Today is shopping day, Amazing Race style!
DETOUR! Detour is choosing between two tasks which you need to perform to get to the next clue, each with it's own pros and cons. Normally, the first one is physically harder, but will get you to the next clue faster. The other one is less demanding physically, but will take longer time to finish. Well, in this special HK leg, there is a new twist. The difficulty was not imposed on our bodies but rather on our pockets. Tsim Sha Tsui vs. Mongkok.
In Tsim Sha Tsui, we can opt to do our shopping along Canton Road and Parklane Avenue which is just a stone throw away from our hotel. But this choice will empty our wallets and max our credit cards in just 3 hours. In Mongkok, we need to take the subway and alight on the third station from Tsim Sha Tsui. Although this is farther from the hotel (meaning we can’t go back to our room easily to load off our shopping bags and go back to more convenient and less-tiring shopping), Mongkok offers good bargains via its Ladies Market. And most importantly, IKEA (per my pre-trip research) is in Mongkok. Because of the latter, I persuaded my shopping buddy Mac to choose Mongkok!
So just guided with a map of HK, with our well-planned shopping get-up and limited pocket money, we took the MTR to Mongkok. Compared to our MRT, HK’s MTR (Metro Train Railway?) is so sophisticated. Although looking for the correct entrance/exist is confusing at first with the labyrinth of hallways, escalators and signs, their transit system is so high-tech riding the train is so exciting and pleasant. Tsim Sha Tsui Station. Jordan Station. Yau Maa Tei Station. And finally Mongkok Station. As we alight, I noticed some people crossing to the other side for a differently colored train (which I learned later is the Kwung Tong Line). So that is the interchange. Cool!
First stop. IKEA. It was what I imagined and envisioned it to be. Actually, more! Truly any homemaker’s heaven. They even have showrooms of various designs of rooms in a house. I only have one word for the experience. Breathtaking! I can stay in this store the whole day and never get bored nor tired. Unfortunately, because of shipping concerns, I can only look, drool, feel, admire (and take a picture sitting on it), drool again and sigh over my dream PURPLE sofa. Why don’t we have an IKEA here in the Philippines?!?! After the whole morning going from one section to another, and almost spending half of my shopping money, and after completing our shopping experience in this famous Swedish store by dropping for a quick late lunch in the Ikea Café, we bid farewell to my now favorite store in the whole wide world. Sigh! As I leave Ikea’s door, I promised myself I will be back again soon. Preferably in another country/branch.
Now the challenge of this Detour begins. Loaded with our many and heavy IKEA shopping bags (take note! we bought all sort of home stuff from delicate light bulbs, extendable bathroom mirror to plastic bag containers), we proceed to our next stop, the infamous Ladies Market. After making several stops in street corners to consult our map and asking several not-very-so-helpful and irritable locals, we found Ladies Market (I realized me and my friend will be great AR teammates, we are good at this! We didn’t get lost at all! And we didn’t fight with each other). I initially thought LM would be like MBK of Bangkok which is housed in an air-conditioned building. I was wrong, it was indeed a market, numerous stores/stalls lined up in the streets of Mongkok, under the blazing sun and within the humid environment. Just like our very own Baclaran. More so, haggling with the Chinese is harder than with the Thais or the Filipinos. The latter are more friendly and pleasant. But hah! They will not get the best of me, the master negotiator! I got all my bags, shoes and shirt purchases for HALF of the initial offered price. Beat that!
Thus, as we go along the streets of the Ladies Market -Nelson St., Shantung St., Soy Street., Dundas St., Hamilton St., Pitt St., the shopping bags in our arms accumulate. And when we finally decided to stop our challenge and call it a day, we realized we are already in the next train station in Yau Maa Tei. We have walked that far!!!
My arms now ached from the load. And my feet…my feet! They hate me now. Thank God for escalators in the subway.
We have deposited our shopping bags in the hotel and had dinner already. Hey! There is still extra time left, it is not yet midnight! And I don’t want to go to bed yet! Thus, we end up doing the Parklane Avenue Detour as well. We just can’t get enough.
As I am preparing for bed tonight, I am officially wishing for feet replacement. I wish I can just take them off temporarily like shoes. Huhuhu….
DETOUR! Detour is choosing between two tasks which you need to perform to get to the next clue, each with it's own pros and cons. Normally, the first one is physically harder, but will get you to the next clue faster. The other one is less demanding physically, but will take longer time to finish. Well, in this special HK leg, there is a new twist. The difficulty was not imposed on our bodies but rather on our pockets. Tsim Sha Tsui vs. Mongkok.
In Tsim Sha Tsui, we can opt to do our shopping along Canton Road and Parklane Avenue which is just a stone throw away from our hotel. But this choice will empty our wallets and max our credit cards in just 3 hours. In Mongkok, we need to take the subway and alight on the third station from Tsim Sha Tsui. Although this is farther from the hotel (meaning we can’t go back to our room easily to load off our shopping bags and go back to more convenient and less-tiring shopping), Mongkok offers good bargains via its Ladies Market. And most importantly, IKEA (per my pre-trip research) is in Mongkok. Because of the latter, I persuaded my shopping buddy Mac to choose Mongkok!
So just guided with a map of HK, with our well-planned shopping get-up and limited pocket money, we took the MTR to Mongkok. Compared to our MRT, HK’s MTR (Metro Train Railway?) is so sophisticated. Although looking for the correct entrance/exist is confusing at first with the labyrinth of hallways, escalators and signs, their transit system is so high-tech riding the train is so exciting and pleasant. Tsim Sha Tsui Station. Jordan Station. Yau Maa Tei Station. And finally Mongkok Station. As we alight, I noticed some people crossing to the other side for a differently colored train (which I learned later is the Kwung Tong Line). So that is the interchange. Cool!
First stop. IKEA. It was what I imagined and envisioned it to be. Actually, more! Truly any homemaker’s heaven. They even have showrooms of various designs of rooms in a house. I only have one word for the experience. Breathtaking! I can stay in this store the whole day and never get bored nor tired. Unfortunately, because of shipping concerns, I can only look, drool, feel, admire (and take a picture sitting on it), drool again and sigh over my dream PURPLE sofa. Why don’t we have an IKEA here in the Philippines?!?! After the whole morning going from one section to another, and almost spending half of my shopping money, and after completing our shopping experience in this famous Swedish store by dropping for a quick late lunch in the Ikea Café, we bid farewell to my now favorite store in the whole wide world. Sigh! As I leave Ikea’s door, I promised myself I will be back again soon. Preferably in another country/branch.
Now the challenge of this Detour begins. Loaded with our many and heavy IKEA shopping bags (take note! we bought all sort of home stuff from delicate light bulbs, extendable bathroom mirror to plastic bag containers), we proceed to our next stop, the infamous Ladies Market. After making several stops in street corners to consult our map and asking several not-very-so-helpful and irritable locals, we found Ladies Market (I realized me and my friend will be great AR teammates, we are good at this! We didn’t get lost at all! And we didn’t fight with each other). I initially thought LM would be like MBK of Bangkok which is housed in an air-conditioned building. I was wrong, it was indeed a market, numerous stores/stalls lined up in the streets of Mongkok, under the blazing sun and within the humid environment. Just like our very own Baclaran. More so, haggling with the Chinese is harder than with the Thais or the Filipinos. The latter are more friendly and pleasant. But hah! They will not get the best of me, the master negotiator! I got all my bags, shoes and shirt purchases for HALF of the initial offered price. Beat that!
Thus, as we go along the streets of the Ladies Market -Nelson St., Shantung St., Soy Street., Dundas St., Hamilton St., Pitt St., the shopping bags in our arms accumulate. And when we finally decided to stop our challenge and call it a day, we realized we are already in the next train station in Yau Maa Tei. We have walked that far!!!
My arms now ached from the load. And my feet…my feet! They hate me now. Thank God for escalators in the subway.
We have deposited our shopping bags in the hotel and had dinner already. Hey! There is still extra time left, it is not yet midnight! And I don’t want to go to bed yet! Thus, we end up doing the Parklane Avenue Detour as well. We just can’t get enough.
As I am preparing for bed tonight, I am officially wishing for feet replacement. I wish I can just take them off temporarily like shoes. Huhuhu….
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