The find: “The magic hair-drying woven”
Original asking price:
$30 (No bargain allowed – but a refund is available if the product doesn’t work)
Where found: Wan Chai
What can be more annoying than a bad hair day? Wake up late with hair like Mel B, you have no choice but to wash and blow-dry it. But as all women know, using a dryer constantly will seriously damage your hair. Now we have “magic woven” which, the shopkeeper claimed, is from Japan, though we can only find German on the package. And from my three-month Deutsch course, I can proudly recognize two words – ‘wasser’ and ‘schnell’, meaning water and fast. But we are clever enough to understand how the thing works from the picture – hood your head with it for five minutes and, according to the lady, your hair will be dry. Thinking I may not be the best person to test it as I have quite a short hair, I took it to my mum. Well, she didn’t complain her hair didn’t dry in five minutes. She complained the woven was too small to cover all of her head! Guess I couldn’t get a refund because my head is too big… |
Turn left or turn right? That decision will probably change your whole perception of Kwun Tong, one of the poorest districts in Hong Kong according to the Commission on Poverty. Get off the train and head to exit A, turn left and you will find the mega shopping mall APM. Like every other shopping multiplex, everything you need can be found here – cinema, supermarket, restaurant and boutique… Yes, the same facilities you 
can find in every other mall in Hong Kong. Or turn right for a different perspective. Watch a movie – sometimes porn – in the 44-year-old Silver Cinema, where the staff still mark your seat with a coloured pencil. Then grab lunch at the dai pai dong where you can easily fill your stomach with nice food for a mere $30. Hang around Yuet Wah Street for cheap clothes, fake Gucci bags or consult people at the pawnshop if you are short of cash. Fancy cooking for your other half tonight? Drop by the Kwun Tong market, where chickens cluck at you from their cages, fish jump even though cut in half and the floor is usually a bit wet and dirty. Say I am hopelessly nostalgic, but I usually turn right.
