Today I went out for a girl's day of shopping with a new friend. We had such a good time checking out all sorts of markets and walking until we couldn't walk anymore.

My friend, R, was specifically looking to buy beach towels and we couldn't find them anywhere. We saw all sorts of kid's character beach towels and regular bath towels in the market stalls but we didn't see any adult beach towels. We decided to go into a store called Sincere in the Dragon Center Mall in Sham Shui Po to see if we could find them retail.

Sincere is a cross between Kohls, Service Merchandise, and JC Penney.

As luck would have it, the Sincere store came through. R found herself the towels and a few other things to buy and the amount she spent qualified her for a free gift. The cashier directed her toward the back corner of the store and told her to present her receipt to claim her gift.

We got back to the corner of the store and didn't see a customer service desk, only the jewelry counter. Confused, she showed the lady behind the counter her receipt and asked where to go to get her gift. The lady checked the receipt and told her she was in the right place.

This mall is a local shopping place. The ladies working there are super friendly but they don't speak the greatest English. Still, it's enough to get by, and their English is far better than my non existent Cantonese, but there's a lot of silence in these interactions that would be filled with more conversation and more information if the language barrier wasn't in the way.

So after telling R that she's in the right place, no more words are spoken as the woman lays out a towel and a knife on the glass counter, slaps on a huge pair of rubber gloves, and reaches down where we can't see. What the heck was going on here? Her dripping wet gloves come back up to counter height holding an oyster. Which she then shucks and out pops a pink pearl.

R was so taken aback that she just exclaimed something like "Oh wow! A pearl?! It's so pretty!" I mean really, what else would you say? And the lady was so pleased to see that R was excited about it she replied something like "It pretty like you. I give you another. Free too." And she reached down and grabbed another oyster that happened to have a sandy colored pearl inside.

So there was the hook. For the low low price of $150hkd ($19usd) she could have these pearls made into a beautiful pendant necklace with her choice of a gold or silver chain. She caved and did it. And it actually turned out really pretty.

What a hoot. I think the funniest part about the whole thing is that while this was all happening I can't say I found it that funny. It was more confusing than anything else. But as I was telling B all about my day tonight (and this bit wasn't even at the top of my list) I started to tell this story. And only then did I realize how funny it really was.