The reason I love Hong Kong so much is because you see things here that you won’t see anywhere else – like a moving sidewalk (known locally as the travelator) which eliminates climbing steep steps to reach the island’s Mid Level section; and the “camping housekeepers.”
I literally stumbled upon the “camping housekeepers” on my initial visit to Hong Kong many years ago. I tripped over one I didn’t see sitting on a sidewalk near the old Ritz Carlton Hotel. After picking myself up and apologizing to the woman, I was taken aback to see what looked like a major demonstration taking place all around me involving thousands of women.
“No demonstration, just the camping housekeepers,” a local policeman assured me.
Seems Hong Kong housekeepers get only one day off and because they’ve been cooped up all week they like to congregate on the elevated pathways leading to the major shopping malls in the city’s Central District to socialize with fellow Filipinos.
It’s a tradition that’s been going on since the early 1980s.
The housekeepers spread blankets, construct makeshift tents out of cardboard, do each other’s hair and nails and catch up on all the gossip from back home in the Philippines from early Sunday morning to dusk.
It’s one of the most incredible sights I’ve ever seen.
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