EAST-WEST EXPRESS.

THERE HAS LONG BEEN an amused conceit among commuters from the East Anglian suburbs that the London train station upon which they all converge - the cavernous iron cathedral of Liverpool Street - is the place from which you can travel by rail all the way to Hong Kong. So, when my wife and I did have to go to Hong Kong from London, had some days to spare, felt disinclined to squeeze ourselves and our many bags into a mere and unromantic eastbound jet, we opted for the comfortable and undemanding microcosm of a railway carriage. I bought the tickets - or as many of them as was possible to buy in England - from a country travel agent in deepest Oxfordshire, and my wife and I duly presented ourselves at the barrier of Liverpool Street's Platform Nine some few minutes before 10 one Monday morning. Ahead were - according to the twin Thomas Cook timetables, Continental (in red) and Overseas (in blue) - over 8,000 miles of uninterrupted steel rails and 100 miles of sea between Britain and her most populous colonial territory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]