Hong Kong Trip June '11 - Shopping!

Shopping is 

Great Fun 

in Hong Kong!

Happy Shoppers!

The reason shopping is fun in Hong Kong is that you'll never know what you'll find or see as you walk through the main roads and side streets. Ben and Jerry's next to an old style Hong Kong Dessert shop, Starbucks next to 'Tea Cafe' (Char Chan Ting) selling egg tarts, Watson's at the bottom of run down flats, high fashion shops next to open air night markets. Somehow they all seem to co-exist naturally - it's what I call "Ordered Chaos". 

All this makes for very good shopping for Singaporeans; and Singaporeans do like shopping -

Evidence No. 1

My wife, Marie, has her name on VIP accounts of several shops in HK - one of them a hat shop even (I find this a most interesting and intriguing nugget of information about her - how does she achieve this seeing that we neither stay in HK nor are likely to visit HK more than once a year. How many hats do you have to buy to get onto the VIP datatbase?)

Marie's hat shop

Evidence No. 2
My best friend Chee Meng's wife and daughter were in HK while we were there. Our trips overlapped by one day and we were wondering if we would bump into each other even though we had not formally arranged anything. On that day, Marie and I stepped out of the HK MTR (our MRT equivalent) to find a gigantic H&M shop (this is a cheap, trendy clothing shop for the uninitiated). We thought we weren't doing too badly for time so how could we resist going in? And once we got in there, who did we see but Chee Meng's better half and daughter. Lesson being? If you want to meet Singaporeans, go to shopping centres.

Shopping is not a guy's thing
Before I go on any further and mislead my readers into thinking that I am saying that shopping is for the ladies only, I must confess that I do shop and enjoy it too. I know, Singaporean guys are not supposed to say that like shopping. They are supposed to say they hate shopping and love football.

Now this is the part I don't understand. Football stars like David Beckham,  Ronaldo and Hidetoshi Nakata  who are revered by their legion of football fans in Singapore are fashion trend setters. Beckham was looking mighty dapper recently at Prince William's wedding; and these days scores of all types of athletes fight to be on the covers of GQ magazine.

http://davidbeckham.fans-online.com

The reality, my fellow Singaporean bros. is that these millionaires probably have professional shoppers choosing their spiffy outfits for them. That is why they're never seen in shopping centres - not that they don't shop.

Guess who introduced me to MUJI?

MUJI (http://www.muji.com/message/) is a Japanese lifestyle store and I love it because they are able to make all the things we use everyday look 'stylo' through clean, simple designs. Everytime I go to HK, I try to visit the MUJI store because it's much bigger than the one in Singapore.

The one who introduced me to MUJI is my best friend Chee Meng. (Yes, you Chee Meng - the one whom I know has been sniggering and rolling your eyes from the time I started writing this piece on shopping; the one who does not shop).

MUJI Nailcutter - mine

Chee Meng introduced me to the MUJI nail cutter. Not only does this nail cutter look chic, it works great and it lasts forever. How can anyone ever make the common nail cutter look great? Can you see why I'm hooked onto MUJI stuff?

So really to cut a long story short, I guess the REAL reason why I'm writing this piece is to justify why I ended up shopping and buying more than I should in HK. No way is Marie going to let me get away by not showing everyone what I bought. So here are the two most expensive items I bought and be kind :) 

Epilogue: The kids got to enjoy our shopping too. Egg Tarts from Honolulu Cafe that we brought home - not to be missed!. They even made a  Jackie Cheung movie at the Cafe (Crossing the Henessey).