The Ladies Market was a blast! I decided that if I was going to go there I was going to ACT as if I was braver than I felt! No more “deer in the headlights” looks. I knew I would emerge from the MTR in Mong Kok and be initially overwhelmed by the crowds on that side of the harbor so I steeled myself to consider the crowds as normal and ordinary. Whenever I go somewhere new here and initially emerge from the subway, I have trouble orienting myself. That’s when I tend to get “hawked”; while I’m staring at the streets, trying to figure out which direction I want to go. So this time I just started walking purposefully in one direction, telling myself that if the street I was looking for didn’t show up in one block I would turn around and walk purposefully in the OTHER direction. It worked – even though I went the wrong way at first I didn’t get hawked.
Once I found the Ladies Market I decided that I would just walk through it part-way slowly at first, mainly watching other people, looking for people that seemed to know what they were doing. I watched a western woman bargain. She did all the things they tell you to do in the book – she offered a price, they counter-offered, she shook her head, came up a little bit, they shook THEIR heads and she started to walk away, and they came running after her! It’s such a game!
I started looking at the merchandise. You wouldn’t believe all the junk there is in the world…oh sure you would. Millions of leather purses, watches, t-shirts, sportswear, toys, cheap jewelry, hair pieces, WIGS, alarm clocks, mahjong sets…I was looking for a purse, maybe a scarf or two. I really want a light turquoise leather purse but I didn’t see any in the color I wanted, so I started looking at the light green ones instead. Hey, I don’t have a green purse!
As I walked into the various stalls, they always said hello. At first I said hello back, whether or not I saw anything interesting. That’s not a good idea. If you say hello they start following you around, showing you items, and they can get pretty aggressive. Finally I found a light green purse I liked, so I started talking to the shop girl. First, the one on display was dirty. She said “I go get new one, you wait! One minute!” I said okay and waited. I started getting bored and wandering away. The other shop girls started yelling at me “she coming! One minute! New one! You wait!” I argued a little “Where she? When?” I was having fun, actually…she finally came back with a pretty nice looking leather purse, so we started bargaining. Me: “how much?” “$289HK” I laughed. (that’s like $35US). Her: “So, what you pay?” The standard thing they tell you is to start at 1/3rd of the initial asking price and never pay more than ½. Me: “$75HK”. Her: “Aee, no can do, I lose money!” Me: “Okay, what then?” Her: “$250HK” Me: “No, not worth it, I don’t want that much. $105” Her: “Oh you killing me! $185HK” Me: “sorry, no” and I started to walk away… Her: “Okay, okay! I lose money, but okay” Sold for around $12US! What fun. I eventually bought two silk scarves too from another stall. She wasn’t as much fun to bargain with. I think she was kind of angry because we started at one scarf for $75HK and I ended up at two scarves for $50HK.
I was pretty tired after that and headed back to Central. There was no way I was doing any more serious shopping that day (I was emotionally drained!), but I had to go back in the Pedder Building and look at more of the designer outlets. Boy that place is tempting. I found another little store in there with Chloe, Chanel, Moschino, Missoni….very good prices for what it was, because it was the real thing, not knockoffs. If you could find something you liked in your size, wow….a Chanel suit for $400US? Yeah, I might do that at some point? A beautiful Chloe cocktail dress….oh Sarah Nill, bring your pennies dear!
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