Posted on 24 September 2010 @ 07:42 in Travels
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.
Major 
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Posted on 21 September 2010 @ 12:13 in Travels
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.
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Posted on 22 August 2010 @ 16:46 in Travels
Blogspot and YouTube are also blocked in China.
For the former, it means I can’t read my favourite blogs while in China.
For the latter, it means I can’t upload any of my videos to my YouTube account until I get home.
For my friends who are blogging on blogspot, you might want to consider moving to either wordpress.com or typepad.com, both free like blogspot, but both not blocked in China (for now, anyway).
For what it’s worth, Seth Godin blogs on typepad, too.
Aiks … Google Docs is (are?) also blocked in China. And while I can read from within Google Reader, I can’t link out to the respective websites – that’s blocked, too.
Good thing Google Translate’s working – that’s my lifeline to online Chinese – English (and vice versa) translations.
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Posted on 22 August 2010 @ 14:32 in Notebooks, Stress Busters, Travels
The two in the foreground are the “cover models” for Nostalgie’s “Giant Panda” notebook cover.
The two in the background are Mei Xin (left) and Feng Yi (right), two giant pandas living at the giant panda habitat at the Seven Star Park’s Zoo in Guilin, China.
I’d received the notebook as a gift from Ms Karen Doherty, Vice President, Marketing, Exaclair, Inc (exclusive US distributor of Clairefontaine, Exacompta, Rhodia, Quo Vadis, G Lalo, Brause, J Herbin and Decopatch products) in late March (thanks again, Karen). By then, I’d returned from my annual volunteer trip to Bifengxia Panda Base. But I was planning a visit to Guilin later in the year, and when that materialised and I was packing for the trip, I made sure to pack the notebook, to journal in, as well as to take a picture with Mei Xin and Feng Yi.
The picture was taken thro’ the glass display at the indoor enclosure. This is the best I can do for now, but I’ll be visiting them again a few more days, so I’ll make sure to take more, and hopefully better, pictures. In case anyone’s wondering, hand holding notebook belongs to keeper Zhang.
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Posted on 21 August 2010 @ 17:28 in Travels
It’s unfair but, after staying in a low-end motel for 2 of my annual giant panda volunteer trips, I tend to associate giant panda volunteer work with “hardship”. Like I said, it’s unfair. Cuz last year, I stayed at a really nice hotel in Ya’an City. And right now, in Guilin, I’m staying at the Guilin International Hotel, where the room is even nicer than Ibis Hotel, Ya’an, but at twice the cost, it’s expected.
Probaby the most important thing in a hotel room for me – Internet access. In this case, on a nice writing table
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Writing table is next to a fair size LCD TV on a swivel top, but all Chinese shows, even the English movies are dubbed in Mandarin; nope, no CNN or Bloomberg
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Fancy wash basin reflected in the shower door. Toilet is next to shower and discretely hidden behind door
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Top of mini fridge with something extra – boxes of playing cards, condoms and sex oil – for a price, of course
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