Carolyn's Various Travels: Attempt to shop in the shopping Mecca

I was not interested in getting anything from the mega malls in HK, but I did want to check out the street markets, particularly the jade market. I had a map printed out and everything and was ready to go this morning, my last free day in HK. Since I've noticed that things get going kind of slow in the mornings here, I thought I'd better check when it opens before setting out...google says...CLOSED SUNDAYS. Oh no! Back-up plan: Go to Temple Market instead. More google checks...it didn't open until 4:00 pm. I had been up since 3 am and I was already bored and ready to start exploring, 4 pm was not working for me either. Back-up back-up plan: Go to Upper Lascar street to see what might be available to bring home for family members, noting that not as many shops would be open on Sunday.

I set out, it started raining. I was prepared to be wet and continued the exploration. Lots of small shopping streets have these small lockable kiosks for the merchants. I saw some of them opening up and it was amazing what they managed to cram in there for storage.

I thought briefly that I would stand out with my bright orange umbrella, but clearly I fit right in with the colorfulness.

One of the websites described the different quality of items that could be found in the street markets. The lowest level was "junk". I think this booth fits that description nicely. It looked like everything was about to spill into the street from collapsing stacks.

Lots of stair climbing

I found several nice items, did the requisite bargaining (I'm not very good at this) and came away satisfied. Happy to say the rain had slacked off, so other than my feet and pant cuffs I managed to stay mostly dry (other than the sweatiness in the heat and humidity). There was also the oldest temple in the city located in the neighborhood, so I checked that out too. Man Mo Temple. It was built in 1847.