Sydney Habour Bridge - 'We on a Boat' Cruise

Friends invited me onto this cruise – A reggae/funk dance cruise – I’ve never been on a day cruise and I’ve never been to a reggae event – so I put on my Mexican outfit and off we went – here we go!

We on a Boat – The Lady Rose Catamaran
Website: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=318543987561
Cruise Times: 1pm to 6pm
Course sailed: Departing King St Wharf, Darling Harbour, the boat sailed north then East under the harbour Bridge, past the Opera house to hang about Jackson’s bay, circling around the entire course twice before coming back to King St Wharf.
Weather Conditions: Sunny throughout the entire cruise. Humidity low and it was warm enough to not be afraid of massive sunburn.
Dress Code / Door Policy: Anything goes. Most people wore casual shirts, shorts. I had worn a mexican sombrero complete with my homemade poncho
Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Tickets were available from Moshtix for $35 plus booking fee. At the door they were $40 or $50 I believe.
On Board Inside: This was a 2 level boat with a 3rd roof top level. Today, as the event was not sold out, only the bottom and rooftop level were open.
Cloak Room: None available. There were not many people anyway so there wasnt too much risk in leaving stuff lying around.
Bar: Didn’t drink today.
DJs: Nick Toth, JC, Levins, Fasmwa, Naiki, Di Tha DJ, Mickey Morphingaz
Music: Reggae and Dancehall on the top level the whole time. On the bottom level was also the same, with some funk and old school rnb thrown in.
Crowd: About half the crowd were Africans, and the rest of the crowd were split between whites and a contigent of asian dancers who were here, I am guessing, for the modern rnb, but of course, did not get it. Various ages between young and old. Mostly late 20′s or 30s.
Entertainment: There were MCs on both the rooftop deck and the bottom level. Often the MC would call upon the ladies to jump in front of the DJ to participate in games such as booty shaking competitions, grinding competitions, and reggae dancing styles. It’s truly amazing to see girls out there willing to participate in these games sober. All the men love it.
Atmosphere: Top level was relaxed party. People are dancing about on the chairs and on the floor, but in a way that can only be achieved by playing reggae and dancehall. (It’s hard to explain, you probably have had to be there to know what I mean) Most of the people were here for a dancing good time, and only a handful of people were sitting down the whole time. On the bottom level was different, as it was totally dead for most of the cruise. There was on average about five to ten people at the same time on the floor. At peak, the asian dance contigent started to dance when the funk music came out, and they pretty much had half the boat attendees gaping in awe as they go about their dance moves.

Top Level - We on a Boat Reggae Cruise

Breakdancers Bottom Level

Timeline
Sea swaying
Most of the time was spent on the top deck where the weather was sunny perfect, and people are dancing around. The boat often rocks, and being on top of a small vessel meant that the effect is multiplied, so there were many moments where everyone would sway back and forth a step or two to keep balance, as the ship swayed. At one point early in the cruise, it swayed so much that the DJs Macbook fell off the table and onto the floor. bang! Luckily it was still working after that fall – otherwise we would have been in massive trouble if we had no music.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The celebration of booty
The MC, throughout, always is encouraging the women to come up to dance, shake their booty:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is then followed up by asking if any of the men want to “ride” the booty. The women are happy to play along – amazing that the women don’t care! I like this kind of happy environment:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Smelly whiffs of wind
Often as well, for a reason unknown, we would encounter a whiff of dirty air, which basically smelled like someone had taken a massive dump. One could assume that it was coming from the bathroom, but not that many people would have had a massive dump, right? So it could have been the harbour giving off rotten egg gas, or whatever gas is given out that makes sea passengers sick. In any case, it was gross whenever it happened.

So you think you can dance with Don
For season 2 of So You Can Think You Can Dance Australia, there was Don, the B-Boy who was eliminated early from the top set of dancers. Well, we spotted him on the cruise and he was nice enough to take a photo with us!

With Don from So You Can Think You Can Dance Australia Season 2

He said he thought I was awesome, dressing up as a mexican and all, and even questioned if he should be ‘famous’. lol modesty. Here are some breakdancing clips from his crew:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of the guys wants my hat
The sombrero is getting in the way of dancing, so I put it down. One of the Djs asks if he can wear it, sure I give it to him to wear for the rest of the cruise. At the end of it, he offers me $10 for it. HELL NO, I paid $15 for it. I like it. He still wants $10 for it. Two asians negotiating on a price for the transfer of a Mexican hat on a reggae cruise in Sydney. A funny sight. I ended up keeping the hat.

He wants to buy my sombrero. nope, not gonna happen

Arrivederci
As we head back into wharf, the DJ plays “Im on a boat” by the Lonely Island, and we all go mad. Its great.

Recommendation
Only if you like reggae and dancehall music. Don’t come alone unless you like to make new friends. Other than that it was a very good vibe upstairs, especially combined with the great weather, but downstairs was a downer. If more people came it would have made it a raging cruise on both levels.

We on a Boat Party Reggae Cruise – 5.5/10

About Mambos Nightclub
Location: Tito’s Lane, Baga – Calangute Road, Goa, India.
Website: http://www.titos.in/mambo.htm
Inside: One central room with DJ and a bar. Pretty girls are allowed to go up a level to dance along the walls upon steel frames. An Outdoor patio-like area surrounds the main room with a bar for people to relax.
Music: Tonight was House
Crowd: Local Indians and tourists
Dress Code: Casual
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: 800 Indian rupees
Occurrence: Every night
Atmosphere: Relaxed, fun, open.
Timeline

Basically wearing this outfit automatically made me King Dingaling of the club. The security wanted photos with me, the bar staff wanted photos and let me inside their bar as well… as well as a whole heap of other people who wanted photos too.

Bouncers at Mambos asked for a photo with me

Kitchen staff let me in for a photo

Clare.. every 5 minutes reminding me she has a bf while grinding with me

No podium dancing allowed for men : Yeah how dodgy is that? There were girls dancing up, and they stepped down. I wanted to get up, but suddenly a security guard jumped in front of me and told me “Do You Want To Step Outside???”  So wasn’t fair, they let these ugly girls dance, and yet I couldn’t… ? Where’s the justice?

Riding the bull
I rode the damn thing. It costs 100 rupees ($2.50) per ride. I met some guys from Denmark and this guy from America who was off his chops. Whoever lasted the shortest would have to pay next round of drinks. The American lost miserably.

Riding the bull at Mambos

After lots of drinks and hi fives the place closed we moved onto Kamaki Bar up the road..

About Kamaki Bar
Location: Tito’s Lane, Baga – Calangute Road, Goa, India.
Inside: Outdoor patio area with the enclosed indoor area being the dancefloor space. A tiny version of Mambo.
Music: House
Crowd: We got there 3am.. just hardcore dancers or people still trying to pick up or make the most of it.
Dress Code: Casual
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: 300 rupees for the enclosed dancefloor area
Atmosphere: Dying, Hot, Sweaty

Timeline
So after a drink, I head in with Morten the Danish dude and the high American guy. We just dance, and drink.. and drink some more.

Girls: Inside, there were rapidly less girls, about 5 or 6 left. In India, any caucasian female is hot, considering the lack of Indian girls. There was though one nice Indian girl who could really shake her body. She walks up and places an ice cube down my back. Never had that done before at a club! Never got her back.. she had an army of guys hounding her anyway.

Best female dancer, but too flirty with all the other guys! Gave up trying..

Heat, and the man who didnt want to hand over my sunnies: It was so freaking stuffy in there. There was a lack of air conditioning or it was piss weak. It was a sauna in there, and we were regularly stepping outside every few songs for a breather. One time we went outside, one of the Indian taxi drivers managed to get a hold of my yellow sunnies and refused to give them back to me, as he said someone else had given it to him! So dodgy. Eventually I got them back.

Sunrise came, and so did the closing of Kamaki Bar. Next destination was Simba Dayclub.

As Morten said – “Lets party in the JUNGLE!!!”

Indian Guy who wouldnt hand over the sunnies. Morten in the pink

About Simba Club
Location: Calagunte, Goa
Inside: There’s no inside, Just the back of someone’s farmhouse. There’s a dirt floor and a bar, with chairs all around. Looking out, all you can see are plantations of corn or whatever they eat in India.
Music: I dont remember, but some Jamaican stuff / Reggae
Crowd: Dominantly Jamaican / African
Dress Code: Casual
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: Free
Atmosphere: Friendly, non-judgemental. However it was 8am, and everyone looked dead.

Timeline
We managed to get some people from Kamaki to drive here as well.

When we got there, there was a group of black people in the corner just chilling.. and us – 5 guys and 2 girls. I dont even know why I came here. I was cold, hungry, sleepy, and tired.

Don’t ever fuck with someone’s happiness
So one of the girls starts dancing, all alone, and so I stepped up to the dirt floor and did a little jig alongside her. She looks a bit shy as there’s no eye contact, so I didn’t touch her.

One of the local guys calls me over.
“Hey, You have a nice outfit”
“Thank you”
“I have a question. Do you think she is having fun? (the girl dancing on her own)”
“Yes, I do”
“Well, good. Because the way you dress, its good *thumbs up sign*, but the way you act, not good *thumbs down sign*. I only gave you directions to here because you dressed well”
Did he just say The way I act, thumbs down?? I didn’t quite understand. I didn’t know if he was trying to insult me or crack a joke, so I laughed.
“hahaha yes yes”
“No, do you think she is happy right now?”

“yes?”
“Well, don’t fuck with her happiness!!“
*confused look* “er.. ok!”

I can’t believe he said that. You fuckface, just cause you can’t fucking dance doesn’t mean you can fuck my happiness. How is dancing near a girl fucking with happiness??? How does one fuck happiness anyway???? FUCK. build a fucking bridge. Stay in your dirt floor bar and I hope nobody fucks with your happiness too. Fuck!!

@ Simba with a girl who came from Kamaki - I apparently fucked her 'happiness' according to someone else

Coda
So, I wasn’t happy, but I was hunrgy. I left to the hotel to eat breakfast, real bloody tired

Our group takes a last photo before splitting. Danish, British, Aussie, and Local Indians

About Mambos Nightclub
Location: Tito’s Lane, Baga – Calangute Road, Goa, India.
Website: http://www.titos.in/mambo.htm
Inside: One central room with DJ and a bar. Pretty girls are allowed to go up a level to dance along the walls upon steel frames. An Outdoor patio-like area surrounds the main room with a bar for people to relax.
Music: Tonight was RNB
Crowd: Local Indians and tourists
Dress Code: Casual
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: 800 Indian rupees, free for couples (Wednesday)
Occurrence: Every night
Atmosphere: Relaxed, fun, open.

Timeline
Firstly, I wish I had a girlfriend or some girl company to hook us up with free entry, cause 800 rupees was killing me. It’s the same price as a premium club in Sydney, and it looked shit inside, as you could view what was happening from Outside. However I really really wanted to experience this Goan nightlife… so I went.

Music
RNB mostly.. can’t complain, DJ did an ok job, but nothing special. All he did was play each track in full length and crossed over to the next track. Much unlike the Sydney rnb DJ’s who pick the best parts of each song and do their thing to mix it up.

Crowd
It was mostly tourists and also some brave Indians who wanted some Wednesday night clubbing. Tourists were mostly older.. late 20′s early 30′s, some 40′s even?? These were people on holidays, and this was the only visible club open in the area.

I left the keys in the bike outside..
About 1am, I realised the keys were in the bike outside. I ran out, praying to whatever higher god out there is, that nobody had stolen the bike. I look out and run to the bike – it was still there! I look at the ignition.. someone stole the keys!! Argh!! I stand there and look to the sky, wondering why I have been punished..

I ask the policeman whether he had the keys. He said he had no idea but instead pointed to a man who had about 10 keys hanging off him. He must be someone who walks around stealing people’s keys.. grr! I asked if he had my keys, and he did!! Thank god.. I thanked him, and he asked for a reward. Fair enough, and I gave him 100 rupees, which is quite generous for someone who steals keys for a living. Then he said HE WANTED ANOTHER 100 RUPEES. WTF?! The policeman shrugs his shoulders as I look at him. This was freaking extortion, but hey, it was only $3. Still though .. ! I give him the 100 rupees and a dirty look.

Well that ruined my night..

Coda
Just danced until close at 4am.. no real stories to report. Friendly place though.

About Saturdays’ at Brooklyn Hotel
Music: RNB, reggae, house
Crowd: Mixed
Dress Code: Casual
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: None
Occurrence: Every Fridays and Saturdays
Atmosphere: Party-like, or desolate depending on your mood.
Brooklyn Hotel: As you enter, main dance area and bar to hold about 40 people comfortably. Another area out in the back for smoking and the house beats, but you wouldn’t really dance out there.

Timeline
Enter around 1am, and the place is quite busy, and drunk people aplenty dancing with bottles in hand.

Offered a drink
I put on the sunnies and go to the bar. Get a water and turn around. Two drunk girls with two guys hitting on them. The brunette takes my sunnies and puts them on. What am I supposed to do. Can’t cut grass, so I take photos. Forget their names, but brunette offers me her drink. “I have never offered any guy a drink!” she says. “.. so take it!”

A few minutes later she’s regurgitating the contents of her dinner in the back room, while an unlucky glass collector asks her to leave while holding her convulsing body. Her friend convinces him that she’ll be alright and surprisingly both are not kicked out. That’s classy.

Londoners
Blondie leads me to some other people. They turn out to be Londoners. Me and Jamal strike conversation and talk about the scene in England, and how much more better it is than here in Sydney. Well, most clubs in Africa could probably outdo Brooklyn. He admitted though, that the girls in Sydney were waaay hotter. Score. Girl on the right was absolutely trashed, and couldn’t even keep her eyes open during conversation, very funny.

Music
Music was questionable. Some songs I knew, some I didn’t and were more leaning towards the rap side. Then around 2am there was a string of reggae songs. Most didn’t like, but I did, since I knew the words.

Sisters
Two sisters of the older variety celebrating a birthday here. Great choice. I had a little chat and got along well, so decided to dance with them the rest of the night. Sadly went nowhere.. what a waste of time. It was too difficult to separate the two, even though both were pretty friendly and openly grinded…. *shivers*

Would’ve been better to cut some grass and try to steal drunk brunette. Funnily enough, she did get stolen off the guy around 3.30am, and he walked off furious.

Random photo (for your amusement)

Guys dancing with me to steal the girl
I was dancing with the sisters, and enter a huge group of about 8 men. There weren’t that many girls left, and about 2 or 3 guys directly cut into our circle to talk to the younger blonde sister. Geez that pretty much pissed me off. I stuck my finger at him, he looked at me and I just pretended to be sticking my fingers over his shoulder.

That wasn’t the end of it. The younger guy comes right up to me and starts to GRIND ON ME!! UGH!! It was obviously for entertainment for blonde sister, and so I serve it right back at him and grind him back. I felt so sick doing it, but it worked. He didnt last 10 seconds crotch-crotch with me. I didn’t get another man dance after that.

Coda
After the sisters left, it was 4am. There weren’t that many people left but they were all dancing. Decided to leave. This is only a good place to go after 1am for a seedy drunk time with no entry fee. Quality of girls was surprisingly okay, but some were off. Oh yes, and the music was tolerable but I wouldn’t recommend this place as a proper dance joint.

Cargo Bar
Event: Cool Runnings (based off the movie of Jamaican bobsledders)
Music: Reggae / RNB / House
Crowd: Mixed
Dress Code: Smart Casual
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: Guestlist only for Cool Runnings, free for downstairs general access
Occurence: Once off
Atmosphere: Fun

Timeline Upstairs
Almost rejected at the door.. what’s my name again?
A friend submitted a guestlist. So I walked up..
Cargo: Name on guestlist?
Me: Archimedes, under ______
Cargo: Archimedes… Last name?
Me: _______
Cargo: *flicks through* Oh do you want to be a Aristotle, or a Archipelago?

Me: lol, no?
Cargo: ..because your name is not here. (oh) Are you alone?
Me: Yes
Cargo: Alright, we’ll let you in, just show us your ID.
Me: (In the most casual of manners, hands over licence with the name ‘JAMES TRAN‘ written all over it)
Cargo: Ok, come in!

(Upstairs) Music and Atmosphere
Was here for Josh’s birthday. Upstairs was pretty busy .. both ends of the bar had dancers which was good. All the staff were wearing Dreadlock hats, Jamaican beanies, winter olympic bobsled outfits, fur coats.. it was in general a pretty fun atmosphere.  The music though, was sometimes questionable (well I didnt know the songs).. but provided for a fun loving cosy experience as it was mostly reggae or songs whose singers were from jamaica. most of the main crowd were for Josh’s birthday but it was only 9-10pm and so it was a good start, everyone there was jumping up and down.  We left at 10pm

Timeline (Downstairs)

At this point I was supposed to return to my friends who were drinking somewhere, but I wanted to check out the downstairs scene quickly. It was more subdued downstairs.. all the staff were normally dressed, and there were about 20 people on the dancefloor, dancing quite passively.

First approach
I danced but felt odd seeing a girl dance alone and not do something about it. After a song I told her how I thought it was brave of her to dance alone. She said she was actually waiting for a friend. Oh uh… made some small chat and said I’d leave once the friend came. Her friend came, and thank god, it was a girl. More small chat and moved on.

Mirror dancing with a girl
At the front the DJ booth is really shiny black – you can see yourself in the reflection. I danced and looked at my moves. A girl next to me copies me and it’s on, but she refuses to answer my questions, instead smiling. Fair enough. I advance, and she backs up, but her friends behind her push her back into me. Haha, my own little army of wingmen. Since she’s still not wanting to converse with me (but still wants to dance) I leave.

Drunk woman has a crack on me.. what was i thinking
At the bar with my glass of water and I turn around. Theres a woman on the wrong side of 30 looking at me with her man friend next to her. I smile and pull a small move. She responds and mirrors me. It’s on. She walks up to me and its straight into the body body grinding. She keeps telling me she has no idea what is going on. She responds incoherently to my questions… She’s drunk. Her man friend disappears – probably a random at the bar. After some awkward salsa moves (I really need some salsa lessons).. a bit of flirting.. I span her around a few times (probably a bad move in hindsight) … and we kiss.. all in about 5 minutes. Hallelujah for drunk girls.

Then she tell me she has to go to the bathroom to vomit…. hallelujah again. I should be distubed by now but my hormones were on overdrive…

Random drunk guy loves my hair
While she’s vomiting I dance with a guy who keeps touching the tips of my wig. So were two of his female companions. They were here for a hen’s night. After bout 10 minutes, the girl hasnt come out yet and this guy has touched my hair about 5 times, he is absolutely fascinated by it. I just give up and give him the hair to try. My gosh. His face beamed like a 5 year old child at christmas. He jumped around and approached every girl in visible sight, shook his hair and yelped, complete with beer in hand. One of the girls only noticed I took off the wig 5 minutes later. Funny blonde.

More dancing with the first set of girls
I returned to the two girls I first met, and they were still alone. They were very receptive and we danced it off. Amazingly, these two were the most energetic dancers I’ve met. The way they danced was almost exactly like me. They would do the silly retro moves, the house/rnb moves.. and were pretty keen on anything. They were like female versions of myself. Their names were Liz and Karen. As we danced, the girls seated were just staring at us.. silently jealous. Same with the circle of girls on the other side.. lol. Shame theres only one of me.

The manager spoils my fun with the drunk girl
After about 20 minutes she emerged from the bathroom. We chit chat, she’s all over me again. She says she wants to go home……… score.

We’re about to go, and some guy comes up and introduces himself to her as the Manager of Cargo bar. Fuck. Initially I thought it was some random guy, but I looked behind him – there were 5 or 6 bouncers behind him. WTF! Was i that menacing? He says to her that he wanted to check if she was ok. It was over. I left the situation and let her drunken responses take care of the rest.

Coda Cargo
After some more hectic dancing with Karen and Liz they suggested Bar 333, so we left. On the way there we bumped into 2 other cargo people who saw us dancing – Fadi and his girlfriend. They joined us onward..

About Fridays @ Bar 333
Music: House, Retro
Crowd: Mixed Older
Dress Code: Casual accepted, mostly smart casual
Cover Charge / Entry Fee: Free
Occurence: Weekly
Atmosphere: Fun, but not much room for dancing

Timeline
When we got in, the corner dance floor (about 5×5 metres) was packed so we took to the walkway towards the bar as the dancefloor. Last time I came to Bar 333 I danced here. Apparently Karen and Liz danced on the same area as well. These two were really the female versions of me.

Guys, upon guys, upon guys
A guy dancing with two crazy ass girls gets attention. There weren’t many other girls there that night but there were lots of guys. We all did our thing, and I had pretty much a few guys come up to me talking to me, using me to get to know the girls. At least buy me a drink!! lol. Met Josh the JT lookalike, some random guys at the bar, the bartender hi-5′s me, the turkish guy who’s been in sydney 2 weeks.. but no new girls. Interesting.

Music
Pretty good classics played but there were some old songs I didn’t recognise.. I guess I’m not that old yet. All fun though.

Coda (Bar 333)
They kicked everyone out at 2.45.. by that time the corner dancefloor was empty, and it was only us 3 plus the JT lookalike dancing. Karen and Liz agreed to meet up again for more dancing in the future.