Entertainment Nightlife
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Tuba
Used-furniture shop by day, Italian restaurant-slash-bar by night; oddly enough, this business formula is not entirely unheard of in Bangkok. Pull up a leatherette lounge and take the plunge and buy a whole bottle for once. And don’t miss the delicious chicken wings.
reviewed
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B
TakeOut Comedy Club
If your idea of a perfect evening involves laughing, Hong Kong’s first comedy club will blow your socks off with consistent stand-up and improvised acts in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.
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Blue Note
This jazzy pub-cum-dance-bar has a great summer beer garden and usually no cover charge.
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Jáma
Jáma (‘the Hollow’) is a popular American expat bar plastered with old rock gig posters ranging from Led Zep and REM to Kiss and Shania Twain. There’s a little beer garden out the back shaded by lime and walnut trees, smiling staff serving up a rotating selection of regional beers and microbrews, and a menu that includes good burgers, steaks, ribs and chicken wings.
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E
Punchline Comedy Club
A veteran on the scene, the Punchline hosts local and imported acts every third Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9pm to 11pm. Entry costs around $300. Book tickets online or call.
reviewed
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F
Open Hand
A cafe-cum-gift shop with fresh coffee and juices and a range of cakes and snacks plus a few main courses. There’s free wi-fi plus a large selection of gorgeous handi- crafts (jewellery, toys, clothing) made in the local community.
reviewed
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G
Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre
You can't leave Hanoi without seeing a traditional water-puppet show. The shows, which appeal to all ages, are charming, picaresque entertainments accompanied by a traditional Vietnamese pit orchestra. Order your tickets early in the day for the best seats. Your hotel can probably help.
reviewed
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H
Dux de Lux
Closed until further notice.
Quality micro-brewed beers underpin this Christchurch icon. There’s good food too, especially seafood and vegetarian, and live music features at least four nights a week. On weekend afternoons the garden bar is the place to be after exploring the Arts Centre market.
reviewed
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I
7 Angelitos
This tiny hillside haunt is the city’s unofficial hipster lounge and late-night backup: when everything else has closed and the sun has come up, knock on the door. Happy hours are 7:30pm to 9:30pm and 11pm to 11:30pm.
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Excalibur
Faux drawbridges and Arthurian legends aside, the medieval caricature castle known as Excalibur epitomizes gaudy Vegas. Down on the Fantasy Faire Midway are buried ye- olde carnival games, with joystick joys and motion-simulator ridefilms hiding in the Wizard's Arcade. The dinner show, Tournament of Kings, is more of a demolition derby with more hooves than a flashy Vegas production.
reviewed
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K
Cross Club
An industrial club in every sense of the word: the setting in an industrial zone; the thumping music (both DJs and live acts); and the interior, an absolute must-see jumble of gadgets, shafts, cranks and pipes, many of which move and pulsate with light to the music. The programme includes occasional live music, theatre performances and art happenings.
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Fallen Angel
This ultrafunky lounge redefines kitsch with glitter balls, fake fur and even bathtub-cum-aquarium tables complete with live goldfish. It isn’t cheap, but the decor really is worth seeing and the occasional theme parties held here are legendary.
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M
Á Capella
A tiny, 14th-century chapel transformed into a candlelit cocktail lounge, À Capella regularly hosts the city's most renowned fado musicians. The setting is as intimate as the music itself, with heart-rendingly good acoustics. Be forewarned that these shows cater directly to a tourist crowd, but the atmosphere and music are both superb.
reviewed
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N
Treat’s Café
The backpacker bar of old Hoi An, this place is regularly full to bursting, particularly during its generous 4pm to 9pm happy hour.
reviewed
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O
Cookie
Stylish and cheeky, this bar tiles its high walls with kitschy books and vinyl, and pours fine European, Asian and Oz beers. The wine list is commendable, the Thai-inspired tapas is classy, and jeans and a T-shirt are just as welcome as designer duds.
reviewed
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Notorious
This intimate jazz venue attracts all ages – devoted locals and curious travelers alike – with nightly gigs of serious jazz and world music. Book ahead and visit the record shop before settling in for a show.
reviewed
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Q
Riegrovy Sady Beer Garden
There’s a good-natured rivalry between this beer garden and the one across the river at Letná as to which one is best. We're not sure, but this one is pretty good. Order beers at the bar and carry them to your table. To find it, go to Polská, turn up Chopínova, and enter the park across from Na Švíhance.
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R
Angelina
Take a break from the long trek along the Tuileries gardens and line up for a table at Angélina, along with lunching ladies, their posturing poodles and half the students from Tokyo University. This beautiful, high-ceilinged tearoom has exquisite furnishings, mirrored walls and fabulous fluffy cakes. More importantly, it serves the best and most wonderfully sickening ‘African’ hot chocolate in the history of time (€7.20), served with a pot of whipped cream and carafe of water, that prompts the constant queue for a table at Angelina. Buy it bottled to take home from Angelina’s small boutique.
reviewed
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S
Reduta Jazz Club
The Reduta is Prague’s oldest jazz club, founded in 1958 during the communist era – it was here in 1994 that former US president Bill Clinton famously jammed on a new saxophone presented to him by Václav Havel. It has an intimate setting, with smartly dressed patrons squeezing into tiered seats and lounges to soak up the big-band, swing and Dixieland atmosphere.
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T
Honky Tonk Haven
A great new addition to the Melaka drinking scene, this music bar is run by Kiwi jazz pianist Joe 'Itchy Fingers' Webster and his singing wife Jill. Jazz memorabilia photos line the walls and spontaneous sessions of live music are performed by Joe, Jill and their collection of talented friends. It's a place to make fast friends, grab a quick meal (including real New Zealand-style burgers, and all-day breakfasts) and find out how funky you really are.
reviewed
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U
Tupperware
A Malasaña stalwart and prime candidate for the bar that best catches the enduring rockero spirit of Malasaña, Tupperware draws a 30-something crowd, spins indie rock with a bit of soul and classics from the ’60s and ’70s, and generally revels in its kitsch (eyeballs stuck to the ceiling, and plastic TVs with action-figure dioramas lined up behind the bar). By the way, locals pronounce it ‘Tupper-warry’.
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V
74th Street Ale House
A sibling to the Hilltop Ale House in Queen Anne, this is the kind of place that, if you lived nearby, you’d find yourself in several times a week. It’s immediately comfortable, to the point that you feel like an instant regular – plus there are dozens of outstanding beers on tap, and the food is miles above usual pub standards. The goat cheese salad ($9) is rightly famous.
reviewed
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Maracanã Football Stadium
As Rio prepares for the 2014 World Cup, the famed Rio stadium will be closed indefinitely from August 2010 as the stadium undergoes extensive renovations. Once it reopens (probably not until 2012 or 2013), a game at Maracanã is a must-see for visitors. Matches here rate among the most exciting in the world, and the behavior of the fans is no less colorful. The devoted pound huge samba drums, letting out a roar as their team takes the field, and if things are going badly – or very well – fans are sometimes driven to sheer madness. Some detonate smoke bombs in team colors, while others rip out the seats or launch objects into the seats below. (Things have calmed slightly…
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Café en Seine
The wildly extravagant art-nouveau style of this huge bar has been a massive hit since it first opened in 1995, and while it may not be the 'in' place it once was, it is still very popular with suburbanites, the after-work crowd and out-of-towners. Maybe it's the glass panelling, or the real 12m-high trees; but most likely it's the beautiful people propping up the wood-and-marble bar.
reviewed
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Acoustic Bar
The leading live-music venue in town, Acoustic pays homage to Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and other rock ’n’ roll legends. Vietnam’s leading musicians flock here for cameo cover versions and, judging by the numbers that turn up nightly, the crowd just can’t get enough.
reviewed