Stalley, I Presume

It was a holiday here in Hong Kong, called the Qingming Festival (pronounced “Ching Ming”). Gweilos (Caucasians) refer to it as Tomb Sweeping Day because of its most obvious ritual. That is, the Chinese clean and honor the graves of their dead… I guess a bit akin to Memorial Day but with a lot of symbolism. As a result of the celebration, Sunday got off to a slow start. Even the gym didn’t open until an hour later than usual.

I took a twenty minute walk to the Stanley Market. There, along a string of pubs hugging the promenade, it appeared that most of the Ex-Pats were busy observing Qingming in their own way by honoring cases of dead soldiers.

It’s a rather quaint area of restaurants, shops, the aforementioned pubs with a museum anchoring the far end of the square. Families playfully patrol the walkway by the bay, while out on the water, a dozen brightly colored sail boarders mingled with ten man canoes and a large Chinese junk. For awhile, I simply wandered about nursing a delicious chocolate & vanilla gelato. Finally, I dove into the narrow alleyways that are lined with a warren of little shops. Clothing, jewelry, knock-off brands and Asian “hand made” goods filled the spaces. The shopkeepers hawked their wares with an annoying rap intended to draw you into their snare. Once you showed even a moment of curiosity, they wouldn’t leave you alone. Apparently in this neck of the woods, “No” means “Show me more of your stuff”, and “Leave me alone” stands for “Offer me less money”. There were only two ways to escape: buy something, or rudely push past them. The stalls were packed with merchandise and excited tourists. One fairly inexperienced shopper, namely me, was wary but excited to see what a good deal I could get on “genuine” D & G purses for instance (the answer is two for about twenty bucks). I think my Mother-In-Law would think she was in paradise.

Stan was feeling a bit under the weather, so I blew most of the afternoon on a shopping spree! Kim would be so proud of me! Although I don’t want to reveal to her my newly discovered stamina for schmucking around… let’s keep that our little secret okay? Later Stan and I returned to Stanley for a couple of drinks at the Smuggler’s Pub. I watched as the little bartender, Gladys pushed drinks on a couple of older fellows in the company of very young, pretty Filipino women. Apparently the rent-a-date trade was booming in Hong Kong as well.