Last Day in Hong Kong
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008. After feeling mostly recovered from my bout with the Hong Kong flu yesterday, Sara and I visited the Kowloon Bay portion of Hong Kong. On the way over, we rode the star ferry. The views from the water were excellent, and it really gave us a sense of the size of Hong Kong. Despite being built on the narrow strip of land between the mountains and the ocean, Hong Kong is quite large.
Kowloon holds most of Hong Kong’s museums, lots of shopping, hotels, and restaurants. It also seemed to be a popular hang-out for models – we saw a lot of fancy looking young western women “hanging out” around important restaurants. Evidently, they hang out hoping to “bump into” someone important. It was a little surreal to see so many attractive, skinny young white girls in Asia, but I managed.
Our trip to Kowloon Bay was supposed to include a visit to a highly recommended restaurant, but we found it to be closed. Our next alternative, another highly recommended restaurant, was also closed. So was a third. It turns out that our guidebook was quite outdated, which is hard to believe since it’s only a couple of years old. I guess things change fast in Hong Kong.
Today was also my last purchase from a Chinese street vendor. I bought a trinket, a gift for a friend, and my haggling skills were at their finest. I negotiated hard, starting absurdly low, laughing and joking my way up to a number that the street vendor STILL wouldn’t accept (she let me walk away). After walking away, I knew I’d found a good deal. It was great fun, and as someone who thought he knew a lot about negotiation, I have to say my experience haggling in Asia opened my eyes quite a bit. It was fun, and I miss it terribly. In the Western world, tough, aggressive negotiation is often viewed with animosity, but it doesn’t have to be. A tough negotiation can be a bonding experience that brings people together, and it took a trip across the world to learn that. Still, it might have been the most valuable thing I take from Asia.
Next, it was off to Macau…
