Ladies Market and not-so-abandoned Ma Wan Village

Apparently Leilei was up till 5am, while I got some fractured sleep till 10am when I knew I had to go down for breakfast. I roused Leilei but he was having none of it and I didn’t argue. As I arrived at the eating place I was told breakfast finished at 10.30, and then again by the same person as I sat down to eat after making sure I had a second plate full of pains au chocolat. The people on the table next to me had the same plan of appropriating such pains, and I felt it was a little cheeky as my need was genuine and these people had already stuffed themselves and didn’t look like they’d starve in a long while. Something about the lure of free food I suppose. But my plan was slightly better as I actually had a small plastic bag to put my stolen wares into, plus a genuine excuse if I got caught.

Back upstairs I saw some startling news about whiteshirts beating blackshirts, and had no idea how true it was. But it made me realise that wearing pink yesterday was probably a good idea. Never have I had to worry about what colour to wear on holiday before but for the moment it has to be a consideration.

By the time we left the hotel it was 1pm but we weren’t planning on lunch. Instead Leilei wanted to go to Ladies Market, which didn’t sound his style, until he mentioned it sold electronic goods and had five floors. I had a dubious memory about having taken Xixi to such a place ten years previous, so was happy to hop up two stops on the MTR to Monkok, after first dropping off my broken laptop at a repair shop and spending 350 HKD to get it looked at. We went to where Google said it would be but all we found was a market like Temple Street but about twice the size. Leilei was in the mood to buy a cap and a “purple bape top” whatever that was. I explained about the art of haggling and how to be able to walk away always.

Leilei at Ladies Market

I needed a couple of universal-to-UK/HK adapters, and found some and asked the stallholder how much in Mandarin (I told Leilei that using Mandarin would definitely get you an extra 20% off as they’d know you knew something). She said 25 kuai each and I looked surprised. I told her that last time I was here three years ago they were 5 kuai (actually it was 10 years since I’d been to the market), and she laughed and said it was inflation, but I could have one for 20. I walked away, and disappointingly she didn’t chase after me.

But at the next place the stallholder wanted 10 for one, so I said I’d give her 20 for three and she said ok and that was that. A more reasonable inflation as I really did get them for 5 each 10 years ago. We were still looking for this five storey building and when I checked again on Google Maps there was a picture of exactly where we were and it dawned on us Ladies Market was just a bigger version of Temple Street and we had no idea where Leilei had got his five storey idea from.

In the hotel I looked up unusual things to do in Hong Kong as we had no appetite to go to Disney, and the thing that grabbed my interest was an abandoned village named Ma Wan village. Looking on the map I saw it was in the south east, and not that far on the tube from Wanchai where we were to meet up with my mate tonight. So we took the tube to the nearest stop and walked in the general direction, into an interesting old area that had the air of a fishing village but with many restaurants. The village seemed to go on for a while, and as we walked we saw a few abandoned houses but certainly the place wasn’t abandoned; there was even a clean public toilet and I managed to get a cold beer and something for Leilei. Well I wanted to wander further and he didn’t so this time I let him have his way as we didn’t want to be late in Wanchai.

Joey Bees - some cool number plates around here

Leilei in the not-so-abandoned Ma Wan Village

Not too far off from touching the hoop

What else would you do while waiting for the tube?

At Wanchai you’d never have guessed the place was the centre of mass protests yesterday. Literally no sign of unrest, just a fairly bustily place with many westerners. We met up with my mate’s wife, and two kids who I hadn’t seen for eight years, then met him a few mins later as he’d been to the doctor. We walked to his wife’s friend’s place and had some glorious goose and pork and Leilei also had his fill. They had brought their own beers and I asked if that was ok here but apparently it was only ok as they knew the owner. The owner spoke perfect Mandarin so it was easy to communicate and tell her how good the food was. We talked about the protests, Brexit, education in general, and hoped the kids were taking in what we were saying, not to give them specific opinions, but just in general to make them aware. I like how being good at maths is normal here, and literally any cashier here will ask you for the extra bit of cash to make giving change easier. Leilei for the first time refused zhen zhu nai cha (or sometimes they call it bubble tea) as he’d had one last night and we realised the caffeine in that was probably partly responsible for staying up till 5am. We left them at Causeway and didn’t have any cause to go out as it was already 10.30pm and I didn’t want to do any last-minute packing as I was doing three days ago.

Back at the hotel, family in the UK, after having seen some photos of the “abandoned” Ma Wan, thought it appropriate to let me know that I had mistaken my Ma Wan for the actual abandoned Ma Wan which is actually nearby Disneyland. Well bloody Google didn’t tell me that it was that one and as much as I would have liked to visit it was much further away and quite honestly I rather like our own Ma Wan, and have resolved to come back and have a meal there one time, even if I never get to see the abandoned one. In the end I was up till 1am packing, including ironing all five shirts as it may be the last chance I get before I may have to use them for work. Leilei also fell asleep at that time but this time I couldn’t until 6am for a reason I’ll never know.