travel story : hong kong, day 2

This was on the 25th of October. Breakfast was at the hotel from the stash we bought from 7-eleven the night before.

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.

Dinner was rice topped with chicken cooked in a claypot.

My biggest splurge for the trip was a leather covered blank notebook (HK$98) that I intend to make into a photo and text journal about this trip and all future trips to Hong Kong. The kanji means "Smooth Sailing".

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.

She said I would get married next year and that I will have two sons and that I will not lack for money and my husband will be very tall. She also said I have an honest heart and that really, really made me think and wonder because one of the main things I am bothered about now had to do with it. Well, I did ask for some sort of message from the Universe. Maybe this is one.