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Adventures in Yarn Shopping
I’ve been writing this post in my head but it got stuck between actually having adventures and the fatigue that comes from the same.
Last Friday was Ching Ming, a holiday that was banned in Main Land China until this year. I worked the morning in our empty, empty offices and headed for Kowloon with a list of yarn stores in my hand.
I only had the vaguest notion about where to find any of these places but I knew I could figure it out – eventually. The MTR station was pretty darn easy to figure out. The street? Not so much.
I literally walked in circles around the blocks until I finally found the street that I wanted. However, I didn’t realize how long that street was. Nor did I remember that a lot of streets have fences on the corners so you can’t cross the street. This means that you have to walk a block or two in either direction, cross the street in the direction that you want to go and then walk back to the street on which you want to walk. Sometimes there are elevated walkways but I needed to be able to read the street address on the buildings.
Eventually I came to a section of the street closed to traffic. It was filled with booths selling all sorts of stuff – none of it was tourists. I was in the far Eastern section of Kowloon where very few Westerners go. The booths back-up onto the sidewalk leaving the side walks narrow, dark and very crowded with people trying to get into and out of the shops that are still open for business.
After walking for about an hour, I finally found the yarn shop which is up a level from the street. Here’s how I know that I was in the right spot.
But the door to the upper levels was closed and locked. No worries, there was a bell.
No one answered.
As I turned to leave, there as a Chinese couple who were obviously going to the yarn store too. “It’s closed,” I said. Apparently, they didn’t understand me. The husband tried the bell so I hung out thinking I’d go up if the door opened for him.
No one answered.
So, of course, the wife had to try the bell.
No one answered.
But that was okay, because I have a whole list of yarn stores. I walked back to the MTR station, using the elevated sidewalk. I cut through the MTR station (which cost me $3 hkd) and was at the next store in maybe 15 minutes. I took the corrugated tin lined elevator up to the 5th floor, only to find the door chained shut. I was so demoralized that I forgot to take a picture.
I gave up and met my friend for a late lunch and then cocktails at Aqua
This is one of the places to watch the nightly light show in Hong Kong. We didn’t get to see the light show due to the fact that the harbor was fogged in but I did have a great mojita and scored some cool photo graphs:
This is the lighted floor photographed in reflection on the giant windows that face Hong Kong.
The next two are the sushi bar. None of these photos really communicates who hip or how dark the place is.
Dinner in Lang Kwai Fong and back to the hotel. Yarn would have to wait for another day.
cross posted to the usual places
Last Friday was Ching Ming, a holiday that was banned in Main Land China until this year. I worked the morning in our empty, empty offices and headed for Kowloon with a list of yarn stores in my hand.
I only had the vaguest notion about where to find any of these places but I knew I could figure it out – eventually. The MTR station was pretty darn easy to figure out. The street? Not so much.
I literally walked in circles around the blocks until I finally found the street that I wanted. However, I didn’t realize how long that street was. Nor did I remember that a lot of streets have fences on the corners so you can’t cross the street. This means that you have to walk a block or two in either direction, cross the street in the direction that you want to go and then walk back to the street on which you want to walk. Sometimes there are elevated walkways but I needed to be able to read the street address on the buildings.
Eventually I came to a section of the street closed to traffic. It was filled with booths selling all sorts of stuff – none of it was tourists. I was in the far Eastern section of Kowloon where very few Westerners go. The booths back-up onto the sidewalk leaving the side walks narrow, dark and very crowded with people trying to get into and out of the shops that are still open for business.
After walking for about an hour, I finally found the yarn shop which is up a level from the street. Here’s how I know that I was in the right spot.
But the door to the upper levels was closed and locked. No worries, there was a bell.
No one answered.
As I turned to leave, there as a Chinese couple who were obviously going to the yarn store too. “It’s closed,” I said. Apparently, they didn’t understand me. The husband tried the bell so I hung out thinking I’d go up if the door opened for him.
No one answered.
So, of course, the wife had to try the bell.
No one answered.
But that was okay, because I have a whole list of yarn stores. I walked back to the MTR station, using the elevated sidewalk. I cut through the MTR station (which cost me $3 hkd) and was at the next store in maybe 15 minutes. I took the corrugated tin lined elevator up to the 5th floor, only to find the door chained shut. I was so demoralized that I forgot to take a picture.
I gave up and met my friend for a late lunch and then cocktails at Aqua
This is one of the places to watch the nightly light show in Hong Kong. We didn’t get to see the light show due to the fact that the harbor was fogged in but I did have a great mojita and scored some cool photo graphs:
This is the lighted floor photographed in reflection on the giant windows that face Hong Kong.
The next two are the sushi bar. None of these photos really communicates who hip or how dark the place is.
Dinner in Lang Kwai Fong and back to the hotel. Yarn would have to wait for another day.
cross posted to the usual places
sleepy
cheerful
