Hong Kong Ladies Weekend

Last weekend I jetted off to Hong Kong for a shopping weekend with some ladies in our neighborhood.  I have a friend here who should basically be a travel agent.  She goes many places and does a great job finding deals so she did all of our leg work and I just had to write a check!  The ladies on the adventured commented, now we know what is like to be our kids when we book a trip and do all the work and they just come along for the fun.

Personally I love traveling however I really don't like doing the work to plan the trip.  I often get online start searching places, hotels, etc and then get interrupted, lose track of where I was, and need to start again.  It gets a little frustrating and confusing where I saw what (I forget to save pages and don't take notes).  So eventually, I just pick something and hope it's good enough.  So this was a real treat to have someone else find the deal.

We stayed in a great hotel that fit all 5 of us and we booked with the club level so free food, snacks, drinks (including alcohol) throughout the day.  Let's just say we only paid for one meal in 3 days- I think they lost money on our visit.  Below is the view of the city from the hotel and the 5 of us in the club room.

When we arrived Chinese New Year was just ending, the mall attached to our hotel had this cute pink horse (this is the year of the horse if you didn't know) decoration that I had to get a photo of.  We came to Hong Kong to shop and having a mall attached to where we were staying was great.  In Singapore, prices are so ridiculously high at name brand stores and the sales people hover thinking we are rich Americans ready to spend money.  So, I have stopped shopping at malls.  Instead, I order everything online try it on and then return what doesn't work- not the most efficient way to shop.  In Hong Kong the prices were comprabable to America's and the sale people didn't hover so shopping was great.  Getting to try on the clothes before buying was a real treat too.

What was Hong Kong like?- I had heard such great things about Hong Kong, I expected perfection.  I think Hong Kong was probably perfect in the 60's and 70's when it was new and modern, but compared to Singapore it just felt old.  Even the amazing skyline Hong Kong is so well known for didn't seem that grand compared to Singapore.  My opinion is mainly a refection of Singapore's eye popping new modern city that is so pristine they knock down a building that's getting just a little too old.  Hong Kong was definitely neat  but just older and the buildings weren't as tall and sparkly as those being built today. I think the best thing about Hong Kong was the natural scenery the water all around you, and the mountains just behind the city.  That is something you don't see everywhere.  

But as I mentioned, we weren't really here for tourism, we were here to shop! Right down the street from our hotel was the Ladies Market, Electronics Market, and the Sports Market.  Walking the streets and looking at all the trinkets the stores and street vendors had to sell was great.  I'm not a great bargainer- Fred always took on that roll in our relationship (I always left after we pick out a car, then he could get to work on the price).  I knew I was supposed to bargain here and tried a little but was shown a whole new light when one of my friends would name her price, the sales person would say no, my friend would walk away, and the salesperson would still shout out deals until finally got to her price.  My friend said, "I know I got a good deal since she wouldn't look at me when I paid."  Wow, I was totally impressed.  As I was buying some ipad cases I was about to cave on a deal and she stepped in saving me another $10.  I guess I always need someone like that in my life.

We spent one day going to Stanley Market which is full of street vendors selling all sorts of good deals- purses, pictures, shoes, jewelry, linens, clothes the items went on and on.  We took a quick photo overlooking the water holding our new purchases.

 One evening we went downtown to see the city and the lights.  We caught this light show which I videoed.  It was pretty neat, I hope you can view it.

 Our last day we were done shopping and decided to go up the cable car to Victoria Peak.  Riding straight up a mountain in a cable car was really neat.  We got to the top and it was all white- it was a really foggy day.  At the top there were tons of little tourist shops full of trinkets so we spent our time on the mountain shopping since there was no view.  I guess we didn't quite buy everything!