100% Kelly

I made sure that I get to spend at least one day of shopping during our trip to Hong Kong. You may remember that during our Singapore trip last year, I barely got to go around and spend quality shopping time for myself . I (and Gats) knew that with a toddler in tow, shopping will never be the same again (since in earlier travels, both of us get to spend all of our vacation days shopping). So during this trip, I planned ahead and set my sight on these three targets:

1. Citygate Outlets

20 Tat Tung Road, Tung Chung, Lantau

It was a close friend who told me about this mall, where everything is marked down by at least 3o% off. The discount wasn’t the convincing factor for me (I don’t easily get swayed by sales you see) — it was the shops that made me want to take the 30 minute MTR ride and chance upon the goodies. Here are some of the stores located inside the mall:

• Burberry
• Calvin Klein Jeans
• Bally Outlet
• Armani Exchange Outlet
• Adidas Factory Outlet
• Kate Spade
• Lanvin
• Michael’s ~ Thomas and Friends ~
• Nike Factory Outlet
• Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Store
• PUMA Outlet

I must admit that some of the items in some of the shops were just okay (these are outlet stores so what do you expect?), but we were able to buy a few items from Polo Ralph Lauren, Puma (porma shoes for Manu ), Adidas, Michael’s (of course, we wouldn’t pass the chance to buy discounted Thomas and Friends stuff) that I was happy about.

I wasn’t able to take pictures while we were at Citygate (syempre, busy mag-ikot ), but we were able to take a couple of pictures of Manu with his Chinese playmates at one of the coffee shops.

:magkasundo kahit hindi sila nagkakaintindihan:

“hoy, hindi ikaw ang pini-picture-an ng daddy ko.”

2. Louis Vuitton

Harbour City, Canton Road, Kowloon

Who would pass a chance to drop by the 2nd largest LV store in the world? Certainly not me! I was finally able to buy that Damier Speedy I’ve been meaning to purchase since 5 months ago. The other bag was not available so I was just able to bring home one. I’ve been lugging this bag around a few days after I got it so no need to take a pic, you’ve seen it on my previous posts

3. H&M

Queen’s Road 68, Central

Two hours inside and I was nowhere near fitting my clothes. Need I explain further?

[Photo: nitrolicious.com]

I absolutely love love love this store! The items were very chic, and very affordable (read: a cool green men’s shirt for just PhP250!) I went crazy over the kids and mens department (and in fact purchased more items here than the ladies’) like I went gaga over the ladies’ department. This store is an absolute must if you’re shopping at Hong Kong.

*I hear that H&M will soon be coming to Manila. I just hope that prices are comparable to that of Hong Kong’s

We’ve been paying amortization (mortgage) for our condo for the past three years now and we can honestly say that its not so harsh on our wallets as we initially imagine it would. Three years ago, rates were a high 12%. Now its somewhere between 7% to 8% — there are lower rates as 5% but those come with shorter terms which we aren’t really interested in getting.  It wasn’t hard to apply since we only had to show documents which we already had in the first place (billings, proof of income, etc.).  And, it should be easier now since there’s an influx of development from good developers that it really has become a buyers market in a span of 3 years. We’re really quite envious of opportunities today, as the same investment we put up a few years ago could have gotten us a Makati or Fort Bonifacio condo today.