Pharmacy is a little different in hong kong.....

So knowing that winter is approaching in china at the end of the year, i thought i'd stock up on some pseudoephidrine (aka sudafed to most people) to help me alleviate any colds or flus. i suppose i could've dispensed a crapload to myself back home when i worked a few locum shifts at the pharmacy over the school break, but of course that would look extremely dodgy since we keep strict records of supply on the register. not to mention in australia straight pseudo is now prescription only. and i also didn't want to purchase them in china because with drugs there you don't know if you're gulping down the real thing or MSG balls.

so i walk into the pharmacy in hong kong and ask the shop assistant (or pharmacist?) for a box of pseudoephidrine, to which he replies "oh, we only have them in boxes''. 
didn't quite know how to respond to that, becuase i wasn't expecting them to come in any other way. did i look like some sort of junkie hanging out for a quick hit of pseudo diced with something else? so i told him, ''yeah sure that's fine. Can i get two boxes?'' (i know how small the packs usually are and hey i won't be leaving china for at least 6 months)

Two minutes later after ducking into the storeroom he's back with 4 boxes of 12 packs. i thought to myself  ''i could've swore i only asked him for 2 boxes. at the sight of my confusion he quickly chirps ''special offer 4 boxes for 400 dollar''
LOL. i know asians love to bargain and haggle, but i never thought i'd see it done over medications in a proper pharmacy.  that, or he thought i was some sort of drug dealer looking to stock up. ironic, seeing that i'm still a registered pharamcist back home.
the thought then crossed my mind that either i had stumbled upon THE most dodge pharmacy in all of hong kong, or that the whole of hong kong was one big candy store for drug dealers. 

anyway, coming back to the situation at hand, the price per box was 128, so it was a pretty good deal. however being quite self conscious of carrying around that much pseudo across borders i had to decline. not to be disappointed though, he then offered  3 boxes for 300 hk dollars. (this pharmacy must've had a truckload of pseudo in the storeroom and probably made most of their profit from it's sales! ) seeing that i had to get rid of my hk dollars anyway i relented and took the 3 boxes. though with a bit of hard-balling i'm sure i could've gotten him to throw in a box of morphine for the same price....

p.s. 
while he was putting through the sale i thought about asking him to label the boxes with my name  to make it seem less dodge, but then realized i was going into china where customs officials probably wouldn't bat an eyelash