Day 8 – Hong Kong Fair

Up, showers, breakfast, check emails, Skype Brisbane office, Skype Sydney office and Skype Melbourne office … I still can’t get over how brilliant and easy Skype is.

Next comes some bad news, or more like an irritating obstacle … although I have seen children at the fair before, this year I am told that no-one under 18 will be allowed entry … no exceptions … bugger.  I’m left with a difficult decision to make and I don’t like it at all.  I speak to hotel management and explain the situation and they agree to keep a regular eye on Aidan while he spends the day in the hotel room and Kasie and I go to the fair.  The thing is he has cable TV, a laptop with internet access, his iPod, room service and a magnificent, panoramic, 27th floor view of Honk Kong …  actually, think I’D prefer to stay in the bloody hotel room.  I also arrange Rita to Skype him from the Brisbane office during the day to check all is okay.  Even with all the safety checks in place I will spend the whole day at the fair with a tight knot of guilt in my stomach and my mind wanders to Aidan constantly.

It will be a busy day and we have a lot to cover.

Kasie and I arrive before 10am, the doors open at 10:30am.  I had visions of mile-long queues but to our delight we collect our badges with little delay or fuss, and in we go.  We decide to start at the far end and work back … but there are many distractions walking through the ‘High End’ section … 13ct round D/Flawless diamonds, $30k/ct rubies, $250k cat’s eye chrysoberyls, $120k star sapphires, matching sets of large Colombian emeralds, huge imperial topaz, glowing red spinels … and the list goes on.  It’s difficult to imagine the mega-rich market for these stones … a whole other world of gemstones virtually never seen in Australia.   But we digress, off now to the real world.

One thing that will save us a lot of time is that we have no need to look at ruby and sapphire stock here, for two reasons.  Firstly, I will be visiting ruby and sapphire suppliers in Bangkok next week, and secondly, I avoid making final decisions on better stones under harsh trade fair lights.  The mix of lighting can make it very difficult to see the true colour, especially with rubies and sapphires, and making a poor choice can be costly.

Kasie and I are here to investigate coral, jade, calibrated freshwater pearls and ‘interesting stuff’ …  amongst other things.  We have plans to visit other HK suppliers tomorrow so we have to get our skates on.

I visit a supplier from Brazil who has had very good andalusite in the past, but as I expected no new andalusite of good grade in larger sizes have been mined for some time.  We have plenty of  1-2 carat stones in stock at the moment so no point in buying more of the same.

We have a discussion with an Italian coral supplier about strands, interesting bracelet designs and ‘chili’ drops. The quality is better than much of the other coral we have seen and we obtain some samples to place larger order later.

Pink tourmaline prices are outrageous! In some cases over double than that of one year ago … the Chinese have been on a pink tourmaline pending spree and have pushed the prices to what I (and many others) consider unreasonable.  Nevertheless we manage to find a fine, hot-pink pair of pairs shapes at a good price … plus a stunning soft-pink/apricot bi-colour tourmaline, very nice.

I’m keeping an eye out for a 17x12mm pear shape peridot for a Melbourne customer who broke a stone but I’m having no luck… it’s either all too good/expensive or far too included … I need something in-between.  Will probably have to have it cut in Bangkok next week.

Along the way we hand-pick rainbow moonstone, labradorite, rutilated quartz and chryoprase samples in stunning drops and cabs.  Once we decides on quantities later we can negotiate a much better price.  Then off to the pearl pavilion for freshwater stock and mabes.  Somehow we run out of time to look at jade.   There’s no need to look at most of the mountains of semi-precious stones on display as we deal with a number of the exhibiting suppliers already … however we stop to say hello, catch up and have a general chat whenever possible.

With aching feet but a feeling of reasonable satisfaction we head on back to ‘hotel boy’ … he’s fine.