Finally something to blog about! I'm back from Hong Kong. Actually I arrived two days ago. The last time I was there was in 1995, and things there have changed a lot since then...or so I think. In '95 I went crazy over Toys 'R Us. This time, I was seeking to improve my wardrobe. But then when I visited Shenzen, China, where the locals boast of the best bargains, I didn't find anything worth buying. The stuff there were mostly "made in China" (in other words, fake brand names). The other stuff that weren't fake brand names were China's own brands which didn't look like it had quality. Sure, bargaining there was insane. My mom bought a bag which was initially sold for HK$700, but got it at only HK$350, after ten minutes of haggling. But then for my taste, I thought the quality of the stuff being sold at Shenzen wasn't worth its price, even after the "tawad". I could find stuff like those being sold at Greenhills even cheaper. So back in Hong Kong, next to our hotel (Marco Polo Gateway) were the Harbor City and Ocean Centre. Branded clothes there were extremely expensive, comparing their peso equivalent to prices here in the Philippines! Ok, so Hong Kong has a higher standard of living. But what the heck, I'd rather shop for clothes in Manila. So I ended up spending all my shopping money on an mp3 player. I noticed most of the Chinese teenagers wearing these lighter-sized gadgets around their necks equipped with a pair of earphones. Going with the flow I got myself this Samsung yepp, 256MB. Good stuff, I filled it up today with more than 60 songs and I can even play it in my car using a car adapter. It runs on only one AAA battery for about 9 hours.
Enough about shopping, let me relate my experience with the tours. Our first tour was to Aberdeen where you can ride the "bangka" or whatever the Chinese call it. I didn't ride since I already did in 1993. The next stop was at JC jewelry factory. My grandmother spent a fortune there as if she were a child in a toystore. Then we went to Shenzen, a 40-minute bus ride away from Mong Kok. We visited this museum, but it turned out the museum was only a front. Staff of the museum ended up selling lychee tea, slimming tea, ginseng tea, and more jewelry to us. The next stop was a leather factory outlet/showroom where more stuff were sold to us. Not only did they sell leather goods, but also chinese herbal medicine. We then visited Windows of the World. This 20-hectare theme park showcases smaller replicas of the different wonders all over the world, classified into continents. Cute naman. We wanted to cut our tour short, so we took a train ride around the park, stopping at the more important sights (pyramids of egypt, eiffel tower, leaning tower of pisa, niagara falls, etc.) to have our pictures taken. After that, we proceeded to the shopping mall I mentioned earlier. We ended up taking public transportation back to Hong Kong, which was horrible. The locals were rude in getting on the bus, cutting queues and shoving other people...even the children and the elderly. (Were they too eager to get home? Well I guess we have some of those kind in our country as well.) I even helped some fellow filipino kids to get on the bus, since they were separated from their mother by the sea of people. In the process, I got myself and my family left behind, which was fine. Nothing was more rewarding than the smile the mother gave me when she saw her children get on the bus. We took the later bus and got back to the hotel past twelve midnight.
Later that night I pondered on how the travel agency was making lots of money. To give you a background, the Shenzen tour was free, but we had to pay extra money for visiting the mall and Windows of the World. Lakas ng kick back. First of all, we paid more than a hundred Hong Kong dollars per person just to visit the mall. Bakit may entrance fee ba dun parang sa Windows of the World? Then we had to take public transportation going back to our hotel. On our own. Without a tour guide. Lastly, the travel agency was probably being paid by the places we visited for advertisment, since tourists were being brought by compulsory to their place. Anyway, that was one helluvan experience. Although tiring, it was fun. Especially because we travelled together as a family. And our tour guide in China was cute. No! I don't mean attractive. Her mild manner and soft-spokenness amused me, since not too many Chinese I've encountered there were like her.
So that's the end of my account. In 1995 it was sight-seeing, Toys 'R Us, and Ocean Park. This year, it was more educational. It was experience of the Chinese culture, be it museum visits, meals at dimsum restaurants, or close encounters with the people. I enjoyed it.
