We decided to go to a night club called The Playboy Club. When we entered there were a lot of sailors and Marines there. Pool tables in the back, on the left was a bar that was so long that it had to be the longest in the world.! Behind it was a mirror just as long. Bottles of booze and wine lined the wall. In the middle of the club and to the right was a stage with a band that sounded like the real thing. In front of the stage was a dance floor, big enough for about 20 couples. Tables were scattered through out the establishment.
The place must have been the happening joint in all of Hong Kong. Standing room only. One of my men saw an old buddy near the back by the pool tables. When we got close we saw a couple of guys arguing and before we knew it they were pushing each other. Then fist started flying. My men were just looking for something like this. All of a sudden we were involved in a full fledged bar fight. Navy vs. Marines. I tried to get my men out before shore patrol arrived. I was dragging on a couple of them and we all were headed toward the door. “Duck”! I heard someone scream. I saw a chair fly through the room and then crash went the huge mirror. “Let’s get out of here”! I screamed.
We made it out with just a few bloodied lips and swollen knuckles. We were all laughing hard, I was just glad to be out of there. We headed up the street and when we got about a block away we heard the sirens arriving at the club. We were walking by a tattoo parlor and my men decided to get a tattoo to remember this time in their lives. It was against the rules to get a tattoo, destruction of government property, wasn’t taken lightly. However the only way a Marine would get in trouble was if the tattoo got infected. My father had a tattoo down the length of his left arm. he got because when he was in the Navy he got a ‘dear john’ from an old girlfriend. I always thought it was cool, but he always told me to never get one as you are stuck with it for life.
I wasn’t going to get one, I just sat there watching my men all get something. I was drinking a beer watching a sailor get the crucifixion tattooed on his chest it was really amazing. I asked him how long it took to get this far and he told me this was his fourth time in Hong Kong and he gets some done each time. My men were about done when they started getting on me to get a tattoo. This was a true example of peer pressure, so I agreed to get a small one near the top of my left arm. I didn’t know what to get so I committed a tattoo sin and got the name of my girlfriend from back in the Philippines.
After a couple more beers at a dive we headed back to ship. I was glad to pull guard duty the next night on ship, that kept me and my men out of trouble.
We had another liberty for a day so we headed back in to Hong Kong to site see. Site see some more bars. I ate squid for the first time. It was kind of rubbery and tough. But we just had to say we tried it.
The next day the ship was under way. We floated for a couple days. We refueled in the ocean with another ship it was pretty cool to see how it was done, the huge hoses going from ship to ship. I tell this was a big job for the sailors. It seemed like it took a long time. It wasn’t long though before we were cruising again.
We were told the the cruise was not returning to the Philippines just yet and that we were headed to Singapore. Another couple days at sea when we arrived. Singapore was really different from Hong Kong. The buildings weren’t as big and as fancy but there was a lot of people, people everywhere. Kids coming up to you to sell all kinds of stuff. I was told to keep my people away from them as they were selling black market contraband. All we wanted was to find a good bar with cold beer. We had only one day to enjoy Singapore.
