Mong Kok

I went with a group of friends to an area in Hong Kong called Mong Kok located in Kowloon. The area is a huge open market. I could describe it, but pictures are much cooler (and I just bought a digital camera, yay!).

This is Mong Kok. I don't think you can see in these pictures, but the vast majority of the people walking around here, have on flashy watches and carry Gucci bags. It's all fake, but it's kinda fun. This part of the road was a open market, and every time we walked by a stall, the owner would yell at us "Copy Watch!" - you can figure out what that means.

Here, it's pure bargaining, and everything is cheap. My friend Philip from Germany bought two dress shirts at a stall for 80 HKD, or about 10 bucks. It was funny to look at them though, they were decent in quality, but totally labeled wrong. The pocket read "Hugo Boss" and the inside the neck read "Nautica."

Every corner had a little shop for you to shop at. Mong Kok in this area was almost all consumer goods - no chinese medicine, artifacts, or that stuff. What was sold as Chinese trinkets were pretty cheap looking. I was little sad. Some of the trinkets were so cheap looking, I felt bad just looking at them, because they were probably based off something at some point.

There were dozens of these street markets.

On a main street, there was a protest going on. Hong Kong, as a Special Administrative Region, is allowed more political liberties than other places. The people below were protesting in favor of the Falun Gong.

Falun Gong is banned in China, it's a political movement. I don't know much about it. Anyways, look at the sign. It says "Heaven Condemns CCP's Brutal Genocide." If you think back to anything you learned in school about China, do you guys remember the Mandate of Heaven concept? Basically, any government in China is given the right to govern by the Gods. The People's Republic of China is the successor of the Chinese Emperors, and is the legitimate heir to thier government. Just interesting to note.

You can't see in these pictures but, Mong Kok is incredibly crowded, and we went on a slow day. It's hard to walk in some of the open markets at some points, and people definately are pushy.

On one street in Mong Kok was an open air fruit market. You could purchase anything exotic there, and it all looked incredibly fresh. We had just ate before, so I didn't have anything. I did however...

Have a coconut. :)

I kept seeing people wander around with coconuts with straws in them. It immediately became a mission to find the stall for one. I found one, and for 5 HKD (about 64 cents), the guy would punch a hole in the fruit with a screwdriver and hand you a straw. Very good actually. Aww... that girl in the picture is cute.

Hey, look how tan I am! I went to the beach for my birthday, and had a chance to get some color in my skin again. Yay!

I bought a bomber jacket and brown sports coat at Mong Kok. Both were very nice, I got them for like... combined, um, 150 HKD? Yea, like 20 bucks. My shopping Gods smiled at me today.