I had actually made plans for this weekend many days ago. Originally, Su and I were going to Cat Street Friday night and Repulse Bay today (Saturday). As of Thursday, it still looked like Typhoon Megi was making a beeline for our beloved 30-mile rock so outdoors activities seemed slightly less attractive. Instead, we changed our plans to a shopping venture in Mong Kok.
As you can imagine, the prices in Mong Kok are practically the lowest in Hong Kong. My theory is that since so many people live there, they also set up business there. This in turn drives down prices through direct competition. In other words, you can charge HK$20 for a skewer of fried fishballs at the University MTR Station because you're the only supplier and hungry students like fishballs. Sell fishballs in Mong Kok, however, and you have no competitive advantage because everyone sells fishballs...and Taiwanese bubble tea...and BBQ squid...etc. Therefore, unless you sell the world's yummiest street food, you have to charge less or you go out of business.
This same theory applies to everything: clothes, food, electronics, books...goldfish (yes, there is a "Goldfish Market" where people go to buy tropical fish for their aquariums--the most popular pets in Hong Kong being fish, turtles, and birds). Our first stop was Ladies' Market, which we found from just following the sign below:
This was Su's third time coming to Ladies' Market, but she couldn't quite remember how to get there. I ended up being the navigator, which is fine. For some reason, I'm always the navigator. Maybe I have a really good sense of direction, but I almost never get lost or turned-around, even in an unfamiliar place. We saw this sign reading nu ren jie, or "Ladies Street" and knew we had found it:
Of course, the real name is "Tung Choi Street."
While standing at the sign, it occurred to me that I was running a little low on cash. No problem, though! We just had to cross this street to get to HSBC, where I could use an ATM (Hang Seng account holders can use pretty much any ATM in Hong Kong with no charge):
Immediately after getting a little cash, we returned to the market for some serious bargain-hunting. Let me be a little clearer about the exact definition of "bargain-hunting." True, we were looking for some good prices on good items, but even more fun was the hunt for people to bargain with.
Priority #1 was finding me a new purse. I had fixed up my broken one with fresh masking tape this morning, but I made sure to hide it with my hand while walking through the market. The last thing you want to do is haggle over a new purse while holding a broken one. This just screams desperation, and desperation is the perfect opportunity for price-gouging. I found a nice-looking bag in dark purple, which I carefully examined for defects. Finding none, I opened it up and took note of the inside space, which was much larger than it appeared from the outside. The salesman wanted HK$250 for it, which is ridiculous since that's what I might pay in Shatin Mall, not in a street market. I said 80, he said 200...90, 150...I started to walk away and he immediately dropped the price to HK$110. That I could do. I must say, I really do love the new shoulder-bag (I think it's too big to call a purse), but I made sure not to express my pleasure until after the purchase. Never look too happy or excited about buying something. It's another excuse to charge you more. The best thing is to approach every stall with the attitude of "I can find this same stuff anywhere."
In general, I consider myself a rather saavy bargainer. I can usually get at least 50% off. That's not the absolute best you can do, but with limited Mandarin I sometimes lack the verbal skills to drive a really hard bargain. Also, the fact that I'm (obviously) an American works against me. People see me and think money. As most of you know, this is totally unfounded...especially in Hong Kong where housing is so expensive, I'm far from wealthy. I also realize that my appearance screams "just came off the airplane" instead of "been here for 5 months." I'm used to people trying to rip me off. Speaking in Mandarin almost always results in an immediate 10% discount from the price I hear when I ask in English. I should really learn how to bargain in Cantonese. I bet that would be an automatic 20% off.
Still, as a saavy bargainer (at least as far as Westerners go), I almost always get a highly-reduced price. That is, of course, when I know the usual price range of the item I'm bargaining for. Today I had a trickier challenge. You see, I wanted to buy a qipao (Chinese dress) for Sarah. Su is about the same size so it was nice having her for sizing-reference. I found a gorgeous qipao that was really pale purple--almost white--with dark purple and white embroidered flowers. It looked like CC Koala colors, and I immediately knew it was the right one for my dress-up-loving sister. The saleswoman wanted HK$300, which wasn't going to happen. Still, I had no idea what the price range was for a qipao. I paid HK$180, which seemed reasonable. I found out later that Su had gotten one for HK$80 a few weeks before. Ack! I hate it when that happens! Even so, I love the purchase and I know the price range now. I'll probably go back and buy one (or two) for myself another day so I'm stowing that number away for future reference.
After shopping a little while, we both started feeling hungry. We saw an advertisement for a Teppanyaki restaurant nearby, and pretty soon we both had Japanese food on the brain. Naturally, we ended up at the advertised restaurant, and got really good deals on 2 set lunches. Not to mention we also got seated at the bar so we got the best view of the chef. He's making fried rice in the picture below:
The salad and tea that came with the set:
My main dish was sole fillet with rosemary, and Su had salmon with kobe beef and enoki mushroom:
One of those big beautiful golden-brown fish is mine:
And the final complete set: sole fillet with rosemary, wok-fried vegetables, rice, miso soup, salad, and tea.
Lunch was delicious (and cheap, of course). I really love good authentic teppanyaki every once in a while. Admittedly, though, I still occasionally enjoy the USA's take on Japanese steakhouse. Good food is good food, authentic or not. Tummies stuffed, we returned to the Ladies' Market. Here's a shot so y'all can get a feel for the general atmosphere:
There's actually a lot of food-booths too. We were still very full from lunch, but we wanted to look at the delicious goodies for sale on the street:
I also took the opportunity to sit down and move my stuff from the old broken purse to my new one. Someone had bumped into me and that was just enough to knock the masking-tape loose. I took a picture of the Chinese lanterns while I was at it:
While I was settling into my new bag, Su bought these lovely peony cakes as a snack for later (I think we ate them around 5:00pm or so).
We had a lot of fun at Ladies' Market and I'm sure I'll be back. Our shopping spree wasn't over yet, though. Next stop was Argyle Centre, which is a famous (indoors) shopping mall just 1-2 blocks from Ladies' Market. The prices, however, are similar and you can often bargain. I just bought a pair of light-blue canvas flats, but Argyle Centre is definitely a good place to come for buying all kinds of clothing, jewelry, etc. We managed to find a nice cardigan for Su so we both left happy.
On our way home, I had to stop in Shatin to pay my phone bill so we both just ducked in for 5-10 minutes before finishing our ride back to University. After our peony cakes, we went our separate ways, and I put all my new goodies away.
There also seems to be some new development in the Thailand trip. We need 10 people by Tuesday to get the Mandarin/English speaking tour guide package deal. So, that is what we're aiming for. I invited the other IBCE folks so we'll see who takes the bait. If for some reason, the 10 person quota doesn't make, our backup plan is to just plan the trip ourselves (copying the existing travel itinerary), and book air-fare and hotel rooms through the travel agency. And, yes, we would still pay just the original price, which I know for a fact now to be HK$2000 (US$257). I'm game.
No comments:
Post a Comment