A few more yards and you have reached Mong Kok's open-air "night market". The market stalls begin to open as early as 2:00 p.m. and it seems to be the most inexpensive place for shopping that you might also see Western tourists (the air-conditioned malls of Hong Kong Island and Nathan Road's boutiques seemed to be the more typical haven for the Western tourist). Our travel guidebook had warned that of all Asian people, Hong Kong vendors had the worst reputation, but we didn't fully appreciate this until I tried to negotiate with a t-shirt vendor. Many of the retail people we had dealt with seemed put-off at the idea of having to speak with Westerners, but at least several that we dealt with used a modicum of courtesy. Karen had seen a t-shirt she liked at a few different vendor stalls, but the price seemed to be the exact same at each stall. Having learned that street vendor prices are often negotiable in this part of the world, I asked the t-shirt vendor if she would sell another t-shirt for less than the price written on a piece of paper attached to it. She asked me, "How much will you buy it for?" I offered HK$35 (the original price was HK$59). The vendor then said something like, "Okay, I'll give you $50..." and something else in Cantonese. I didn't think I understood her well and she repeated "okay" more than once and even put her hand in her pocket to take out some money as she walked away from me toward the opposite side of her small stall. I wasn't sure if she was telling me "no" in a rude manner or if I was just missing her point so I began to take money out of my pocket. Then a couple of other ladies who shared the stall space with this lady told me in a calm manner that the vendor wasn't willing to sell the t-shirt to me. I realized the vendor who kept talking all the while was being extremely rude and got angry. I walked away from her stall and then decided to make a different offer to the vendor at a stall next to this woman's so that I could show her the t-shirt could be bought and that she had lost business due to her harsh, rude behavior. This time I asked the vendor if I could buy the shirt for HK$50 and he agreed. Then I took the shirt out of its bag after I made a loud "psssst" to the first vendor and smiled as I showed her the t-shirt. She looked upset and a little bewildered, but probably didn't realize that all she had to tell me was that my initial offering price was too low and present a counter-offer to encourage me to buy her merchandise.
Karen and I both agreed that Hong Kong has the best public transportation of any city we've been to in the world. The subway systems in Paris and Tokyo are the best, but the combination of subway and the busses in Hong Kong is beyond compare. The system is cheap, clean, efficient, and comfortable to use. The subway trains in Hong Kong are designed so that when all the cars are joined together to make the train, it is as if you are riding in one long car because there is no door or narrowing of the space which separates cars. The quality of the public transportation in Hong Kong is easy to assess by looking at the variety of people utilizing it. Everyone seems to use - even rely on it - seven days a week.
..........
For those Hong Kong residents who insist on driving, the traffic lights have an added feature. They turn from red to yellow before turning green as well as from green to yellow before turning red.
We boarded a Kowloon Motor Bus in Tsuen Wan with a group of all Chinese passengers, many of whom were high school students returning to their homes. Some of the passengers were carrying on conversations in Cantonese and a song came on over the loudspeaker. It was "Surfing USA" by the Beach Boys.
..........
While eating a meal on Victoria Peak, we saw a young woman, perhaps eighteen-years old, with three young men about the same age. She was wearing a sweatshirt with red printing that in the style of the commercial slogan "Enjoy Coke" read "Enjoy Cock."
I went to a district on Hong Kong Island known as Wan Chai with a small group of Filipino expatriates. We poked our heads in several bars and saw female entertainers dancing on stages with one-piece aerobic-like outfits and pearl stockings. These would more appropriately be called hostess bars than strip joints because instead of stripping down, the mama sans encourage customers around the stage to have one of the dancers sit with them. Then she asks you to buy the dancer/hostess a drink without asking you what drink you would like to buy her and, of course, without telling you what the surprise drink will cost. We went into one bar where there were Thai and Filipina dancers when this scenario unfolded. The bar tab was kept in a glass cup so when most of us said we would buy a drink for the women sitting next to us a special tab for each drink was added to the cup. Our beers were HK$59 (just under US$8) so I figured they wouldn't be charging us too much for the women's drinks after all we could probably buy fifteen beers at the store for this price. When I looked at one of the tabs, I found out that we were being charged HK$110 for each hostess's drink, and I told the mama san I didn't want the drink after all because it was too much. She acted upset and showed me the price posted on a wall, but got over it when one of my Filipino companions succumbed to her pressure to pay for the woman's drink. The drink was about two-ounces of who-knows-what, but I'm pretty certain it wasn't anything stronger than beer and it was gone in less than five minutes. The mama san didn't ask the men immediately after the glass was empty to buy the hostesses another drink because she wanted a bond of sorts to build up between the hostess and the customers first. By the time the mama san began pressuring the men to purchase a second drink everyone realized that it was time to leave. Only later did the guys tell me they realized they were being ripped off, but they felt obliged to pay for the drink to save face (nakakahiya in Filipino).
There is of course other entertainment for men in Hong Kong. One night, while leaving our run-down hotel just off Nathan Road, we were joined in the elevator by a Filipina who was dressed nicely in an ultra short skirt with lots of makeup on her face and some form of inexpensive brief case. She certainly wasn't going out to do maid work or work in a shop. In any event it is unlikely that she could afford the expense of a real Hong Kong night-life on a Saturday unless she was a hostess of some sort rather than a patron. The income disparity between Hong Kong Chinese and female Filipino expatriates is that big.
PRINTER-FRIENDLY FORMAT
