That’s the thing with fans - when they blow, they also suck.
Richard Hammond, Engineering Connections.
Memory’s a bit sketchy, but that is essentially the message. :)

Hong Kong is really a massive city with massive amount of people. I’ve never seen so many people crammed into a small space. And there are really a number of differences I can note - shops can even do well on the second and even the third floor - they have enough demand for it.

My trip there coincided with their Sale Season - and as such, I had to endure some really sour/rushed/curt/haggard-looking salesgirls. There are good ones, of course, but usually they are working at the higher end stores. Since I’m a bargain hunter (and an occasional splurger) - I went into a lot of cheap shops but bumped into a lot of abysmal services. You would be too if you have to serve hundreds of people per day.

Oh, here’s a photo I forgot to share in the last Macau post, Jee found this magazine in the Venetian Hotel:

Mango Tree is situated behind Civic Centre. Not exactly a popular place but hey, it’s well known! In London, Tokyo, Kuching…

Speaking of Venetian… I forgot to mention this also in my Macau post. Something horrifying happened while I was staying there. I went into a public toilet in the casino area… and guess what? When I lowered the toilet lid, I found blood on my hand! &*^%$$#@&*! There was blood on the floor too, and on tissues thrown in a bin next to the toilet.

URGH!! WTF? I’m guessing some girl had her period… but how on earth did it get on the floor?! And come on, if you dirtied the toilet, can you at least clean the place up?! It’s really easy to find tissues at Venetian! There’s one right next to the toilet! YUCK YUCK YUCK. All I’m saying is, this had really put a damper on our spirits during our stay there - I mean, I try not to be paranoid, but we have no idea who this girl is and what does she have. I did wash off my hands with soap afterwards, but really…. *shakes head* And I found some blood at the sole of my new boots after that too…. ARGHHH!

Anyway… that aside…

The best tip I can give anyone who wants to go to Hong Kong, is to get the Octopus Card. There are different kinds of packages available, and the one we bought gave us 3 days of unlimited rides in MTR, and a free trip to/from airport. It’s really useful - you don’t have to feel guilty about feeling tired halfway and have to go back to hotel, because Hong Kong somehow doesn’t provide a lot of seats in shopping malls.

Food is a little hard to find - and not a lot of variety as well (at least, in our experience). We saw a lot of shops selling Wonton and the likes… they hardly vary. The ones we’re talking about are mostly street level kinds of shops. The one I like the most is Fairwood - great food at affordable prices.

Here’s a summary of different parts of Hong Kong that we’ve been to:

Mongkok is awesome for Ladies Market (open at 7pm onwards, I think) and shopping in general. A whole lot of crowds here. Easily one of my favorite places to visit.

Causeway Bay (Causeway Bay MTR Station) is a hotspot for young and old, tourist and local. It’s very vast, so you have to walk a bit to SOGO, where Japanese wares are aplenty. My next bit of advice: follow the crowd.

Causeway Bay during the day

For the girls - every girl worth her salt will know about Sasa. Well, you won’t be disappointed here. There’s a Sasa store at every corner, at every famous MTR stops! Another cosmetics store worth looking into is Bonjour, and also look into Watsons and Mannings as well. I find this guide from My Women Stuff really useful.

Harbour City (Tsim Tsa Tsui MTR Station) by itself is a new shopping mall, but it’s all filled with branded goods. If you’re a bargain hunter (read: miserly) like me, then don’t bother going there save for the spectacular view at the topmost shopping mall floor. Tsim Tsa Tsui is also home to Nathan Road, where shops selling camera equipments are abound - but it’s also well known in the past for being a place where customers get ripped off. Also, it is here I found my goldmine of bargain clothes! Turn into Granville Road, and you’ll find a lot of shops selling brand new clothes at warehouse prices! But the only odd policy here is: no trying allowed. You can’t even put on a jacket on for size, lest you get scolded by the salesgirls! Whoever heard of that?!

We stayed in Newton Hotel, where, to our glee, we were surrounded by a bakery, a Starbucks, a 7 Eleven, a McDonald’s and a Subway store! This proves to be useful, as, not only as it is only less than a minute’s walk from an MTR station, but it’s also good if you’re feeling peckish at night.

One such night, we got hungry so Jee ran down for food - he bought McDonald’s, and a noodle cup for me. The weird part is, there’s no plastic fork in the cup! How am I supposed to eat?!

Here’s my next bit of advice: always bring a Swiss army knife whenever you travel.

Out of drinking water bottles, Jee made this:

It works really well too, since it’s stiff enough. We had a few laughs about this one.

Cute, right? ;)

Another thing I noted there, is that their McDonald’s have McCafe. Affordable coffee joint! It’s only slightly cheaper than Starbucks though. While we were there, we often slipped into a McCafe to rest and have a sip. They even have a beverage called Fluffy! How adorable is that?! Fluffy!! *LOL*

Another hot tip: always eat lunch and dinner earlier or later than locals. You’ll find yourself easily finding seats and avoid the lunch and dinner crowds. And trust me, you do not want to be among them. It’s not uncommon to queue for an hour or two to get a seat in a restaurant.

And, always look up. Kuchingnites will find it disconcerting to look for eateries on the second floor, but that’s the way it is over there. :)

Another hot tip: Pack all kinds of medicine lest (knock on wood) you get sick. Here’s the basic list of medicines you ought to prepare for on any trip:

Medicines for flu, fever, stomachache (charcoal is only good to encourage your body to get rid of poison, not stop it - get another one that stops the pain), allergy, gastric and cough. You never know when you’ll need them.

Also, people in Hong Kong has an unspoken rule about standing on the right side of the escalator when you’re not in a hurry - so that people on the left can overtake.

Right, that’s it, I think. And last but not least, I know that I’d hardly displayed my picture to the public before this… I’m shy, you see. :) That, and I’ve never been satisfied of any pictures of myself, until this one came along, taken by Jee, in a McCafe.

Yours truly, moi.

Thanks for reading! The next post about this trip will be a compilation of things I purchased there. :)

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