June 23, 2006	15:21
I can't believe I'm so slow with the updates. This has been the best couple of days yet! On Wednesday, we trekked back to the Guilin train station for an overnight train to Shenzhen. This one was, hands down, the longest train journey yet; sixteen hours from start to finish! What made it more entertaining was our scattered out placement on the train. The bulk of our contingency was in the "western" car, which contained eleven Dutchmen (all on the bottom bunks!), and another group of Euros. Allison and I had the carriage o' fun, with a mammoth of a Chinese tour group, complete with bright yellow hats and all of the typical Chinese pleasantries, including spitting, speaking at ear-splitting volumes, and the pot-bellied men rolling up their shirts. Thankfully, they emptied out the carriage at Guangzhou. The border crossing is indeed weird for a train traveller. We arrived in Shenzhen, and followed the signs that said "Hong Kong" on them. You essentially cross the street and enter another building, which has a Chinese Customs area upstairs, not unlike an airport. We were cleared to leave China, got our passports stamped, walked over a bridge into what looked like a heavily cordoned-off prison, and promptly got in the line at Hong Kong Customs. After another stamp in the old passport, we were in. Coming into Kowloon on the KRC, it was raining quite heavily. Not to be stopped by adverse weather (and, besides, I hadn't showered in two days), we headed towards the Star Ferry, which goes from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. After that, a double-decker bus and a tram ride took us atop Victoria Peak, which is directly behind the Hong Kong skyline. Looking at the other side of the island, it's hard to fahtom that you're in one of the world's alpha cities; the tropical landscape blankets nearly all of the back side of the island. We watched the sunset (from a McDonald's, sadly), and headed for our last night's dinner at Chongking Mansion. It was such a bittersweet occasion. I'd really grown to love my little group. And, although not everyone left the city today, it's still sad that a fair chunk of the group is gone. Luckily, the group that drinks is still in town. Speaking of which, we went over to Lan Kwai Fong, which is a bar district on Hong Kong Island, last night, and went to a place called The Keg. The walls were adorned with Summit Series posters, NHL team banners, and a whole bunch of Canucks stuff. They even had a UBC jersey, and a Manitoba Moose jersey. No shit! They also had the gigantic glasses of Hoegaarden for 55HKD, which struck me as relatively decent. Today was relaxed. After exploring Kowloon for a bit, I went to the Hong Kong Museum of Art. One display was the Biennial, which is a yearly showcase of local modern art. There was a thought-provoking set of video montages of serene moments in Hong Kong. My personal favourite piece was "Finding Sleep", which was an illustrated book about how to get a good night's sleep. It made the argument that good sleep depends on a fish in your psyche; said fish only comes out in a period of deep sleep. Other than that, I'm out for sushi. Oh, how I've missed eating Japanese food!