I woke up just before Kel did and so was able to see her off for the day. I actually regained my voice for a little bit in the morning, but it was on and off and I only had half a voice left by the time I passed through immigration and customs, and none at all by the time I reached the Hong Kong hotel and for the rest of the night afterwards.

To make things worse, my Holafly eSIM lasted for exactly ten days, so it was still working in the early morning when Kel left. but expired around when I was leaving the house to head to Guangzhou South Railway Station, sometime between 9:40 am and 10:00 am. This meant that once I left the building (passing by the puzzled front door guard as I stepped out into the drizzling rain with a suitcase and two bags), I had no Internet access at all, all the way until my train reached Hong Kong Kowloon West Station. China does not offer free WiFi anywhere (that among other things means that it is very unfriendly towards foreigners under its current regime), and the high-speed train did not have that internet that toggled on on the way in to Hong Kong once it crossed the border, the same way that it had the internet that toggled off when taking the train in the opposite direction.

Anyway, back at Guangzhou South Railway Station, there was a little police robot patrolling the area outside the security gate. It’s in the background of this shot if you squint.

There was also a guy that was in handcuffs and leg chains that went through the security scanner just before me. They waved me back so that he could go through. I snuck a picture afterwards.

I hope that’s not me in the future. They did not put me in leg chains when I was handcuffed at Singapore’s Changi Airport two years ago, but they did basically do that with the handcuffs and the two escorts next to me.

The waiting room of Guangzhou South Railway Station was unified, with all the departure gates in the same large room. There were two levels of shops, and every store was actually open! … That being said, there were at least three separate McDonalds branches *and* three KFC branches in there, so that’s how they found enough tenants I guess.

The A-gates and B-gates were on the opposite ends of the waiting area, along the short side of the big rectangle at least, but the train platforms were perpendicular to the waiting area so most of the trains had two gates that one could board from that were on opposide sides of the hall. My train to Hong Kong, for example, boarded from gates A7 and B7. They didn’t tell me which side was for the lower-numbered carriages and which side was for higher, but I guessed B was for the higher numbers (and that 8 was considered a high number and not merely a middle carriage) and I was right on both counts.

I queued up about 10 minutes early at the B-gate and was the first one in line this time:

There weren’t that many people though so the lines were short, but I wasn’t sure if my line or the one to my left was for manual verification, since its usually one of the end lines but that line was supposedly reserved for business class, people who needed more accessibility, as well as some other special groups. Even though there was someone else lined up there, the guard that was lounging behind the gates came up to that large gate 19 minutes before departure time (boarding was supposed to only start 15 minutes before departure) and waved to me to come up though, ignoring the foreigner guy who was actually queued up in that lane. I guess either from seeing my Canadian passport or my big suitcase or a combination of those two and knowing that I arrived first. He scanned me through and I found my seat and settled in for the 1 hour and change ride before anyone else.

The train still filled up though, even though there were plenty of tickets left even the night before. I was also able to confirm that they recycle seats, so that if someone leaves at a specific station along the way, it is possible for someone else to buy a ticket for the same seat that the first person had as long as the second person only boards afterwards, as this exact situation happened with the window seat in our row. I also learnt that there was a power outlet but that it was under our seat instead of under the seat in front of us, possibly due to the direction that the train was facing. I think it still was only one power socket for the row, between the center and window seat, too, but I didn’t care since the ride was short anyway.

Finally, I arrived at Hong Kong Kowloon, and crossed the China border and into the Hong Kong one (demarcated by lines on the ground). I wasn’t stopped even due to my throat, since I didn’t really have a cough. There was a temperature check section that I had to cross though, but I didn’t have a fever or chills so they never detected my smuggling of my China germs into Hong Kong, nor did I declare them at customs.

But finally, after all that, I had unfiltered internet again! Free WiFi (though I got a 5 day eSIM later on anyway) and without a stupid firewall! I immediately sent this poor Pikmin on an 18 day tour back to Japan to pick up some weird package that hadn’t expired. By the time that thing returns I’ll probably be back in Canada. I wonder if that will extend the return time even further.

To get to the train station near my lodging, I needed to take a total of 3 trains, even though it was only a 5 stop ride in the end. The floor was wet and some people had umbrellas, so I guessed that it was still raining outside, but it turned out that it was just a slight drizzle as usual. There was a green traffic light to cross just as I reached the top of the station, so I didn’t take my usual “first arrival” picture until I had crossed the road.

Between the railway station and the lodging was about 7 minutes worth of a little market street:

Still bustling despite the rain. To get to my hotel from the end of this road, I first had to jaywalk across an actual busy road with like 8 other people at the same time who were too lazy to go down one street in either direction to the traffic light. My excuse was that I was carrying a heavy pink luggage bag while refusing to let it touch the ground, so any reduction in steps I had to take was much appreciated.

Then, I had to climb a rather steep road up a hill to get to the actual hotel/service apartment. Is this place safe?

There was some nice rakugaki (graffiti) on the way up:

And here’s a view looking back down the way I came:

The front desk was staffed by 1 or 2 people anytime that I’ve passed by it so far:

But it’s obviously not open 24 hours since I received a passcode for the number pad outside the front door. I signed in (despite not having a voice at all by this point) and took my keycard up to my room. Pictures of said room follow: