Mongkok Maze: Of Ladies, Men & Goldfish

Star Wars originated from Mongkok.

Well, at least Princess Leia's hairstyle did.

What you're looking at here is one of the stalls at Ladies' Market (Tung Choi Street) which sells anything & everything that a woman might ask for, from LV handbags right down to the oversized grandma underwear.

All of the goods are extremely branded, but extremely cheap.



Some stalls even have the certificate of authenticity to prove the originality of their counterfeited goods.


Mongkok is basically a labyrinth of streets which are all interconnected in one way or another. We started somewhere at Ladies Market, & then somehow & somewhere, we got to Men's Market.








In the end, we ended up at Goldfish Market.


Looking at all this, I think Hong Kong has come a long way.



We're talking about a place where they used to eat dogs, cats, monkey's brains & anything that moved.


It's comforting to know that now they're rearing birds & fishes, instead of eating them.

The Mistresses of Mongkok

Sorry to mislead you that way, it was just to get your attention. Unfortunately, this post is just about birds.

If you walk further down from Flower Market Street in Mongkok, you'll come to the Bird Park (Prince Edward St West). This is the place where you'll get to see dozens of colourful birds on display in their just as elaborate cages.

These birds must be drinking tea from their beautifully crafted Ming Dynasty tea cups.

I don't know what it is about rearing birds, but I guess it's about the same as rearing fish.

These are the smaller species with beautiful coloured feathers. They sing.


And the following are of the bigger parrot family species. They talk.

Umm, I'm kinda lost about the rest of them. I guess they're there for comedy.

This one climbs.

I am not a bird. I am Spiderman.

Duh. I am the archetype of a bird brain.

Do not let your eyes fool you. We are actually cats.

And on display as well are the owners, for your viewing pleasure.

Well, maybe not for your viewing pleasure, but for your contemplation.

I guess bird rearing is a good hobby to help these old folks pass time.

They've worked hard all their life, slaving away to provide food on the table, & a safe home for their kids & family.

Now, in their retirement, they deserve to enjoy the rest of the time that they have.

Now, instead of rearing kids, they're rearing birds.


And despite living in cages, these little buggers are really spoiled. I mean you'd think that it's pretty simple. Just throw them a handful of bird seed & they'll be happy enough to sing for you.

But these little fellas are not eating anything unless you feed them bit fat juicy grasshoppers.

That's the equivalence of eating lobters in human terms.

I'm sure you've heard that Singaporean girls go for the 5Cs (Credit Card, Car, Cash, Career & Condo). It seems like keeping birds in Hong Kong is no longer a simple hobby nowadays.

If you wanna keep your birds happy, you might have to buy them flats...

or expensive apartments...

or even luxurious bungalows.

And in the mean time, you've got to invest in some expensive toys as well.

I just realised I made bird rearing sound like mistress keeping.

Flower Power

Flower Market Street at Mongkok has got to be the prettiest place in Yau Tsim Won, Hong Kong.

It's a little street that seems to be closed to traffic & there's rows & rows of shops selling nothing but flowers for as far as the eye can see.


It's quite romantic to stroll down this lane, kinda makes you feel like you're in Europe.

I'm still amazed at how these flower shops survive cos they're all selling the same thing, & there's something like 20-30 of these shops next to each other.

If you have two flower shops next to each other in Kuching, they'd close shop on the first day.


But of course this is Hong Kong, not Kuching. And this is Mongkok, the place with the highest density of population in the world.

Look at all this. It's so convenient.

I mean if you're living in Hong Kong, the success rate for a man to get a girl must be pretty high. Get what I mean?

As Chinese New Year was just around the corner at that time, there were many little Shui Shan Bulbs.

As usual, every Chinese New Year will bring strange, twisted & deformed plants which are supposed to bring luck into our homes.

And when this thing catches on, you'll see one in every house that you go to.

In the end, Nee finally succumbed to nature's call. She actually smuggled a whole pot of rosemary home and some seedlings for herbs.