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BEAUTY TREATMENTS
Oxyvital - oxygen bar - instead of the usual massage and facial treatments, you can breathe 97% pure oxygen and get away from pollution by shelling out $120-$180 for a 20 min session (depending on whether you prefer a private room). You can recline comfortably, select a scent for your pure oxygen, and probably listen to some music while you are at it. The supposed results: you feel more awake and energetic, your skin looks radiant, and the dark shadows under your eyes disappear. I haven't tried it so I can't say, but I think a single 20 minutes session is too quick for any dramatic results, even if getting a good dose of oxygen can have that affect. But at that price, it is cheaper than most facials and massage treatments at salons.
Address: 37-41 Wellington St., Central, 28992090. Also at Rever salons at Habour City, Canton Rd. TST. Ocean Galleries, Habour City, Canton Rd. Furama Hotel, 1 Connaught Rd. Central. Ph 25259289)

Like in the UK, eyelash tinting and perm curling is legal here and quite common, and are available at top salons, eg the Beauty Shop at the Mandarin Oriental (Central, Ph: 25220111) for $400, or Federique's (Central, Ph:25223053). But prices do vary, and can be as low as $100 at respectable though not top notch Borghese beauty centre. Perm treatments usually take up to 1 hour.

Anion straightening is very popular at the moment, this is a technique pioneered in Japan, for permanent hair straightening using a curling iron like device and special chemicals. The process takes about 3 hours.

If you're looking for a place to get your hair done, according to local Cosmo, the top 10 salons are: A.T., Beijing Hair Culture, Hair, Ken Qui, Hair Culture, Salon Esprit, Headquarters, Jacque Dessange, Private i, and Salon Picasso. These are the places where local celebs get their hair done.

The BEST PLACES TO GO for shopping (by area):
In Hong Kong, there's no single downtown area, though I suppose if you really have to name one place, Central would be the business district, Causeway the shopping district, and Lan Kwai Fong or Wan Chai the nightlife. I'll try to sum up the shopping into area to make it easy to follow.

I live on the Kowloon side, and now with Festival Walk (Kowloon Tong, MTR green line. Website: festivalwalk.com.hk) opened I hardly go to the island side anymore. It's a new mall, and the biggest one in HK I think. It has (free-standing shops): MAC, Bobbi Brown, Shu Ueumura, Glycel, Yves Rocher, Fancl, Soigne (Watosa), Yomano, Prescription Plus, TBS, Red Earth, L'Occitane, Urban Decay, Soigne, Aveda, Estee Lauder, Lancome, Clinique, Crabtree & Evelyn, Daniel Jouvance (French marine skincare). Plus the Watsons drugstore has some newly renovated counters: Pupa, Trucoo, FL Professional, Sonia Rykel, Sophie, La Prarie, Borghese, Phyto haircare, Shiseido, Clarins. You can also get Canmake, Stuf and ZA. Mannings has Lancome, Clinique. MF/SK2 (2). Marks&Spencer. There's a Log-On (a division of citysuper!) where there's an Origins counter -the SA there looks more down-to-earth and approachable than most, and generally leave you alone if you want to browse through products. God has iColonali, We Live Like This, and their own soaps and baths line. Swank carries Bloom. Well you get the idea, I really don't need to go anywhere else, it's my 1 stop shopping mall, and I never have to leave air-con and navigate through streets (something you have to appreciate when Hong Kong hits summer season).

Tsim Sha Tsui (pronounced Chim Sha Chui) has Joyce and all its exclusive brands (ie Kielhs, Nars, Stila, Face Stock), Habour City (claims to have 700 shops in the mall - I can believe it) and the whole line of Ocean Terminal connected malls - there you can find Lane Crawford (carries T Le Clerc), MUFE store, Aveda, City'super (Origins, Crabtree, Molten, Bloom), H2O+, Shu, 2 Soigne stores. EQ:IQ carries candles, stationary, and a baths line called Cote de Bastilde (sp?). Strawberry is just a little over at Star Ferry Pier, and don't forget DFS Galleria (Anna Sui, MAC, Origins, Versace, YSL, Urban Decay). You do have to find your way through the streets, and through the malls' interconnecting walkways (which is pretty confusing).

As for island side (sometimes confusingly called the Hong Kong side, since the 'island''s name is Hong Kong island. FYI: Hong Kong is made up of the bit attached to mainland and quite a few outlying islands - some more inhabited than others. You can get to Hong Kong island by MTR though), the best place to go is probably Causeway Bay, especially Sogo department store. There are lots of brands squeezed in to that space, so although the counters aren't as spacious as Seibu's or Lane's, they do have a lot: Ipsa, Bobbi Brown, Kanebo, RMK, Sofina, Guelain, Tony & Tina, MAC...etc. It's also a pretty old department store and in my opinion sometimes look a bit run down. The New Face by Sogo (they are seperate buildings) carries Perfect Potion, Crabtree & Evelyn, Origins and Bloom. Also just next to New Face and opposite the old Sogo is 5S. Times Square mall has Fancl, and Marks & Spencer plus Lane Crawford and City'super (and their brands' counters) in the basement. There's ijij, Couple, and also Fashion Island. You do have to navigate through the streets (or go back into MTR and take the tunnel routes).

Also at the island side, there's Central where tons of luxury designer brands are housed in The Landmark, Prince's Building, etc. There's also a Joyce department store there. Hong Kong Land, which owns most of these malls, have created a new website with barebone information on the shops. If you want phone numbers and addresses, this is the site to go. But really, you can get by following MTR exits, and otherwise asking for directions. centralhk.com

Pacific Place (mall) at Admiralty is also a good place to shop, offering Ipsa, Anna Sui, RMK, Stila, Erno Lazlo, Covermark, Sisley, and many more at Seibu. At Lane Crawford there's Aveda, Creme de La Mer, and MAC. There's also a Shu boutique on the ground floor, and Crabtree & Evelyn upstairs..

Everyone knows Mongkok is the best place to go for cheap clothing, jewellery, bags and other accessories. If you take the KCR, you can also stop on the way to check House of Kwong Sang Hong, FL Professional, Okashi Land (a store selling cute candy and snacks from Japan), and Hello Kitty cafe at Grand Century Plaza. You can also get to Mongkok from the MTR, but the two stations are not linked like it is at Kowloon Tong where you can easily change trains. The MTR exits are in a seperate area, and if you had to walk from KCR to MTR it's not that close.

You can refer to the MTR (subway) map for these locations.

SHOPPING TIMES

Festival Walk draws quite a crowd on weekend afternoons, and especially during sales time. You'd have to line up for changing rooms during sales weekend. Whereas Pacific Place is much more quiet (only in comparison!) even on weekends. On the otherhand, weekend afternoons are when those cosmetic places are too busy to handle every single customer, so if you want to be left alone when browsing cosmetics and skincare it's probably the best time to go. The mall's less quiet on workday afternoons than workday mornings. The shops and malls here will open past 5 even on weekdays, most likely they close around 9, or 8pm.

More info on the brands (from others):
Daniel Jouvance -seaweed base, belong to son of Yves Rocher and group What I can recommend is their bath products. They are unusual in the way you use them. For instance they have a special shower head in which you put a tablet. When you turn the water on, itīs like your in a seawater waterfall, the spray from the head is so fine.. love it... :-)) Website danieljoyvance.com
Rene Furterer has been around for over 20 years and it is mostly natural based ingrediants.I used these products in the salon I use to work in,and they are amazing! If you can find these products,try the revitalizer(thick yellow deep conditioner),it will leave your hair glossy and silky soft!By the way,they are made in France.

also check out the beauty magazines in Hong Kong, B and Eve (bilingual) are in English but with local content. If you can read Chinese there are much more, Beauty & Fashion, Beauty, Orient Beauty, Cheez. The make-up tends to be cute and Japanese, i.e. light coloured lips, after awhile they all look the same to me.

OTHER BARGAINS (short note):
I've been told electronics are great in Hong Kong, you'll find latest gizmo from Japan (Sony stuff for one) in Hong Kong -we are part of the 'test market' so we get some products first before they are lauch elsewhere, or sometimes products that never made it to international markets because they are too costly, etc. Plus there's no sales tax here, which can save you a lot on pricey items like electronics. Be careful of some touristy shops, they like to give high prices for Western tourists. It helps if you know what you want and show some knowledge about models, makes, etc. Bargain unless you are shopping at big chain stores like Fortress (website, Chinese only but lists prices: fortress.com.hk) and Broadway. On the otherhand, some of these smaller stores sell what we called 'sui for' (parallel importing) from Japan, They are perfectly legal and quite common. There are a lot of these types of stores in the Mongkok area.

Computer haven is in Golden Centre, Sham Shui Po. A lot of hardware are made in China nowadays. Buying things like CPU, motherboard, and things are ok, but for things like speakers you will need to get an adapter because the HK products uses a different voltage to North America. Battery operated goods like discman, MD/midi discman, MP3 players, are universal of course.

Lots of tourists also come here for jewellery, but I've never compared prices. Again, I suppose there's the tax break. I'm also obliged to mention if you are a Sanrio/Hello Kitty or Pokemon fan you can buy to your hearts content. Hello Kitty and all things cute are available at Kalms stores (website: kalms.com), and you can get anything Hello Kitty. You name it you got it. From Hello Kitty lipbalm, perfume bottles, to phones and toilet paper. There is even a cafe with ajoining store devoted to the cat without a mouth at Grand Century Plaza (5th floor) and one in Causeway with cute food and drinks containing what must be lots of food colourings.

TOURISTY STUFF
The harbour view really is fabulous, even after living here for so many years, it's still wonderful to look at. At Christmas companies decorate their building with christmas lights designs, but even without them, it still looks great. I would suggest taking the ferry from Central to Tsimsie (or vice versa) for a great view. The ferry is cheap, $2 for adults, and it's slow enough to be relaxing, wind breezes and all, but not a long distance. You'll definitely want to visit The Peak for a great view from up the mountain. Pick a day with very little fog for a good view, otherwise you won't be seeing much (Hong Kong can get very foggy due to the high humidity). There's a tram you can take up the peak or a bus that takes a rather winding route even my patience was wearing thin. There are built-in large binoculars there you can pay for a look down. It's a fav spot for romantic couples. Food is generally more expensive up there, but Movenpick Marche is cheaper than Cafe Deco. It's a restaurant styled like a market, each guest is given a sheet and you go off to each stall, like sushi stall, BBQ stall, fresh made crepe stall, and order food the way you want it. As you do, a stamp is place on your card and the total is tallied when you leave. It's great cos you can pay by yourself at the end - no need to do maths for those who split costs. On the otherhand Cafe Deco was voted locally as one of the best restaurants in HK. Most restaurants levied a 10% service charge on your bill, it's standard here. You can pay less tips, just the small change. Being a student, I usually pay $2 or so tips on top of the 10%, but $5-$10 is good. Fastfood restaurants don't have this charge.

Although nature isn't the first thing you think of in Hong Kong there's actually some things to do for nature-lovers outside the aviaries and parks, like Lady Maclahose trails for hikers and the dolphin watch. I think the money goes to protecting them too. For info on the cruise ph: 2984-1414. Website: HK dolphinwatch.

If you need RESTAURANT GUIDE, check out food4hongkong.com, OpenRice.com, and Food Easy, you can look for restaurant by location, cuisine type, price range, and read reviews by other readers. However, the best source for reviews I've found is at Sally's Place where it's all reviewed with consistency and quality. If you haven't tried it, Rainforest Cafe and Igors haunted house is always an experience (especially if you have kids). Rainforest has restaurants all over the world and no doubt more will be popping up soon. But it's a themed restaurant with tropical aquariums, robotic animals that comes to life every 10 or 15 minutes. Some of the food servings are gigantic. Igors haunted house has a themed show during dinner, a Rolling Bones band providing live music, etc.
Sushi is of course cheap here. And if you haven't tried Taiwanese 'bubble' (or pearl sago) tea there are tons of shops for it - these are frothy milk tea drink with chewy beads/pearls tapioca, but of course they come in every other flavour, including coffee, green tea (very refreshing), etc. You'll also find small food shops around Mongkok selling the 'in' food of the moment, from 'Portugese' egg tarts to Japanese cheese cakes (a fluffy concoction which didn't really have any cheese taste). Oh, and don't miss out on vendors selling yuen dan (fish balls), siu mai, and other snacks.
Aji Ichiban has preserved/dried goodies and candies - some of it is an aqquired taste but everyone should like the dried mango. Other popular stuff are dried cuttlefish and beef and pork jerky. Stores everywhere, Mongkok KCR station, Sha Tin Plaza.

For quick snacks, Delifrance's chocolate croissants are the best. Their chocolate muffins aren't as sickeningly sweet as Mrs.Field, but are more fattening and heavy. In the summer, they also offers a iced frosty with a smooth blend of vanilla, coffee, and chocolate - very refreshing and great for non-coffee lovers. Fat Angelos has good Italian atmosphere, ideal for large parties of people, but food is only average. Kublai serves Mongolian make-your-own-flavour fried rice (stores at TST and Wan Chai), where you select the ingredients and sauce and they fry it for you.

As great souvenirs to bring home, Japanese made Kitchoan snacks are so daintily and perfectly packaged you wouldn't want to eat it. They are so cute and in my opinion classier than Hello Kitty any day. These are available at the food court/basement level of Sogo department store. Kitchoan website

WEATHER:
Spring: lots of rain, having an umbrella on hand is essential.
Summer: be prepare for sticky humidty! Hong Kong's in its hottest time right now, all the malls will be airconned but if you want to hit the streets bring lots of cool clothes.
Fall: the nicest time of course, but it's not a very long time. It tends to flutuate with periods of summer weather and almost-winter weather in between. So bring a variety of clothing just in case.
Winter: Hong Kong's cool right now but not as cold as the northern parts of North America will ever be. Never snows here but cold enough for some to wear cotton mittens.. those big snow/water-proof things are way out of line though. However, on some days you'll find that by the afternoon you can be walking around in a short sleeve shirt without a coat. To sum it up, Hong Kong weather can be pretty unpredictable.

ACCOMMODATIONS there's a whole range of hotels, but for great value try YMCA - the lobby looks just like a hotel lobby, rooms I heard are just as nice, and the location is conveniently right in Tsim Sha Tsui, website: mycahk.org.hk. Also try the youth hostel at the Boys Scout building in Jordan (one stop from TST, I could walk there), the small but 2-stories lobby is even more impressive as a youth hostel.

And that just about covers everything. Finally, if you have any more questions, or if I have missed anything out that you know of, just email me.

FURTHER RESOURCES: see also
March8 is an international women's day, hence the name for this women's site. There is a searchable directory for brands -everything from clothing to cosmetics - in Hong Kong. Just enter in the brand you want to find and voila!
TotallyHK.com Some basic info on Hong Kong, including shopping and forums for asking questions. It's a new site, but give it some time and it's bound to get better.
Accomodating Asia: Hong Kong lots of personal accounts/diaries from travellers.
Hong Kong Tourist Association Wonder Net great for planning a trip beforehand, lots of photos and content.
FunHK.com is a flash-powered site with a summary on just about everything in Hong Kong. Easy reading.
BC Magazine online. BC is one of Hong Kong's free English monthly listing magazines that can be picked up at varius restaurants, cafes, and record stores. You can also pick up a weekly listing magazine, HK Mag. And Absolut (montly) for information about the rave scene, Chalk (also monthly) for underground music scene.
Hong Kong through the eyes of Isadora Kresic if you want more information about the culture, Isidora's very personal look at Hong Kong is a must-see. There are some wonderful photos here.
Yahoo Travel Guide: Hong Kong if that's still not enough information, look into Yahoo's links.

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