20th April.

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After work this evening I went back to the tailors for my first fitting. If today is anything to go by, I’ve bought two one-armed jackets and trousers that completely cover my shoes.

The tailor was a completely different animal today; as he slipped deftly around me adding pins and adjusting folds he barely spoke, except briefly to compliment me on my shirt:






Well, it is pure cotton, there’s just a lot of polyester in between it.



I must say, £16 isn’t a bad deal for decent shirts, but I think I’ll wait and see how the suits turn out yet. He didn’t seem to follow the Chinese bargaining system, where nobody will directly decline anything and a lack of enthusiasm is enough to slow down bargaining. I had to give a sharp ‘No’ before he finally stopped trying to make me a shirt or two (and make himself a bob or two, no doubt).

After the fitting I head into Kowloon for some food, declining offers of tailors, watches, cameras and more from touts on the street. I settle on an Indian restaurant and I’m shown to my seat. There is a sitar and bongo duo on stage, and they’re joined by a woman part-way through the evening. I realise that I’m getting considerably more attention than some of the other customers, perhaps because I’m wearing a shirt and tie and making notes in a small book (actually about the tailor). It becomes a strange psychological experiment; I make notes just after anyone comes to speak to me, and sometimes when they don’t. If I write anything down, someone immediately checks that everything is ok. I finish my drink and can’t even open my notebook before the replacement lands on the table. I only have to reach for the pen and the old glass is whisked away moments later.

Sadly, the ‘travel writer’ disguise doesn’t bag me a discount and the meal is one of the most expensive I’ve had here at $200, only £14 but nearly ten times what I paid for a chicken and noodle lunch the same day.

Today’s song is anything from Ravi Shankar, because I’m cultureless and it sounds the same as the sitar guy above.

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