The streets in the traditional Chinese part of Mong Kok have some red-light qualities to them. Signs list various nationalities and the prices for the services of each one. It's a bit unsettling! We figured out that a bright pink sign signaled one of these places... but there's a lot of neon signs in HK, so we're not 100% sure it's a reliable marker across the board.
This is a store that sells dried fish but also other delicacies like abalone. Some of the stuff is super expensive.
Angela had just come from observing the ghost holiday with her family. It's a time when the boundary between earth and the spiritual world is more malleable slash crossable than usual, and you need to make offerings to the ancestors to placate them and keep them from their side of the line. Usually you burn paper representations of things like food and money, but in this day and age you can burn such offerings as a ginormous stereo system. All in paper, of course, but still. If I were an ancestor, I mean, obvi, I'd want one of those.
This is a coffin shop. We also passed a place that served snake.
This is the fruit market near Mong Kok, but by the time we got there in the afternoon most of the stands had gone. There is so much yummy fresh fruit here!
Angela and I then went to Langham place, a mall nearby, which was modern and sleek and shiny exactly the way the other part of Mong Kok isn't. I got some sheets and pens at the fabulous Japanese story Muji -- which I know Fran and Jonathan love! -- and we also took some hilarious photo-booth photos that I will scan and post later. Then we met Clayton for dinner and went to a restaurant called Crystal Jade in the IFC. Then we went to a laid-back bar in Soho that I really liked called Corner Shop, which served yummy chicken dumplings called momos.
Overall, an excellent first Saturday in HK.
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