I guess I've seen too much TV and too many movies in my years. But then again, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Not in this case, but it had plenty of potential. We had the day off, so a group of us went into the city today. We took a ferry over from Jersey and then walked around Times Square. We ate at the Olive Garden, and I had the stuffed chicken prosciutto. Good stuff. Four of us ended up going down to Canal Street which is in lower Manhattan. This is the center of imitation merchandise in the city. There are street vendors around in all the tourist spots, but this is the mecca of cheap knock-offs.
Almost as soon as we get street level from the subway, this little chinese woman comes by and shows one of the girls a paper with a bunch purses on it, and asks, "want to see?" "Uh, sure..." And we were off. She takes us down this alley way for 2 or 3 blocks. This is starting to feel really shady, but we keep following. When she takes us into this building that she has to unlock to get into, I stay at the door, making sure it doesn't shut behind us. She stops and tries to talk us into continuing on with her. Her English is not great, which makes me nervous, big language barrier. "Come see purse, come see. No scared, come see." She was very insistent. But we go in. She takes us up 6 flights of stairs into a sweat shop. Wow! Definately not your normal tourist locale. It is night and several people are leaving for the day, so it is not super crazy in there, but there are still a few chinese ladies working on sewing projects. She takes us into a side room filled with purses. Chanel and Prada knock-offs. I stood at the door to make sure we weren't shut in or that some martial artists would take us totally by surprise. I didn't know what to expect...
When the girls decided upon a purse style, they asked for it in a different color. The lady got on her radio and then took us back to the street. This shady looking chinese man smoking a cigarette came up to us with the purse in a shopping bag. He wanted $35 for it, but they offered $30. He only went down to $34. I didn't like being in the alley so I stood apart from everyone else, so once more I could watch either end of the alley for any surprises.
Thank goodness my imagination was larger than life rather than accurate. Nothing happened, except we got ripped off and had an experience that not many people get.
(Editor's Note: The editor wishes to apologize for taking so long to post this entry. December 1, 2007)
