The previous post is Hong Kong (May 29).
The next post is Beijing (May 31).

Enroute to Beijing (May 30) · Jun 2, 07:04 AM

I was up early to get online, and then to shop for food — the train ride from Hong Kong to Beijing is 24 hours. After picking out too much food, I wasted half an hour thinking I had lost my wallet when I hadn’t. I came home with (a) too much food, (b) exactly enough Hong Kong coinage to get me to the train station, and© ten minutes till check-out. Well … I did have enough to take the KCR East line from the Tsim Sha Tshui metro to the Hung Hom KCR Intercity station, but I only found out after the muggy fifteen minute walk. But I was early, and waited nearly two hours to board T98 for a 15:00 departure.

There’s a large number of western backpackers on this train and in this car. There’s a semi-retired inventor living in Hong Kong, a handsome Norwegian football player who has just given up his professional career, a beautiful Swedish woman traveling with him, and a young mining engineer from Australia (who’s room is up in the deluxe soft-sleeper car). These are just the people I’ve met; there are more I haven’t, along with three friendly Chinese women sharing my room.

Oddly, the Japanese ramen meal cups I’ve bought come minus forks — I’m using chopsticks from lunch.

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