Honkong Shopping and Kowloon - National Day
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2008
1
18
20
Trip End
Oct 03, 2008
Hong Kong,
China
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
There were a ton of people around, and lots of Philippino girls and Muslim ladies with headscarves. Then I realised it is because it is China's National Day, a day off. The Philippino and Muslim ladies are likely housekeepers from the Philippines and Indonesia, respectively, since I read about how most families in Hong Kong have housekeepers and nannies.
I saw a beautiful leather purse from a Japanese company and was very tempted. Lots of the shoes were on sale and were very reasonable, but I decided to pass. I then left Sogo, and went to walk around the different streets around, including a street market where they sold mostly clothing. It was just overwhelming, the amount of stuff for sale. I saw a stall that sold these ProSports (like LeSportSac) fabric bags, so I bought a few since they have fun patterns and were pretty inexpensive.
Then I decided to head back to the hotel using the above ground trams after all that activity. I really like the trams. I discovered that the hotel is actually part of the Pacific Place Shopping complex. It is a high-end mall that is all designer labels. Literally, you pass shops for Versace, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chloe etc etc one right after the other. There is an entrance to the hotel from the middle of the mall. So up the elevator I went, to the 58th floor to my room. The actual hotel rooms are located on floors 40-62. I guess there are offices on the other floors.
I then decided I really liked the dark raspberry purse and I would regret not buying it, so I went back to the store to purchase it. It wasn't a bit deal, it is less than 50 (Canadian) cents to take the tram. Love the purse!
I then went to the lobby bar for afternoon tea. The food was great and it was a good re-energizer before heading out again for the late afternoon and evening.
Left the hotel again later and passed through Hong Kong Park. It was very busy, with families of all kinds visiting and taking photos. Then I passed the HSBC Building again. That was hilarious. The open plaza under the bank was now filled with Phillippino housekeepers. There wasn't a spare space. They had blankets and mats laid out and where playing cards, chatting or sharing a meal with friends. It was a sea of women. But that wasn't the end of it, there were more! In the parks and the walkways under the roads. There were so many! You have to wonder how many people don't have housekeepers.
I then took the Star Ferry to the Kowloon side, to walk around and see what is going on there. I walked a bit on Nathan Road, the main thoroughfare and went to Chunking Mansions. It is a large somewhat decrepit office/apartment building. The main floor is all small shops. It is a market too, with people approaching you to buy stuff. It seems that the hotels in the building appeal to the African and Indian populations due to how cheap the accommodations appear to be.
The sun was starting to set so I decided to go to the Peninsula hotel, to the Bar in the Felix restaurant as Karen had recommended. And it was a great view. I also went to the ladies' room. Wow, I think the view there was even better! It was a great bathroom, all the walls and floor where grey-veined white marble, as well as the centre sink, that was 3 water spouts all directed toward a low point in a piece of irregular marble. The back wall was floor to ceiling glass, looking out over the Hong Kong skyline.
I then walked outside, but then I found lots of the roads were now blocked off. This was because of the impending fireworks for National Day. I tried to find a good spot, but it was nearly impossible and finally found a small spot on a curb to sit on. I only had a partial view, but there was no choice. So I sat down and just relaxed for a bit.
The fireworks were huge all across the harbour. And the number of people was similar to the Vancouver Celebration of light, with people walking everywhere. Police were also directing everyone to the subway stations. I walked right up the centre of Nathan Road, to go to the nearby Temple Street Night Market. There were so many stalls, but I got the sense most of the stuff there was for tourist consumption, with various trinkets for sale. There were also guys with cards, trying to get you to take a look at their knockoff designer purses. They can't keep the good stuff in their stalls, so you follow this guy to a small courtyard near a restaurant and they show pictures of the goods. You then tell them the ones you want to see, and they bring out to you. It was all somewhat questionable. And the light isn't all that good so you can't see what you are buying all that well. And the prices of the ones I liked were still too high (over CAD100).
I then made my way back down to the hotel on the subway, and luckily it wan't too busy given the lateness after the fireworks.
