`Colours of the rainbow

Friday, December 16, 2005

I am finally back from my 12 day long trip. It was a great trip, a very different experience from what I have always previously gone through. My first trip was to Hong Kong, then to Shen Zhen and finally Bangkok. More details coming up... Initially I wanted to publish my last blog entry before going onboard at the departure hall but we were too late and had to rush for the flight. This is my first holiday trip doing 12 solid days of shopping! Believe it or not, I returned with a 33.7kg luggage, excluding hand carry pieces (when the max allowed was only 20kg). Thankfully we were members of the airline, therefore, the overweight baggage charge was waived.

Hong Kong

When we arrived, we were 'greeted' with a cold front. There was a sudden change of wind direction. Because of that, the weather was at 11 degrees Celcius everyday. I needed 3 layers because it was rather windy on top of the cold weather.

I shopped most here. I love to come at the beginning of winter because they have major major sales for their branded goods. My 'staple' shops in HK were Benetton, Esprit, Tommy Hilfiger etc, simply because they had 50%-70% discounts for their summer/autumn wear. I bought so many where per piece costs averagely SGD20, which was very cheap for these brands.

Shen Zhen

Going there was a culture shock! Firstly, when we arrived there and hoped onto the cab, while the cab stopped at a traffic light, he opened his door and spit and closed the door after that. We stared horrified at the back seat.

Nevertheless, the hotel room was superb! It was a service apartment with hotel treatment. We had a living room, dining room, kitchen with even a washing machine. Then came the rooms -- we had 2 rooms. I took 1 with the queen sized bed with a study table in it and the rest took the other room with 2 single beds, an attached bathroom with another study room. In that case, I had a room and a toilet to myself. You can imagine how huge it was.

Walking along the streets was a nightmare. Firstly, people, the males and females alike were spitting on the floor wherever they went. Secondly, they were rude. They pushed and did not know the words 'excuse me' and 'sorry'. They do not even hold doors and will slam them right into your face. We were warned by the locals about receiving counterfeit notes and snatch theives. We were also told not to go out after dask since it was dangerous. I seriously did not feel safe there.

Shopping there was indeed an experience, especially with the imitation goods. The A grage goods were so well produced that one could never tell them apart from the real ones. We went into 2 shops. Since my dad goes there frequently, they know him. They sell these goods to only people whom they know. 1 shop was named 'the 1 stop shop' by us because they sold everything and all you had to do was to point from their catelogues and tell them what you want and they will bring it to you from their 'secret place'. The second shopkeeper brought us to their warehouse, where we had to climb flights of stairs, walk along long, dark corridors and knocking with their secret code before we could enter their store. Many things were a good buy.

On a lighter note, I believe my Chinese had improved a lot from the HK/Shen Zhen, where I was forced to speak Mandarin and read Chinese. I appreciate that actually.

Bangkok

Since I was last there in July, the things there were pretty much the same so I did not shop much. I did not dare to also because I had already shopped soooo much in HK. I must confess that I am an addict to massages. I went for massages almost every night when I was there. I did french manicure and pedicure for only SGD8!

My greatest accomplishment as a shopper was to visit the newest shopping mall known as Siam Paragon. It was only opened for the 4th day when we were there. There were many sales and I feel proud to be the pioneer there...

The above are just the main highlights of this trip. There are definitely much more, especially since I was away for 12 days! After being on the streets for 12 days, I am seriously not interested in hanging out anymore on the streets of Singapore for now.

A rainbow appeared at12:11 AM

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