THE NONNATIVE

Part of me loathes TST. I've had many seedy nights, wandering the streets barefoot and glassy eyed, chased by Indians selling me suits, yelled at my Nigerians around Chung King - but that's just the deal with me. I am a beacon of freakishness. I once got threatened in the TST MTR station, a drunk guy (this is at 11am mind you) came up to me and started telling me he was going to kill me, then I would be on TV. Just as a note, none of this scares me anymore, I'm over it, I laugh telling these stories because it has just become who I am. I've told my friends these stories, they nod and smile, thinking I'm making this all up until one day it happens in front of them. "Oh my god I can't believe what that guy just did!!" I shrug, "Yeah, well that's how I roll."

The other part of me loves TST, it's kind of like central but on the other side of the water, less Westerners, cheaper shopping, and much, much, much better food. Ok so I take it back, I don't dislike TST itself. I dislike some of the inhabitants of TST. This is because I have a higher likelihood of running into people who have a problem with me for being a girl and for being blonde.

TST is too cool, you can walk all over the place and always find something new. In fact I went two days in a row and found a new restaurant. It is appropriately named Macau Restaurant, it's right across the street from Kowloon Park (A1 TST MTR station) and has a decent menu with all sorts of delicious Macau-style treats. Everytime I go to Macau my day consists of eating, plans to go for seafood, porkchop bun, egg tarts, almond cookies, and coffee. So to find a restaurant in TST that has been deemed an acceptable Macanese restaurant was a thrill. My friend got a set lunch with soup, a fried egg, croisant, tea, and an egg tart for $50HKD. I had a plate of "healthy" fried rice with egg whites and vegetables, plus a Blueberry Slush.

The prior day I had gone to TST with my mom and her cousin from out of town. I ended up taking (or would the correct term be "dragging"?) them to my favorite place to kill time in TST: Granville Road.

Granville is known to locals and tourists alike as a prime TST fashion shopping street. While there are some cheap shops on the street, there are a lot of others such as 2%, Loading, I.S.O, 5cm, etc. I'm not hating... But I don't rock streetwear so I have zero interest. If it's not crazy cheap, I don't care. So I personally dub Granville Road as Little Shoe Street. It's kind of like Mong Kok lite. It has a different selection, similar prices (although I think it's a little bit more expensive), and not nearly as crowded.

Every time I go to Granville Road I go directly to my favorite shoe store, Mossy (address). To me Mossy is a store of dreams, every experience yields a new pair of shoes. I have purchased exotic knee-high bondage boots, short stripper boots, bohemian sandals, appropriate work pumps, and now my most recent addition to the family: a pair of cute white slingback booties. Leather like buttah.

Well, of course it's not real leather but I can pretend it is. Especially since they were $100HKD. If they last only 6 months that's fine, I'll go back to Mossy and there will be some other pair that steals my heart & the love affair will start all over again.

In additon to Mossy there are some other stores I like, but to be honest I browse and always end up back at Mossy. They like me there, and will even tell me to come back next week when something is on sale. It's nice to have a little shopper-sales people love going around. There's a store Ome (or perhaps its O Me) that boasts $50-100 shoes (address). Or the local "mini-mall" called Granville Identity (34-36 Granville Rd.) If you're looking for cheap tops (which could be work as dresses), be sure to check out Yuen Fat. The entire street is filled with great shopping finds, and in usual Hong Kong style also has a waffle stand with an exciting array of flavors, coconut, chocolate, taro, and regular.

Granville Road Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Granville+Rd,+Tsim+Sha+Tsui,+Hong+Kong&sll=39.908173,116.397947&sspn=1.523214,1.867676&ie=UTF8&ll=22.300229,114.175372&spn=0.001794,0.001824&z=19&iwloc=A