It's a little more than a week since we got back from our HK trip.
We enjoyed our stay there even though we spent a good deal of our afternoons walking around and searching for the right bus stop. Hmm.. I should have bought one of them " I'm lost in HK" shirts... hehehe... (More on that later.) I did bought a black shirt that had "Coca-Cola" translated in several languages at Mongkok Ladies Market.
The octopus card was really convenient. We used it in paying for buses, train (MTR), tram, McDonald's, Watsons, and shops at the airport. You really should get one these cards upon arrival at HK. It saved us the trouble of counting for the exact change when boarding the bus, and going in-and-out of the MTR stations was a breeze when you have a card with you. I still have the card with me since I've forgotten to return it at the MTR station (and get my HK$50 deposit back).
We went to Mongkok Ladies Market, which had almost all things imaginable. They sold pet clothes and accessories, bags, custom-designed shirts, cute purses, fetish clothes, souvenir items, and the usual clothes and footwear. I wanted to get a picture of the 'fetish' clothes but they specifically said not to, so I didn't. Haay, I should have pretended not to understand English and took a picture anyway. :P
I'm not used to haggling prices, but I bought this nice black canvas tote bag with red sequined dragon design at its side for my sister for HK$80, down from the original price of HK$150. I also bought several cute beaded purses (watermelon, panda, smiley), originally tagged at HK$15, which I bought for HK$40 for 3 pieces. Later at the airport, I saw these beaded purses now priced at HK$45 each. :-o
As a reminder of where we stayed during our trip, I bought this small fridge magnet that beared the name Kowloon City and its Chinese translation for HK$5. At Ocean Park in Aberdeen, I also bought another magnet, this time, it was a stuffed toy in the shape of a black killer whale, for about HK$30.
I wanted to buy several pairs of shoes, a steal at almost Php300 each pair at a shop called "Union.." something, but nothing caught my fancy. Either that or my senses were overwhelmed by the sheer variety of choices - most of them in bright metallic colors.
Towards the end of our trip, I bought a Lithium ion battery for my DV camera, which was scarce in Manila. I also bought an extra lens for my camera that enabled it to take panoramic images and macro shots.
The shops that lined Causeway and Central were very pretty and high-end, but we were in HK basically to go bargain-hunting, so no thanks.
At first, I wanted to buy a whole lot of things but it occurred to me that most of these can be bought back home in Manila. The prices were also similar to those in Greenhills so early on, so I decided not to splurge on common things but chose only those that were unique to the city.
P.S. I'll post an update/annex to this entry with pictures.
Next: lost in HK
