Lost in the mall beyond ordinary life

I got lost in the Harbour City Mall yesterday. Actually I got lost twice. The first time was on the way to the mall when I got confused about which train stop to exit. I first left the train at Yau Ma Tei when I should have gone on to Tsim Sha Tsui. Those who have been to Hong Kong will know that confusing the two is a fairly glaring mistake--one you notice immediately once you've made it. Yau Ma Tei is at the top of Nathan Road and is where all the small stores and markets are. Indeed, there is a Jade market just off one of the subway exits. It is also the area where regular Hong Kong people shop--the operative word here is regular as in those who do not tend to spend a month's or even a year's wages on a pair of shoes. There are enormous differences between those at the top of the pay scale and those at the bottom here in Hong Kong and while the average wage is about HK$224,000 ($28810 (US) or £18,500) there are those in employmnet who only make $HK5000.

At the other end of Nathan Road and at the tip of Kowloon is Tsim Sha Tsui. This is where the designer shops are located as well as The Penn, the White Star Ferry to Central, and where the cruise ships dock. The Penn, or the Peninsula Hotel, was built in the 1920's and still exudes that old style British elegance that one might expect from a hotel that was the final stop of the Orient Express. It is in the same league as the Taj, the Ritz, or the Savoy. Ordinary mortals can have high tea in the lobby at the Penn, but be warned that they do not take reservations and while tea is served from 2-7 seating is first come first served--meaning that the que at 4pm is quite long. Along the waterfront, on what is infill (the Penn used to be on the waterfront but is no longer) and to the right of the Penn a couple of blocks is the new Harbour City Mall. This is where I got lost the second time.

According to the information produced by Harbour City, this mall is "the largest shopping mall in Hong Kong with an area of 2 million square feet." The mall itself has over 700 shops, plus there are several office towers reaching at least 50 stories and a hotel. The mall is actually 5 buildings comprising of the Gateway Arcade, Ocean Centre, Ocean Terminal, Marco Polo Hotel Arcade, and Star City. You will not find the equivalent of a Pound shop or Dollar General Store in this mall. Instead there is Gucci, Prada, Armani, Louis Vitton, Chanel, Ferrigamo (that is for you mom), Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo...I will stop here as the list of designer names goes on and on--remember there are 700 shops. Firstly these stores are also not small. The Vitton store covers three levels. Secondly, these are also not just the high street versions of these designer brands. While you can, for example get the Anglomania brand of clothes by Vivienne Westwood, you can also buy Red. Perhaps more illustrative of the designer availability is that while I was having a coffee I looked through a Vogue. In Vogue there are always lots of adverts for about a million different designer labels with young, attractive and extremely skinny models in impossible positions wearing the most fantastic clothes--clothes you see on the catwalks but that never seem to make it into the shops that purport to sell these designer items, at least that is my experience. I now understand where they all are; they are all here in Hong Kong at this mall. If you see something in Vogue, have enough money, and want to buy it, you now can. All you need do is go to the Harbour City shop of that design house. Even in New York and London I have not seen this sort of display (no I did not buy anything). So while Yau Ma Tei and Tsim Sha Tsui are only three subway stops from each other, they are worlds apart.

While some of you won't question my presence in this mall at all, others may be wondering why I was in such a place in the first instance. I was there because for our 15th anniversary Adrian purchased a spa afternoon for me. I got lost trying to find the Oasis spa, which turned out to be on the 10th floor of one of the office towers at the Gateway Arcade part of the mall. Because the spa was not in the main shopping mall it was not listed on the map. Because the office towers are not officially part of the consumption experience either, they are similarly not shown on the map, so I got lost trying to find tower 2. I found the elevator eventually next to the HSBC and just up from the Emporio Armani.

The spa itself was lovely. Not like European Spas that, to my mind resemble a doctors office more that a place to relax. This spa was all sliding doors, waterfalls, soft music, dim light, neutral colours, subtle tropical smells. Adrian had purchased for me a triple treat that included a whole list of things from which I could choose. I opted for the rose body wrap, the Hot Strap slimming treatment, and the Parafin Hand treatment. The Rose body wrap was first and it was wonderful. I was led into a room and laid down on a bed. The lights were low and I was covered up in towels. Soft Zen music played in the background. The lovely women who administered the body wrap spoke not a word of English. She was wonderful. Getting the body wrap involved having first some type of scrub rubbed all over my body--this is all done very discretely and is not embarrassing as I was covered the whole time by towels that are strategically folded back to reveal the portion that is being worked on at a particular moment. A sort of oil follows the scrub and then a kind of mud stuff follows that. It is both warm and cool at the same time. Then once covered in all these layers of stuff and strewn with rose petals, I was wrapped first in a kind of plastic wrap, then towels, then a sort of heavy blanket to steep for about 20 minutes. This sounds not particularly nice, but it was great and very relaxing. The lights are turned down low and it is calm. I think I must have fallen asleep because I woke with a start and scared both myself and the technician when I lurched awake. Once I was done stewing I was unwrapped, covered in towels and a robe and led to the shower which had both a normal shower head and a rain head. It was really wonderful. I shall leave the description of the slimming body strap to your imagination, but I will say it was also not embarrassing and quite nice, though I am not convinced I am any slimmer as a result. The whole event took about 2-2.5 hours. I felt pampered and it was something I would certainly do again. This particular spa offers other treats as well such as the Red Wine Rosey Fantasy and the Chocolate Cream and Ginseng Powder Body Wrap, as well as Stone Massages and Facials. The best thing is that they have offers so one does not have to take out a bank loan to participate, and even at normal price, the cost is comparative to what one might spend on a nice spa treatment in Seattle or in England. One need only put aside the guilt of participating in class privilege.