I had never ever been to Chinatown before, so I had some idea of what to expect but overall had no idea what it was like. Turns out, it was a BLAST.
There were some really cool little shops with all sorts of goodies...and,of course, there were cheap goodies. How can you go wrong with cheap goodies? I think the coolest thing we found was probably...
BABY TURTLES. Baby flipping turtles!!! And guess how much they were? $5.00!!! Are you kidding me? Who cares if they live for hundreds of years? I want one. They're so precious!!!
Anyways, my friend is doing a project on Chinese medicine, so we would go into grocery stores and ask around for different herbs and things to help with sickness. Apparently, the most popular herb is called Gin Sun (sorry if I spelled it incorrectly). It is supposed to help you regain energy and is very good for you. The catch? It's hundreds of dollars for just a small amount, so this stuff is a hot commodity to the Chinese people. It smells like a pet store though...speaking of pet stores, in these grocery-type stores, we found all sorts of treats like dried seahorses, sea cucumbers, and starfish that you could cook and eat. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but who knows! Maybe it's good? We tried Gin Sun tea...that wasn't good.
We walked around some more, and I was so in love with all the little tiny fun toys to buy. I could have bought so many pocket-sized things today, good thing most stores only accepted cash.
However, we did stumble upon this one store that had a plethora of clothes for amazing prices. (The place was a pit, but when a girl sees $1.00 and $2.00 shirts, it doesn't matter) We booked it over to this store, and it was nothing but a warehouse, filled with boxes and racks of clothes.
The guy who owned the place was talking to us about his dog, and how it had puppies, he showed us the newborns...SO CUTE!! But the longer we were in there, the weirder it got...
He would yell "Today is our last day! We are shutting down, come get what you can!" and "Everything is $1-$2.00!" But when we went to check out, he told us the hours the store was open during the week...and that the clothes we picked up were actually $5.00 a piece...
Turns out he just lies to people walking on the street so he can get more traffic in the store. Nice.
The good news? I got a lacy dress and lacy skirt for $10.00 total. So it was pretty much worth it.
Will I go back to Chinatown? Yes, but when I do, I will bring cash, and some ibuprofen, because the Gin Sun smell gives you a headache. TAKE HEED.
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