Hong Kong Adventures: Day 8

By Elie - 4:00 AM

Hello again, it's me basking in the glory of Hong Kong talks in this seemingly never ending adventure. Seriously though, I still feel like a whole part of me is still in the Pearl of the Orient. Heck, I would even just go back there right now if I could just because of all that I haven't done. So after Day 7 at Cheung Chau, we found ourselves a lot more mellowed down and decided that we really should be out looking for souvenirs because what is a vacation without souvenirs to go home with?

We managed to all sleep in that day because of a midnight electricity halt because the authorities needed to check on the emergency generator in case of...emergencies. They were really efficient though because they had a notice up the whole week before that it would happen and they even told everyone that it would be from midnight till 6 AM but power was back up by 3 AM! Talk about being efficient, all these Hong Kong locals! Our day kicked off around 11 AM; one of the latest days from our entire vacation and we had porridge again. The plan was simply to tour Hong Kong's extremely famous Ladies' Market (女人街) in Mongkok the entire day until we were tired.

Our trip from home to Mongkok via the number 71 mini van costed HKD 5.80 per person and we had to take a short walk in order to reach the Ladies' Market where the main attraction was. In fact, the street of which the Ladies' Market is on is actually called "Tung Choi Street" but the nickname stuck much better for tourists so much so it is even printed on the map as that 女人街.

Mum and I amidst the sea of busy people walking past us.

Much like our local Chinatown, (Or Pasar Seni if you guys have no idea!) the entire street is filled with stalls on both sides with people inviting you to look at their stuff and the trick is to only look if you're truly interested. They are generally nice to you but you really have to ~~haggle to your death~~ SLASH their prices if you want something. For instance, the hat you see me wearing in that picture? I snagged it at HKD 50 when the original tag was at HKD 120.

Shamelessly showing off my hat with little cat ears.

Fact is, I've been looking out for something like this since the day we got to Hong Kong and I would have been more than happy to buy it at HKD 80 anyway but my mother is the queen of price slashes, I swear. Another thing to remember about haggling in Ladies' Market is to start low then raise bit by bit. However, if they do agree on your price and you walk away saying you'll think about it...just be prepared to be cursed to death. "WASTE MY TIME! WHAT IS THIS!" and what not like that. If they first don't agree, walk away and you'll hear the prices dropping like mad. It's a whole lot of fun to shop in Ladies' Market that way.

I wanted to take touristy pictures so there's nothing that says "tourist" like the typical peace sign.

Literally translates to "Pants for fatties" for the plus sized market. It's interesting how they market their things in Hong Kong.

Our stroll along the entire street took us into Fa Yuen Street (花园街) which was just next to Ladies' Market where we got to shop more and I was more than ecstatic to get a denim shirt as well as a faux leather skirt for only HKD 50 and HKD 39 respectively. Everything is so ridiculously cheap when you're on a lookout for fashion in these places. Of course if you're entering branded shops, don't complain but if you come along these streets, you'll be amazed at the buys you could get.

Walking around Fa Yuen Street.

I did notice some really nice iPad Mini cases that I had initially wanted to buy and I really didn't mind forking out HKD 80 for the design it had but the seller had a terrible attitude to my mum so I let it go. Ego over such love for a good design but nobody gets rude to my mum! (Sidetrack moment: Oh yes, did I mention how proud I was of myself for the fact that I lived without a laptop over the whole course of the trip; relying only on my iPad Mini to take down notes of daily things and my phone for social media feeds? Sidetrack moment over.) The seller told my mother, "女人`，這是花園街，不是女人街。我們不減價的。你要你就買，不要就走開。" In translation it meant, "Lady, this is Fa Yuen Street, not Ladies' Market. We don't ever haggle so if you want to buy it, you pay. If you want to haggle, pelase leave!" HOW DARE YOU! So we walked off.

We continued into Sai Yeung Choi Street after (But not without me laughing like a mad person because every street seemed to be named after vegetables in Mongkok!) and sat down for a late lunch that wasn't that bad actually. Our ventures took us further when we came across a stall that sold smelly tofu and an entire street of nothing but fishes and other things for aqua pets! Famously known as the Goldfish Street, we all couldn't help but to think about how much my grandfather would have loved being there. *Sniffles a little*

The name smelly tofu really lives up to its name, okay? It REALLY is smelly!

Mum said to look good with the goldfishes. I don't know how to look good with fishes, ma.

Our day was particularly cut short when we thought it would be much better just to get home before the working crowd began to fight for their spots on the public transportation because we had a dinner date with Aunty Jane over at her place for hairy crabs (大閘蟹). It isn't particularly at a restaurant so I will talk about it on this blog post anyway!

Uncooked hairy crabs.

Cooked hairy crabs.

Unbundled hairy crabs.

And my portion of the many hairy crabs!

It's extremely famous for the Hong Kong locals to have hairy crabs as quite the luxury but I am probably just much more accustomed to regular crabs where the enjoyment comes from eating the meat and not the roe it contains. Needless to say, I didn't seem to like it as much as everyone else in house did but I still had about 3 of these for the good experience and to not waste on food. Aunty May (Uncle Eddie's cousin, don't mind us here it's all a family affair!) made really good potato salad to accompany these crabs and I had a whole lot of that for the night to fill up my hungry stomach.

Still the most fantastic view to look at when night falls.

Walking around Hong Kong on the night of the 8th day showed that the temperature was at 21 degrees, comfortably cooling yet not invasive enough to freeze you. Knowing that the end of the vacation was nearing made it pretty sad but you know when they say too much of a good thing is a bad thing? Maybe I should apply it here. We got home to rest well fairly early that night because we knew Day 9 would be a good experience: the visit to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum where they had a Bruce Lee exhibition but...I'll see when I could talk about that. For now, I'll just bask around my joy of all these memories!