Hong Kong - As It Happens

There will be things on the floor in your bathroom, do not be afraid, but be wary. The first thing you’ll connect with, and it will be painful, is the raised threshold; cold, hard slices of merciless marble jutting unreasonably above the otherwise uniform floor – a step that goes up and back down. A surprise and a shock to the tenderness of toes. Remember to step over this carefully, especially in the dead of night, as you feel your way through to the loo.

The next thing will be the scale. Apart from everything else, this is unfair. We are supposed to be getting away from it all. Lose it and use it, but if you’re gaining, steer clear.

The Hong Kong version of the subway, the MTR, will get you places quickly and efficiently, like science fiction. Getting from Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon on the southern tip of the mainland, under the water to Hong Kong island, takes anything from 10 to 15 minutes. Doing the same trip by cab can take up to 30 minutes in traffic, and Hong Kong has serious traffic.

Weather: spring, fall, winter are the only seasons a foreigner can expect to live through. In summer you will melt. Unceremoniously. I have been to HK in June and opted to stay sequestered in the air conditioned hotel room in the interests of survival. You can’t do this if it’s your one opportunity to see the place so consider this when you’re all excited about the low season airfares and hotel prices.

Kowloon: Most tourists head to Kowloon. So do the traders who sell tourists things they expect to buy in the East but for cheaper. If you live in the United States, hesitate. Prices of cameras, computers, all electronic stuff may well be bought back home for cheaper and you’ll get follow up service.

If you want to buy stuff anyway consider the lovely little samples of everything ‘health and beauty’ at all the Sasa stores. There are many dotted all over the city. There are cute, tiny perfumes, tiny face cleansers. You’ll see all the big names but in affordable $10 bite size pieces. They’ll be in bins so be prepared to scramble through them. Also someone will inevitably be attached to your back or elbow, trying to help you when you don’t particularly want it. Smile graciously but try to stay focused.

Hong Kongites love brands and labels so you’ll find all of them here along with the prohibitively high prices we associate with them. Giordano is one of the exceptions, not a huge international presence but stylish and cool and prices that will not close your bank account.

There’s also a chain of women’s clothing that calls itself a range of things, so don’t look for the name. They’re smaller than the other clothing stores and their racks and racks of informal, local designer clothing sells some pure Asian fashion for round $10 a piece. I bought a gorgeous smock top there three years ago, among other things. They wash well and they look quite different, in a good way, to anything you can purchase back home.

Don’t confuse these stores with another kind that operates on a similar principle. The ones I buy from allow you to try on the clothes. The ones I won’t buy from have some equally lovely stuff but you buy it and it’s yours no matter what happens and you can’t try it on.

Watsons is the place you’ll want to go for all the band aids, shampoos, over the counter medications you left behind. Just like the places back home it will make you feel at home when you have that weird stomach ailment, or travelers headache. Watsons are all over the place so don’t panic. Ask and someone will point you to the nearest one.