Hong Kong
A couple of weeks ago I got to go to Hong Kong for work for my first time ever. Ridiculous trip schedule (taking a red-eye right after a school midterm, landing and going straight into three days of meetings, turning around and coming home less than 72 hours later), but a very good trip nonetheless.
Since this was a work kick-off event, we had half a day of team fun to get out and explore the city. I posted some of the interesting scenery photos to my gallery:
Particularly fun was an adventure to the “Ladies Market” with my co-workers Mike and Sonny. They were under orders from their wives to find some knock-off handbags, and had even been trained in what to look for as a “good quality fake”. We had little luck finding the right items in the usual street-level bazar, but we soon found a stall that consisted of nothing more than a folding table and a bunch of catalogs. Not catalogs of the original products mind you, but full catalogs of knock-off items.
It seems like there’s been some cracking down on displaying certain manufacturer’s wares out in the open, but there’s apparently no problem with taking people up to sketchy “showrooms” housed in converted apartments. We started in one place that was a 3-room apartment where the sales guy lived with his family, and used one of the rooms to store piles and piles of different fake bags; unfortunately none of what we wanted though.
The second venue was much larger (they dedicated an entire 4 room flat) and organized by different categories (handbags, purses, briefcases, and a huge table of watches). This place turned out to have just what everyone was looking for, and we ended up bargaining for a couple hundred dollars worth of knock-off goods. Actually, I use the term “we” lightly, as it was Sonny who drove the really hard bargain and essentially got my little gift for the wife almost for free.
Final note, don’t bother buying button-down shirts from a street vendor in Hong Kong. They might look like a good cut and color, but they are usually made out of polyester and of completely crappy quality. Oh well, it was a $6 experiment.
