Day 4 Hong Kong: Shopping & City lights

When you hear people talk about what there is to do in Hong Kong, shopping is usually towards the top of the list. I find this to be the same with Singapore. Since I live in Singapore now I didn’t find myself dying to do massive shopping here in HK but I was curious to check out some of the boutiques and shopping centers to see what they offered.

I started off by going back to the SoHo area Ozdane and I visited our first day here but this time I was focused solely on the boutiques. I was a girl on a mission. I started out on Staunton Street which had a few but more restaurants and bars than anything. As I went in some of the shops I noticed some of them carried familiar brands like Sass & Bide and the like but they had them discounted so you could find some good deals there. Other shops were quite unique with their styles and trends. Some of my favorites:

Ocho – this was my favorite! The minute I walked in I was welcomed by a lovely, friendly Brazilian woman named Fernanda. One thing I have noticed shopping in some countries around Asia is you don’t always get that personal, welcoming feeling in the stores. It’s very much about business. This boutique wasn’t like that. Fernanda and I were chatting like friends within 5 minutes. The clothes in Fernanda’s boutique were gorgeous also. Very classy, but also fun, top quality dresses, tops, skirts, etc. I ended up spending quite awhile chatting with her and found out she and her business partner have only had the shop open for one year. It turns out they source most of their stock from the US, specifically San Francisco and Los Angeles. They obviously have a very keen eye for fashion as the variety of clothing in this boutique were beautiful. Most of their clients are expat women 35 and up living and working in HK who have the extra money to spend on gorgeous clothes for themselves. Apparently many of her clients tell her there is no other boutique like that in HK so I’d say they’ve nailed it opening this lovely store in SoHo.

Home – specialize in organic, natural, handmade clothing, kids toys, things for the home and more.

Indigo – designer jeans, dresses, tops, shoes, Haviana thongs. They also carry these very unique obi handbags from a Japanese designer. The handbags from this particular designer are only sold in Hong Kong, Japan and New York.

Van D – similar to Indigo in stock and also bikinis.

I ventured down to Queen’s Road Central and popped into a few more mainstream spots like H&M, Coach, etc. Nothing really tickled my fancy though and I found this area packed with people.

Very big Coach store in HK

To check out a contrast to small boutiques I then went to IFC Mall which houses Lane Crawford department store along with a combination of higher-end brands and more trendy fashion. Again to me it felt like walking around ION shopping center on Orchard Street in Singapore so after some quick browsing I was done. I don’t have the “born to shop” quality some women do so shopping usually ends up being quite a small portion of how I spend my time while traveling to new places.

On to the evening…Ozdane and I decided to take the ferry over to the Kowloon side again and walk along the harbor front admiring the gorgeous city skyline and lights. The ride over made for some beautiful shots of the HK skyline from the ferry.

Looking back at skyline from ferry

Laser light show

Ozdane and city lights

Hong Kong’s “Avenue of Stars” is also along the harbor where you find stars for Asian actors and actresses along the path. This is similar to Hollywood’s Avenue of the Stars except probably not quite as big. One of the biggets things along the HK Avenue of Stars is the famous Bruce Lee statue. The walkway was packed with tourists so it was a bit like playing Frogger getting through the crowds.

Hong Kong’s Avenue of the Stars

Stars line the path of different actors/actresses

Chamorro Chica & Bruce Lee

We wrapped up our night with some tapas and a couple of drinks after our lovely walk along the harbour. It was a wonderful last night together in Hong Kong.