Chatting With A Fortune Teller In Hong Kong

I recently went to Hong Kong by myself for a few days (for the Hong Kong Literary Festival) and had some extra time on my hands, so I got to play the tourist a bit, something I haven’t done in years even though I lived only half an hour from the city for three years and went there every two or three months. I decided to head down to one of the city’s famous night markets: Temple Street in Jordan.

I was planning on buying a few things while there, but I was sadly disappointed, not seeing anything I actually liked. The weather was perfect and the street was almost devoid of tourists, so I was able to walk the whole thing in about half an hour. When I got to the end of the street, I noticed there were vendors across the road, so I kept walking. And I kept walking. I passed by several pop-up tents selling adult items and finally came to a small alley with red tents featuring divination symbols.

I had heard that you could find fortune tellers in Hong Kong, but I had never seen them or really looked into it before. The last time I was in the States, Zoe and I went to see a fortune teller and enjoyed the experience, so I thought I would give Chinese mysticism a try, see if they would tell me anything different here.

I was a little nervous walking through. How would I choose a fortune teller? What was a good price? Would I even find one that spoke English? I was pleasantly surprised to see that many of the fortune tellers had signs declaring that they spoke English. Still, I wasn’t sure how to choose one. Several of the tents had lines of people, so I figured they must have a good reputation, but I didn’t want to wait too long or I would lose my nerve and run away. I decided that if any of the fortune tellers called out to me, I would talk to them. Must be fate, right?

Almost immediately after I decided that, a lady in a purple tent called to me. Purple is one of my favorite colors, so she must be who I was supposed to speak to.

I sat down and she said she could tell my fortune for only 300 Hong Kong dollars (about 31 USD). Seemed like a fair deal since I hadn’t touched my spending budget for the night.

She told me to give her my left hand first because that was the past. She was surprisingly accurate about several things, including my health and love life. Sorry, I’m not going to give you the details of what she said