I mapped out our walking path to Kowloon Park, with every intention of spending the whole morning there. An effective way to avoid shopping was to avoid going into the shopping malls. We were reserving whatever little we had for the street markets. Besides, we were never really patrons of popular (often expensive) branded products.
Kowloon Park turned out to be a very enjoyable and pleasant surprise. I love the idea of so much greenery and nature in the midst of a bustling city.
Lunch was at McDonald's because we wanted to try how its food tasted in other countries. In Hong Kong, everything was less salty and more flavorful. It also had more ice cream flavors. And bigger regular sizes.
We took a peek at Muji just to see if it sold the same stuff as back home. It sold a lot more.
We went inside the mall that sold only Chinese products and we almost drooled over the handmade tablecloths and pillow cases and bags - basically anything cloth and embroidered. But they were also very expensive.
We walked along the rest of Nathan Road from Kowloon Park to our hotel at Eaton, checking out all most of the Sasa, Watsons and Mannings stores. In the Philippines, Burt's Bees is exclusively sold in a high-end beauty store. In Hong Kong it is just part of the regular inventory of Watson's.
We took a quick rest in the hotel in the late afternoon before taking on the Temple Street Night Market. My sister dropped by 7-eleven to get a bowl of fish ball curry udon to tide her over.
The night was concluded along Kansu Street with a fortune teller who gave us only good predictions and an amulet. She also took a bit of our money. That was the only thing that went off the plan in that whole trip. It was a purely impulsive thing and I guess I was looking for a bit of magic amidst all the scrimping and emerging questions in my head (and heart) and all the other things that were hovering over me even as I tried to forget about them for a while.
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