "cheapish" dance and some good live music!!! Get Involved!!!

Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXnDz2NfbEs

Drink: Quilmes and Caprianas

Type: Brazilian live venue

££$$: £££/£££££

Best memory: dancing to the lambada, a live band and some "brazilian" (russian) belly dancers

Worst memory: I can't think of any, a nice little place with a good vibe!

Infernos, Clapham, London

So after the fourth visit, I feel i can finally write a personal review on Claphams infamous high street night club. Infernos is hugely popular with all recently graduated Londoners looking for a very MESSY night out, and of course the good chance of picking up some form of male/female lying on the dance floor with beer goggles, helmet, sunglasses and visor on! The place is huge, it has multiple dance floors, an uncountable number of rooms and bars and is actually quite pleasant in the way of friendly staff and low entry price and drinks.

I would recommend this to all who really want a mad night or are new to London, its a good place to meet new people, get drunk and dance the night away, it is not good if your looking for a smart elegant night....

After all my complaints and unjustified moans about Infernos, it really does have its purpose and I can see why it is so hugely visited by the fun young crowds.

Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL2X44F40TI

Drink: cheap double vodka

Type: fun young cheap dance club

££$$: ££/£££££

Best memory: dancing away surrounded by large numbers of friendly females

Worst memory: closing time is 3..lights come on, beer goggles come off

arch one, Waterloo, London

perfect place for a follow on of anything in and around the Waterloo area. Arch One is an average 2 floor bar/club, serving reasonably priced drinks (do not attempt cocktails, lemon caiprohina) with a late licence and a good party vibe... So if your in the area, say Las iguanas (Southbank) or even the Oxo tower, and you want that few extra hours of bad behaviour, this place offers a safe bet... of course buddah bar is just around the corner if you don't agree...
Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V775PPuBc7Y

Drink: lemon caprihina

Type: generic new age electronic club

££$$: £££/£££££

Best memory: bartenderesses :P

Worst memory: lemon caprihina! just wrong!

Barcadia, Kingston, London

Absolute blast from the past.... Kingston in general seems to me to be a great place for only two situations on a "drinking" night, either to get into a large London style club, Oceana, when underage or to experience what I call the Magaluf effect!! Very easy women, and enough fights to make UFC look tame....
On this occasion however Barcadia was a treat, due to VIP and a connection with the owner, though the way I see it, simply do not venture to this area, let alone the chest barging, uneducated crowd of Barcadia... Unless, like us at one stage, your underage and looking for a scary big night out!!

Zebrano, Greek Street, Soho, London

I can't even count how many times I have been to this joint, it seems to appear from the depths at totally random times... Greek Street seems to be positioned well enough to engulf the few, looking for late night madness, people leaving Covent Garden, Piccadilly and Leicester square... The place is pretty datty and at the same time has a nice warm feeling as it seems to be an old terraced house that has been modded into a double floor bar come club, closing late on most days and usually providing some pretty hectic music :0..... just staring down at my slips from a previous night, and think I may be the benefactor of the place... shots are not cheap... 

CHANGE

So... I have decided to attempt to slow down, this means swapping triple nighters with no sleep for the occasional big one accompanied by a couple of more sophisticated drinks sessions... This is in aid of improving my verbal conduct, where this blog began... over partying has lead to my brain functioning at what I can only call a small percentage of what it should be.... So in order to keep this blog going, I think I will divulge more on what I think of the countries I visit... the people I meet... the cultures they express... and of course the occasional event/club/bar/festival I visit.... change can only be a good thing :)

Crazy Bear Members Club, Covent Garden, London

Delicious, absolutely delicious... this Place is pretty Impresive, its basically a private members club, meaning you need to be invited or have a £900 yearly fee paid up... the place is decorated very interestingly, with different themes on almost every table, especially in the downstairs drinking area... The cocktails are superb and the Asian food is at a very high standard... If you want to impress get involved....

24, Kingly Street, London

Quite a nice alternative to Mayfair, if you are location dependant, offering a very similar experience to Vendome or Whisky Mist. A feature we spent some time on, as we turned up early, was the digital air hockey table just off the dance floor! So we got a few funny looks, as we got quite competitive, but all was good as the average age on the Friday night seemed to be 19 and therefore to save ourselves from awkward Saturday mornings we decided pushing the geekness was imperative. The drinks list is quite impressive, front lined with shot shakers and cocktail glass jugs, average electronic music and shared table areas give the club a simple feel, making it a safe bet for new arrivals to London however I would not take anyone here in order to impress. -mY lOndon-

REVISIT 13/11/09

Back again, with a larger group and no VIP, again the waiters were fun, and the people a little older made for some interesting conversations.. a big improvement on the last visit.

Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYEy6NA9PsI

Drink: Oversized cocktails

Type: generic rah rah

££$$: ££££/£££££

Best memory: playing digital table hockey

Worst memory: 18 year olds trying to use themselves for drinks

B@1 Bar and Wahaca combo, Covent Garden, London

This is a little combo I just thought I would recommend, after 2 successful visits it seems to deliver a safe chilled evening. Wahaca, having been voted London’s best Mexican 2009, is hugely popular and on most nights requires a wait of up to two hours due to their “no booking” policy. So in order to avoid the wait, you can either get a drink in their bar, however it is again hugely busy, or go to B@1, which is a small cocktail bar near by. The eye catcher is the 191 cocktail list which each barman knows off by heart, this combined with a lively atmosphere makes for an interesting pre-drink (you will only get a table if you turn up pre 6pm or book). Following this Wahaca has a very random menu in which it serves classic Mexican dishes, such as Enchiladas and Burritos in Tapas form, so you can have a huge mix of the different food types , or the large dish form if your feeling boring. I would suggest this for a group of friends, not looking to spend to much but attempting to get away from the crowds of tourists you find in this area, it is definitely not for impressing potentials. You are guaranteed a triple whack of your daily calories from these two….-mY lOndon-

Bavarian Beerhouse, Old Street and Katzenjammers, Southwark - London

If your feeling a little German and want to get drunk and enjoy good food, these are definately a must. They both follow the same feel of a classic German Bierkeller, a pub decorated in classic german style selling German beer, both selling a good selection of beer in Litre Stein glasses. Located underground with low ceilings and long wooden pub benches, these places are designed to get people drunk. The night should also include food sampling with large varieties of sausage and Sauerkraut and freshly baked pretzels... Calorie OVERKILL...  London Bridge is much newer that the Old street beerhouse, and you can tell by the level of authenticity shown in old street, however the Beer is amazing at both locations...

333Mother, Old Street, London

If any of you have been stuck on a Tuesday night in London with nothing to do but a buzz to go and party, you most likely have landed up here! The place is basically a well known understated dance club that seems to be open when nothing else in our big town is!! Simple make up of a large dance floor with a live DJ looking over your every move and a chill room filled with a lot of random folk who are most definitely not 100% legit! I would say this is one of those places to keep in your back pocket for random occasions with strangely friendly bouncers and speedy bar staff. When the doors shut you can always walk around the corner to the Russian Bar, even though it does sound seriously dodge and there are a multitude of Russian flags covering the walls and possible some nukes in the basement, it is quite a nice little end the night joint to bust a groove and meet some...Russians!

Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcKMZO9cbvc&feature=fvw

Drink: vodka / whisky and coke

Type: chilled out dance club

££$$: ££/£££££

Best memory: finding somewhere to go, when everywhere else closes there doors on you at 11

Worst memory: Knowing that it's a working day and that tomorrow is one to!!

The Vodka Train, Russia, Mongolia and China

It's not that I am simply bored at work that I am writing this, but because this was one of the most amazing trips I have ever been lucky enough to venture forth on. The Vodka Train, the company we used and the experience we had, is basically either a Trans-Mongolian or a Trans-Siberian railway trip, crossing Russia, Mongolia and china or Russia and China respectively, both passing through Siberia.

The route we chose was a 3 week tour starting in St.Petesburg passing through Moscow, through Siberia, through Mongolia and finally ending in Beijing. Three weeks seems a very short time to cross part of Europe and then the worlds Largest continent, Asia... and it was pretty rushed but the Vodka Train had planned it so that in every location there is a local student, who shows you the sites and hidden vodka gems and in return the student gets a little bit of dollar and the chance to practice English.

This is obviously not a 5* trip and accommodation off the train is in the form of hostels ranging from 8 bedders with bed bugs in Moscow to plush wooden cabins in the mountains of Siberia... You are offered to upgrade at every location, making it a little more comforting for some... The interesting part however, would have to be the train itself, which at some stages you spend up to four nights on. Each room has 4 bunk beds about 6"2 long and a tiny table in the center, which is most commonly used for eating, or in our case vodka bottles and poker sets...food is pretty dire for the first part, being 2 minute noodles on the train and Russian attempts at western dishes.. On arrival in Mongolia this elevates to some more interesting dishes involving a lot of sheep and a bit of horse. China of course has food to KILL for at prices that are jokes!

I suppose a trip like this should focus on the history and culture, but I suppose the social side of a country is a huge part of the culture... The train is made up of a mix of locals travelling in cattle class, travellers, such as ourselves, travelling in the tight 4 bedder rooms and then the more sophisticated travellers in red satin twins. The journey is basically a drunken one, in which you bring your own beer and vodka and a little bit of food. It is easily possible to fit 10 people in one room and have a loud party, in which if you are lucky the cleaner ladies will get involved lol. I suppose the more cultural thing, which I would hugely recommend is getting the locals involved.. they love the fact you have "expensive" vodka and will gladly share their home-grown chickens and tomatoes... Vodka shots with random foods seem to be the thing to do on an elderlies night out! like it!!
 Traipsing through Russia with a student is really good fun, as Russians love their vodka and live rock and electronic music. In Moscow as you would expect there are a lot of clubs, we however visited a large d&b club called “JumanjI” which looked like a group of teenagers had set up with their own speakers and table cloth bars... we took this as the aftershock from communism.. However outside in the local park there was a "corner shop" with thousands of brands of vodka with the most expensive being around £4 which the local beings had massed and started their own party.
Mongolia was a little more tame, with some good out-door bars and a lot of drinking in the Gur's, however there was more focus on the activities such as horse riding and mountain climbing. Where as China, just like any massive city, had some seriously dirty side streets and some seriously swanky clubs...

There are nights out every second day and there are also outings organised almost everyday from Moscow circus to Swan Lake there is always something on offer.

After typing a mini essay on what I thought of the countries we visited and their hidden secrets I remembered my English is really bad, so I would just like to say All 3 are amazing, and throwing Siberia (which I know is part of Russia) into the mix is most definitely the icing on this overly sized cake.

Basically I want to do it all again...

CDLC, Barcelona, Spain

This place is awesome!! It combines the kind of outside sofa bed style bar you would expect to see in St Tropez or Puerto Banus with a restaurant and a club, decorated like something straight out of a Thai Ibiza... Carpe Diem Lounge Club is an amazing place to lounge out during the summer with a bottle of Rose or have an exquisite pan-Asian meal and simply roll on inside where the tables are moved aside and the live DJ's bring the floor to life... As usual I would recommend buying a bottle, as you are going to spend at least that much in any case, this secures you a paper white sofa bed in VIP... when the restaurant turns into a club it is made out of a medium sized dance floor avec dancers, vip lounge area and cornered off dance floor and finally an asian styled sofa slash bean bag chill room... even the website is awesome! Following this we tasted Opium (the club) next door, which is about twice the size and much livelier followed by a visit to Seven Crowns, which we depicted as a prostitute laden underground hallway club...


Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw_KITvKSPA&feature=related

Drink: Grey Goose Magnum

Type: pan-Asian sea terrace restraunt and club lounge

££$$: ££££/£££££

Best memory: sitting back with my feet up watching the dancers

Worst memory: closing time is 3