Had an amazing weekend, Katy and I went in to Lan Kwai Fong on Friday night for a birthday party. Then Saturday I met Katy in Tung Chung for some amazing Indian Food then we hopped on the MTR into the city and made our way to Wan Chai where we searched for the mythic outdoor stores that supposedly sell real quality merchandise for ~10% of the cost you'd find it in the states. Supposedly, the reason this is able to happen is that a company will order say 1000 jackets, but send 1050 jackets worth of material to compensate for mistakes, etc... Then the workers fill their quota and still have materials lying around so they make more jackets out of them and they get sold *more* locally and don't get the insane markup from the ten thousand middleman and retailers along the way. I have absolutely no idea if this is actually true and not really any way to find out. Anyway, we actually found two of the stores in a shopping plaza there. One of the stores had a lot of cool stuff in it and Katy and I pawed through their racks, carefully inspecting everything as we went. I ended up trying on a Marmot soft shell, I've been lusting for a soft shell pretty much since I worked at ALE and had a pro-deal, but I could never pull the trigger. Partially because they *can* cost a mint and they go against my lightweight backpacking philosophy. I've never really talked to anyone that uses a soft shell extensively, but I've read a lot about them, as I tend to do with everything I buy. For most of my uses in the outdoors, a soft shell would be redundant and the weight (1.5lbs) to benefit ratio (12 extra snickers bars or one whole days worth of trail food!) wouldn't be enough for me to bring it along. Basically, a soft shell is a much more breathable raincoat that doesn't really keep you dry if it rains a lot out and it's almost like a fleece coat except it won't really keep you that warm. It does two jobs, but not nearly as well as either of the two things that I would replace it with. My Outdoor Research Gore Tex jacket is much better in the rain and my full weight fleece is much better for cold AND their powers combine to keep you warm and dry if it's cold and wet. Long story short, I bought a really nice soft shell coat similar to this one for 10% of that listed price. A soft shell jacket doesn't have a place in my lightweight gear arsenal, however, it does have a place in my everyday wear in the Hong Kong winter and if i ever go skiing in wet snow I can put it over my down puffy coat. My former everyday coat I bought on my NOLS course about four years ago and it's been everywhere with me, Wyoming, every field day at A.L.E, and all through South East Asia, it's full of fire spark holes and the material is so worn that it doesn't really have any insulation value left in it. I'm thinking Nepal will be the end of the line for this old friend. Only time will tell if my new standby will have the longevity of its predecessor. I also picked up a really comfortable pair of nylon pants and an Under Armor shirt, both really nice and really cheap about $25 US for both.Sunday was the usual great day in Kowloon, Katy and I went to Church this morning with the family, then lunch, then Sherlock Holmes, then I caught the E22 bus back to Tung Chung where I proceeded to miss the 3M by about a minute..........................Looking at an hour long wait for the next 3M, I hopped on the next bus just to get over the mountain and hoped that I could catch a random bus going towards Pui O, as luck would have it I jumped off at the roundabout intersection jogged across the barren highway and pretty much didn't stop walking when a bus going my way pulled up and I jumped on completely satisfied with my risk taking and an hour in front of where I would have been if I would have waited. I'm going to try to stay awake for the NFL games tonight, we'll see if that actually happens.
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