Mandatory -this didn’t happen today , it happened over a month ago .
My family and I had gone on a vacation to Hong Kong . I had watched a lot of vlogs and reels about hong kong and the ONE THING they all had consistently raved about was the bakeries . Dreams of egg tarts from the bakehouse , the pistachio danish from Vission bakery had taken over my head . I needed that sugar intake .
So , we asked the travel agent at our hotel – where can we find the bakeries? That man had clutched his head and had started waving around his hands wildly pointing towards different directions . The dilemma ? We didn’t speak a lick of chinese /cantonese and he didn’t speak a lick of understandable english .
So we just nodded our heads , awkwardly smiled , and set out for finding the bakeries with a map in our hands . Now the thing is , we also wanted to visit and get over with sneaker street so we had taken a taxi till there .
In his infinite wisdom , my dad had checked google maps to find out where the bakery was (4km away from where we were standing) . He checked on maps for another bakery , and the name bakery king popped up . It was just 2km away and we decided to walk the way . It was also our first day there , so I hadn’t known anything about the amount of walking we would have to do . I was wearing my favourite pair of heels .
As we kept moving , the streets started becoming dimmer and the density of people started decreasing . My feet had started turning as red as tomato soup .I also saw a couple of colorful tents set up and we had to walk right through them . I thought that we would see a really cool local souvenir shop and then I noticed that they were selling a banana shaped pink thing . I remember thinking of how cute that whole stall was until I LOOKED CLOSELY !!
My heart had stopped ! I had just walked through a sex-stall with my dad .Hand in hand , toe to toe . I ignored it thinking it was a one off . I saw a poster hanging up offering masseuse services . There is this inside joke in my fam where my mother just jokingly asks us for a massage in the most random places . I laughed and pointed it out to her saying that you can get a massage done from here . If looks could kill , I would have a flower studded obituary in hong kong xd.
We kept walking further and the girls out there started becoming more stylish ig ? The locals had worn loose and comfy clothing while those girls were wearing studded heels , dresses and everything . They were also smiling waving and twirling some kinda poster in their hands . By then , I had realised it was a red light area .
My mom suddenly stopped and asked my dad , are we in a red light area ? My little sister’s ears perked up . She is just 10 and started asking all of us that what is a red light area . My mom told her , its an area with too many stop signs . She wasn’t easily bamboozled . She looked at me and asked me . At this point , I couldn’t hold back . The stress of being lost and the pain from the heels caught up to me and I started laughing uproariously .
By the time we reached there – bakery king had closed and we had to pay extra to get a taxi that late at night .
TL;DR – Got lost in Hong Kong , reached a redlight area and now my sister thinks red light areas are those areas with too many stop signs .
TIFU by walking for 1.5 km straight into a red light area in Hong Kong wearing heels with my parents
r/tifu
Comments
> Dreams of egg tarts from the bakehouse
More than one person there was dreaming of tarts
Oof
quite an adventure you had there
I’m glad you were all together, because otherwise you may have been approached by people seeing your heels and making assumptions.
Looking for a little crumpet.
theres so many Bakery King in HK so cant really know which area you referring to, but i am assuming you are around Jordan area ? Anyhow, i used to work somewhat close to so call red light district, but anytime around, there are good restaurants around it , so very likely , there are many ppl just like you walk in and out. and to be fair, some locals dont even know they are red light districts even they walk pass or through it on a daily basis
Other than pain from heels 10/10 activity.
Please tell me where this red light area is so I can avoid on my trip this year.
Which part of HK was this? Would like to stay right away from this area
I’m guessing the west side of Nathan road, somewhere near Portland st and Shanghai st?
bakehouse tarts are pretty good, but theres also like 10 locations tbf you coulda just google map’d it
The beauty of HK is that I guarantee nobody here cared or even thought twice.
There’s not exactly a red light district in Hk but some areas have pockets of them. This seems like the section either in Mong kok or Yau ma Tei. Wan chai is the famous area on the island side. Even on a main road, you’d have a whole building mostly dedicated to sex work but you wouldn’t think twice unless someone told you about it. Most of the times the entrance looks like a normal building.
Also the services are a lot cheaper than what you’d find in western countries, maybe 30-50 quid per hour.
It baffles me that in this day and age, people still don’t use Google maps which tells you exactly where a place is, has pictures of what it looks like, how far away it is, and how long it takes you get there by foot/car/train/etc.
Ah yes, the Ladies Market in Mong Kok which apparently does NOT get its name from having sex workers along some of the streets but rather the stalls where women can haggle for almost anything they want there.
It’s a really popular destination for the area. I remember going there years ago with my girlfriend and like you, we did not know what lay beyond the colorful stalls full of wonderful wares and fortune tellers until I noticed some women just standing around and it took me a second to realize what they were doing there.
You must be American