Mesero.
This is the waiter. He can be your best friend, or your worst enemy. He is mostly just an annoying pest. His job is to get you to buy, buy, buy. His goal is to get you to tip, tip, tip. So he's not going to leave you alone. He is going to attach to you as you walk through the curtains, try to guide you to a seat, take your drink order, and expect at least a one dollar tip for each drink he brings you. If you are sitting alone, he soon will bring you a girl, who will act all friendly toward you with the hopes that you will invite her to sit down, buy her a ficha drink, which the waiter will happily go get, as he also gets a commission for selling an eight dollar beer, plus the expected tip. If you do invite her to sit, he will be back very shortly, trying to speed up her drinking, so you can buy her another eight dollar beer. In some bars the waiters wear badges with a number, to help you identify them, and to give illusions of them being honest. Many of the waiters are honest and friendly. However many of them are in collusion with some of the girls, especially when they see a customer who doesn't appear to know how to handle the situation, or is drunk and easily taken advantage of. They will try to work several different scams on you. They might conveniently forget to bring you back your change. Or overcharge, or bring drinks not asked for, or bring expensive drinks for the girls and extort you for the payment. Be careful. There are strategies on how to deal with the waiters, but a lot of it comes with experience. And some of that experience gets learned the hard way. After years of experience, what works for me is this. I walk in, like I own the place. I ignore the waiters, and walk straight to the bar, and get my first drink there. The bartender doesn't really expect a tip. The waiters will respect a guy who looks like he knows what he's doing. Usually I order a can of mineral water (more about that later). If a waiter then tries to guide me to a seat, I usually just point towards the other end of the bar, and start walking over there, and find my own seat. So the waiters don't try to attach to me, I move around quite a bit from one side to the other, and it also gives me an opportunity to check out the goods. If the waiter tries to bring me over a girl, I will politely say Hello, to her, and the waiter will try to have me invite her to sit down, but I will just keep motioning her to stand up. I want to find my own girl. But if she's attractive, when I dismiss her and the waiter, she will usually ask for a dollar tip in the Hong Kong anyway, for which I will gladly give, in exchange for a good grope of her titties and / or ass. I like to keep separate my drinking, which I can do anywhere, from my mongering, which I can only do in the Zona. That's why the can of mineral water. It keeps me more alert of my surroundings both tasty and troublesome, if I get hassled by the police outside, I am totally sober. And the biggest advantage it is in the club, when I am finished with the water, the damn waiters can't tell that I'm done and rush to get me to buy another. I'll usually go into the bathroom and refill it, of course I won't drink that one, but if a pesky waiter picks up the can to see if it's got anything in it, he'll see that it's still quite full, and leave me alone. Now the waiters can be your friend too, especially in some of the bars away from HK. You can tell them exactly the kind of girl you're looking for. And they seem to have a way to find her, even if she is in the dressing room, bathroom or just hiding out. And that's worth a dollar tip, for sure, if she in fact is exactly the type that you are looking for. It's even possible to develop a positive relationship with a waiter, who will look out for you. In summary, however, just remember, you are the boss. You buy the drink when you want to. If they're pestering you just ignore them or dismiss them with a flick of your hand. Or get up and go to a different area of the bar. I repeat, you are the boss.
