Peter and I both slept in a little bit today. We were very tired from yesterdays excursions and we didn't have to be up at any particular time so we took advantage of it. I got up and showered and then went out to play with the babies some. I gave Isha a bottle and then played some with Divya. Vandita went to take a shower so I had both the babies and got to experience a little bit of what it must be like to have twins. They were both pretty good for me but it seemed one was always unhappy so there wasn't a moment that wasn't
consumed by one of them. When they both seemed to settle for a little nap I went to wake Peter up a second time. I checked our books again to see what things we may want to do and when Peter as all up and ready we ate breakfast. We had decided we would go to Stanley today that has the best markets around for reasonable prices and decent quality things. Peter and I gathered our things and then walked down the hill to the bus stop and caught Bus 1 to Central where we had to get on Bus 6. 6 came into a different station so we wandered around and asked for help, then wandered around some more. We asked another person for help and then wandered a bit farther. We
found a place that looked promising so we asked for help again and was finally pointed in the right direction (which happened to be about 50' away at that point). We found our bus and stood in line for about 10 minutes until the driver came to let us all board. This bus was a double decker bus so we headed to the top and Peter wanted to sit in the very front. This was extremely scary for me and I sat in the corner so I was surrounded by glass. The buses have a flat front so on many occasions it looked like we should have hit or run over a number of people and things. I had to learn not to look down because it always made me tense up. The ride was nice and about 30 minutes long. We went up and down many hills and took roads where you could see the harbor and various boats and cliffs. There was about a 60% chance of rain today but as we drove the sky seemed to clear up a bit. We passed Repulse Bay which is a very popular beach. Vandita and Anupam told us not to take the time to go there because it is nothing compared to the beaches
we experience regularly. There didn't seem to be many people there when we drove by but apparently it is packed on the weekends. Shortly after Repulse Bay we arrived in Stanley and a 30' walk will take you right to the markets. It was just shop after shop of various items and clothing. I really wanted to buy some scarves for all my lady friends back home and, of course, I had to find great stuff for the kids. Peter really wanted me to buy some traditional Chinese clothing and I was excited to add to my wardrobe back home. We went in several shops and then found some cute dresses for the girls. Thankfully the shopkeepers know what sizes would fit certain ages because I didn't know how the Chinese sizes translated into US sizes. They would just say, "What size" and I would say 6 and they would pull out what I needed. Every store was like this.
At this store I bought Bresa a green dress (before we had left I asked what she would want and that was her answer) and Abbi a red dress. I also got myself a long skirt and green dress but mine weren't Oriental styled at all. We continued walking and looked at hundreds of things and touched just as many. I had a hard time finding something for Javan, there just weren't as many cool boy things as there were girl things. I don't know if we saw every shop but I feel like we must have put at least a large dent in the market. As we went along we found many things that we liked and since most stores seemed to have similar
things we started buying things as we saw and liked them. I got 3 really cute dresses, two hanker-chief ones and a sundress. I also got a nice oriental shirt but I want some more. We picked up a couple more dresses for the girls that were more western style but with some oriental accents. Peter found a cool shirt that looked nice on him. At the same shop I tried on a long Chinese dress but I had to do it over my clothing because there was not fitting room. The dress was a medium and it seemed to pucker at the top. I didn't want it to be too big but
it was hard to tell because I couldn't try it on correctly. Peter said I should wait because we still plan on shopping in Kowloon and that would be at a mall so I would have a better idea there. We also bought each of the children some pajamas that are so cute! When I was little my mom went to China and brought me home green pajamas, I still remember how cool I thought they were so I was excited to get some for our children too. They didn't have green but that didn't matter so much to me,
though it would have been cool. We passed by a restaurant and went in to have some lunch. I was looking forward to having some real Chinese food but this place seemed to be a Thai style restaurant. I ordered fried noodles and shredded chicken and Peter got Red Curry with Chicken. It's a good thing we got some practice with chopsticks in yesterday because today they didn't even offer us real silverware (except the spoon that came with Peter's soup). I did pretty well and by the end was having very little difficulty but I know when I pick them up again
I will be starting all over. Our food was really good and there was way too much for me to eat so Peter helped me out a bit. We asked the waiter for napkins and he brought us out a roll of toilet paper, ummm....okay. After we were filled up we went out to shop some more. When we started to retrace our steps we found one of the first stores that we went into where Peter
had found a nice jacket that he really liked. He didn't buy it in the beginning because we wanted to see what all there was to offer. This shop was one that had a little bit of everything so I was able to get some cool things for the girls: bracelets, coin pouches, lipstick holders (they will put something else in them), and fans. I had asked Peter earlier if he wanted to get anything for his guy friends (like the guys in our Life Group) but he didn't know what would be a good gift. While looking around this shop he decided it would be cool to get them chopsticks. We have seen several places that have a nice box which contains 2 sets of chopsticks and 2 chopstick blocks and this store had many also. We went through all of them and
decided on several to take home, now we just have to find room in our suitcases. We walked out to the street we had originally come in on and I walked to a few shops we missed because we took a turn in the beginning. There was one place that had lots of accessories. I really wanted to find some hair sticks so I went in and asked the lady about them. She had a few but she also had these really cool hair holder things that are hard to explain. She put my hair up and showed me in the mirror and it was really pretty. She put her own hair up so I could see how it was done and then I asked the price of the pin. It was about $200 HK and that was way too much so I said no and was going to leave. She dropped the price to $180 but it was still
too much for me. I liked the pin but not enough to spend a lot of money on it. I tried to walk out but the lady actually grabbed my arm and told me to make an offer. I told her I wouldn't be able to offer her enough and I would rather not insult her but she really didn't want me to go. I told her $105 HK and she pulled away and said $120. I told her that I would not spend more than $105 and that it was fine and I didn't have to get it. Apparently she really wanted to make a sale so she gave it to me for $105. She wasn't rude or mean at all just really trying to push the sale. We had haggled a bit with the other shops but nothing to that extent. Most places drop the price a US dollar or two but not half the starting price. With only a few shops left I stopped to pick up some scarves for my ladies. I wanted ones that were noticeably not from the states so I picked out all the ones with Chinese writing on them and then a couple
more to make the sale price. I bought more than I needed which is good because if there is someone I forgot I will have something handy. We really hadn't gotten much for Javan so I made one more stop and bought him a red t-shirt with a cool dragon on it that says Hong Kong. We still need to get him a traditional outfit but if we don't find anything in Kowloon we can always come back here to Stanley, there is also a museum I wanted to check out but after the markets we had so many bags we didn't want to walk the distance to it. We caught our bus after a little bit of redirection and somehow got the front seat on the top again. In Central HK we actually found our bus fairly easy which was nice now that we had lots of stuff we were lugging around. The people here seem very nice and helpful. Even when we don't ask for help if someone sees we obviously don't know what we are doing they help us out by giving directions and such. When we got back to the flat we hung out for a bit and played with the babies some until it was time for their bedtime. Anupam came home a little late but we waited to eat so we could all be together. We had Indian food again and it was really good. Peter is definitely getting spoiled on this trip with all this ethnic food. We were pretty beat after dinner so we didn't stay up too much longer before we decided to get to bed.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home