I'm eight months pregnant with a long MTR journey ahead of me.
The trains are crowded; people are packed into the carriages; everyone is trying to survive another Hong Kong rush hour. No one offers me a seat. Preoccupied with phones, iPods and magazines, no one so much as blinks at the heavily pregnant woman directing evil glances at them in an attempt to shame them out of their seats. Eventually, I leave the train, tired and angry, telling myself there cannot be anything worse than travelling on public transport when pregnant.
But I am wrong - it's actually worse when you have a child or children in tow. If you hope to get a seat on any form of public transport just because you have a baby strapped to your chest, think again.
Combine that with the pushing and shoving that is part and parcel of any MTR journey, and passengers who ignore your baby stroller, and those able-bodied people who could use the escalator but for whatever reason choose to fill up the lift so you and your stroller have to wait for the next one, and it doesn't make for an easy journey.
Negotiating public transport in Hong Kong as a family of one or more children is often an unpleasant experience. At times it is almost a nightmare.
As any parent or helper who has had to board a bus with a baby in one arm and a stroller to fold with the other will know: throw in an extra child or shopping bags and it can be impossible.