• Day 2: Hong Kong Gets Even Better

    CathyWe were running on adrenaline, coffee and the white chocolate cookies we bought at Narita airport. It was another early day, starting with even more appointments with printers and bag manufacturers. We’re learning a lot, it just opened our eyes. But by the afternoon we convinced Fanny that we hadn’t had enough retail therapy and wanted to try our hand at bargaining again!

    Lissa Fanny took us back on the train to Shenzhen to that same nine-story shopping mall, and this time Cathy didn’t have her wide-eyed innocent look, she looked like the experienced shopper. Nobody approached her.

    CathyI put a bored look on my face and went into it with the attitude, I experienced it yesterday, been here, done that, you’re not going to pull anything on me. When I went into a shop, even though I wanted something, I kept saying no, too much, too much—and boy did the prices drop!

    I’d told Lissa, we need to play good cop, bad cop. If any one of us wanted something, the others would pull her away, saying you don’t need that, that’s too much!

    Lissa That scarf shop, it started at 400 to 500 yuan for one scarf, that’s $75, that was ridiculous! So I’d be making like, wow, that’s so cheap! Cathy would come in and say that’s ridiculous, let’s go to the shop next door.

    CathyThen I’d start bargaining, because they know I don’t want it.

    Lissa Oh my gosh, this girl got down the prices to I would say 25 percent of what we started with.

    CathyBy the end a shopkeeper said to Fanny in Chinese, what are you here for? They don’t need you!

    So at the end of the day our families would be flying in. The three of us are looking at our watches, counting down the hours. Yeah, we’re excited to see our husbands, but boy, we can’t wait to kiss our girls! And I’m looking forward to seeing my mom and dad.

    We had one hour left. We decided to treat Fanny to what we saw billed as a ‘piled-high Reuben.’ We’d had fantastic Chinese food but I was ready for one of my favorites. We were expecting fresh corned beef or pastrami. What we got were two pieces of toast, and I swear, one layer of corned beef with a sprinkling of sauerkraut. It was the worst Reuben sandwich I’ve ever had! Where’s the beef? That’s what I want to know. I was ready to make a complaint about false advertising.

    Lissa What do you expect? You’re in China, ordering a Reuben!

    CathyWe all kind of laughed about it and said goodbye to Fanny, she’s been such a good sport, and waited for our families.

    Lissa Our families came in about 11:00. Cathy and Kara had this brilliant idea to hide behind the pillars in the lobby.

    CathyAs they came through the doors we stepped out and said surprise! Our girls jumped into our arms and we caused a bit of a commotion! It was so great to see them. My parents, everybody looked great, but very tired. Is that how we looked? I thought we looked much better than that!

    Lissa There was a lot of hugging and kissing, and it was just the highlight, just to be with our families, and give our husbands and daughters a big, big hug. I felt like we’d been in China for a month.