We (me ans some colleagues) were in transit at Hong Kong airport for six hours on Sunday morning, and we decided to make bold use of the time to visit Hong Kong. The airport is very efficient and getting through customs and immigration was very quick. We left our carry-on luggage at the airport luggage storage, and saved some money by stuffing three laptops into one bag.
The train from the airport to Downtown takes only a half hour. From the train we could see steep green islands jutting out of the water, with pencil thin high-rises dotting the coast. I guess that is the signature look of Hong Kong. We landed in Downtown Hong Kong and the place was quite deserted on the Sunday morning. The first thing we noticed were the lines of young women marching along the streets, sitting on makeshift sheets on sidewalks, and just chatting in small groups. These women clearly did not live on the street, they were too well dressed for that and Hong Kong's laws are too strict to allow that. Thew were not hawkers either because they had no merchandise. All we could tell was they were not chinese, rather they looked south-east asian.
Finding no immediate answers to the mystery, we continued exploring downtown. There was hardly any restaurant open at 9am, and we ended up eating at a small cafe that was serving only breakfast menu. We ordered the exotic sounding "pasta with butterfly", but it just turned out to be bow-tie shaped pasta. Anyway, we ended up having a hearty breakfast for under $30 for four of us.
As we walked on, the hordes of mystery women became more abundant, occupying entire streaches of side-walks. One of us had to give in and ask them. They said they were expat workers (mostly maids) who had left their families behind for work, and were just enjoying a sunday morning picnic. So we learned that to have a picnic, you need no garden, no beach, no nature, just some friends, and a footpath in Asia's financial centre.
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