So there I was, telling Judy and Elise over dinner that I don’t eat food from street vendors when I travel. Three hours later, I was writhing in pain, spasm after spasm cramping my stomach. There were moments of ease when I was misled to think it was over, but no, it would be back, on and off, for a few more rounds.
I’ve been eating good so far this trip, joining Annette and Yenis who took the panda keepers to lunch and dinner, depending on who was free for which meal.
Yesterday evening’s dinner was organised by the Pandas International tour group to thank the Wolong Research Centre and Bifengxia Panda Base staff. It was the second dinner I’d had at the same restaurant in two evenings.
I can’t pinpoint which dish caused my discomfort but most of the dishes were spicy, and I’d eaten moderately. Still, I would upchuck not only my dinner but lunch and breakfast, too, later on. I upchucked until there was nothing left to upchuck. Maybe my stomach just needed cleansing.
At one point, I wondered if I needed to go to the hospital. In the end, I didn’t. After all, I’d come prepared with my arsenal of proven Chinese meds. But I had to bypass the first line of defence, the po chai pills, and go straight to the second line, the fok heong jin hei pien, which helped with the upchucking. It helped cuz the upchucking eased the discomfort.
This is the second time I’ve had such serious tummy cramps while travelling. The first time was last month when I visited Guilin for Feng Yi’s birthday. For that upset, I knew exactly the cause – the Hunanese dinner I’d had with the panda team in Guilin.
I’m better now, but will rest today, and unfortunately, miss a day with my giant pandas, and also the opportunity to see the PI tour members sweeping panda poop, and gathering leftover bamboo.
Aerobic steps – 9,524
Time – 87 minutes
Steps per minute (approx) – 109
Those 87 minutes of aerobic steps include 10 minutes walking from the bus station to the hotel this morning, 38 minutes during my evening walk around the area near the hotel, and 39 minutes to and fro the restaurant where Annette, Yenis and I had dinner with a group of keepers from the Panda Base.
I spent about 5 minutes waiting for a taxi and then remembered where I was – the Ya’an Tourist Bus Station. I know this station! No need to wait for a taxi – I can walk to Ibis Hotel from here! And so I did. It was raining so I took out my umbrella (a gift from the hotel during my last trip) and went my merry way in the direction of the hotel.
So Ya’an lived up to its nickname, “Rainy City”. But Chengdu was raining, too. In fact, a heavy thunderstorm had delayed my flight’s landing and we had to remain airborne for about 20 minutes before getting the clearance to land.
I don’t know how long I took to walk to Ibis Hotel. But when I took out my HJ-113 to see how many steps it was from the station to the hotel, I was surprised to see I’d walked enough to register some aerobic steps, too. In fact, I’d walked 1,024 steps in 10 minutes, about 102 steps a minute, which is way about the 60 steps required to activate the HJ-113′s aerobic step counter. Not bad, considering I was pulling an 18.6kg rolling luggage behind me and I also had a backpack filled with books and my netbook. I guess this is the senior citizen’s version of the strong man challenge?
At the hotel, I was greeted by a familiar face behind the hotel’s registration counter. She said she’d give me a room with a view, but it has turned out to be more than that. My room on the 7th floor is right next to the corridor window which looks out to the street and its star attraction:
The above picture was taken in March this year, and I’m looking forward to seeing the “Christmas” tree again this evening.
If you walk past the Wh clothing store in 1 Utama (New Wing), you will see this poster.
I actually took this picture in mid July. The poster has been there for quite a while, even before she left us, and is still there. There’s another one inside the store.
I can’t remember if I took it with a plan to put it up on the first anniversary of her passing. But I always thought it’s such a nice picture of her.
Today is as good a day to put up a post to remember her. It’s Hari Raya Puasa, or Eid ul-Fitr, a religious holiday that she had done TVCs about in the past. Like this one.
Selamat Hari Raya 2010 to all Malaysians, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.
