OCTOBER 17th TOUR REVIEW PART 2
Next room, silk clothing and scarves, all prices.
Pearls...once again we were taken to a Pearl outlet, excellent quality pearls, excellent quality prices.
Fake handbags.....Consider that it’s illegal to import fakes into the US. Again, Fun Fun knew how and where. Those who were interested congregated in a tour member’s hotel room and Fun Fun’s friend bought an array of bags. A couple of the women were really into bags, everything from Hermès to Louis Vuitton. For fun I asked the price of a black leather Louis V bag, it was $260, no thanks, saving my money for another Tauck tour. By the way, Fun Fun had a different designer bag each of the three days we saw her. One genuine one had cost her $1500 but she told me I was rich because I’d been on Tauck tours, that’s why I can’t buy handbags too Fun Fun! One lady bought two bags so it wasn’t a wasted journey for the seller.
The river boat had some very nice shops for
Pearls....we had a little lecture on freshwater pearls. One of our group bought a beautiful necklace, some discount because it was the end of the season as way better price for good quality than the Pearl place.
Hand painted snuff bottles where the artist paints inside the bottle. I’ve had some antique ones of these for years. The in-house artist was the son of a famous man who paints them. Here was the best gift opportunity of the tour. He had little marble size painted beads with sill necklace, you could watch him paint your name in English and Chinese inside it, $14. He uses a small brush of wolf hair. He did some demonstrations and I had a go, fun!
Silk embroidered wall hanging/or frame, Yep bought one.
Silk scarves
Hong Kong
We did not see any protests in Hong Kong. Our hotel was the fabulous Ritz Carlton, the highest hotel in the world, well away from where most of the troubles have been. The hotel is on top of the International Commerce Center and begins on the 103rd floor. Fabulous views from the rooms. Highest bar in the world. I swam in the highest swimming pool in the world, it had a large floor to ceiling screen along one end projecting waves lapping against a shore or fish on a reef. The infinity edges looked over the city on the 118th floor. Unfortunately Tauck will not be using this hotel next year, a great pity.
Photography
Imagine my surprise to find that Mr B and I were the only people with biggish cameras. There were two people with tiny cameras, others used phones and some took no photos. I felt really liberated to have no photography enthusiasts in the group and snapped photos quickly all the time but not letting it take over seeing with my eyes. Dull light will make me do lots of editing and it will be weeks before I can get to any attempts to make my photo book. I must have taken maybe four times more photos than I ever have on a wildlife trip.