10/15/2006 China Day 20: Golmud, Qinghai - Food Poisoning
Woke up at 9 AM this morning feeling a bit light-headed and dehydrated - as if by alcohol, but without the hangover. I didn't really want to get out of bed. When I finally did, I was really sluggish. Took a warm shower that ended in the dark because the power in the hotel went out. I asked Tian Fang if the hotel had decided to cut the power at a certain time, but she said no, it was a city grid problem.
We took a cab to the train station at 10:30 AM, but by then, all 3 of the days trains had already passed (4 AM, 7 AM, and 10 AM). Sigh, that meant we were stuck in middle-of-nowhere Golmud for 1 whole day. When we tried to buy tickets for the next day, the ticket agent had a computer problem and couldn't generate any tickets, so we decided to go eat brunch at a nearby restaurant first.
I was really lethargic at the restaurant. I barely had any appetite, and I couldn't even hold my head up and sit properly at the table to be polite. In between bites, I laid my head down on my arm on the table. Tian Fang had to explain to the restaurant workers that I was really, really sick (lunch ~50 RMB).
In my worsening condition, we decided to just find a nicer, closer hotel to rest at for the day. We succeeded on the second count, but failed on the first. When we mentioned in the restaurant that we were just going to look for a nearby hotel room to rest in, they said, why not stay in their guest room (20 RMB)? Well that was certainly cheap, so Tian Fang checked it out. She said it was fine; there was no shower, but there was a bathroom. Good enough for a sick guy. I had no intention of taking off my clothes and taking a shower in my condition anyways. So we went to their guest room. One of the restaurant workers helped me carry my large backpack.
Unfortunately, when we got to the room, it wasn't really fine. In hindsight, I think Tian Fang was a little overzealous in wanting to save money. First of all, there were no windows, so inside it was several degrees cooler than outside, and it was a little bit damp - kind of like a wine cellar, now that I think of it, except I wasn't feeling much like a Corton Charlemagne at the moment. Second, the blankets were all dingy and disgusting. No attempt was made to disguise the fact that they had never been washed, and you could no longer discern their original colors. If you can imagine what the smallpox-infected blankets given to the American Indians during
Colonial times (mid-1700s) must have looked like, I imagine they must have resembled these blankets. (Note that there is considerable debate regarding the actual degree and efficacy with which this tactic was used against the American Indians.) I'm actually surprised I didn't catch something else from that room, especially considering the next point. Third, we found out after I woke up from a nap that the room was infested by at least one, but probably more mice. I cannot report seeing any rats or cockroaches, although I believe there was a fly too. I slept through the afternoon this way - alternately sleeping and getting up to use the restroom. Tian Fang took really good care of me. She bought me a couple vials of traditional Chinese medicine - one of which I took before sleeping - and some bottled water.
Finally, in the early evening, I felt good enough to get up. Tian Fang and I walked to a nearby Internet cafe (2 RMB / hour), where I showed her some of my China farewell party and Burning Man 2006 pictures. I didn't get to show her that many because the download speed at that cafe was too slow. I think she was shocked by some of the pictures, but she internalized much of it for later. Oh yeah, and the first picture she saw of Barzel, she picked him right out and said, who's that? He's hot!
After the Internet cafe, we caught a bus (1 RMB / person) to dinner (~50 RMB). Tian Fang ordered a lot of food - 4 dishes between the 2 of us. We had a lot of leftover food since my appetite was still non-existant. 2 small things of note occurred over dinner. First, we heard a huge crash of dishes breaking while we were eating. It was the loudest crash of the most dishes breaking that I had ever heard. It sounded like perhaps 50 dishes breaking. I thought there had been a huge accident in the kitchen, but that later turned out not to be the case. Several minutes later, we saw 3-4 bellicose men being led out separately from the restaurant from an upper floor, each flanked by 3-4 other men to prevent any further altercations. You could tell which were the guilty parties because they were still mouthing off on the way down. The second thing that happened was that I noticed one of the waitresses in her early 20s at the restaurant smiling at me, so I smiled back. She covered her mouth and giggled, then went further away and told the floor manager that she thought I was cute (I read her lips). All the time she was still looking at me, so I smiled still more at her. Soon, she was too embarassed to look, so she ran off into an adjacent room and made busy. Once she peeked out to see if I was still looking at her, which I was, so she hid again, not to come out again until I left a few minutes later. As I left, I smiled at her and told her that she didn't have to hide in the other room. Chinese girls are too shy and immature.
After dinner, Tian Fang stopped in a dessert/bakery kind of place. She bought 2 sweet bread products, and I bought 2 scoops of strawberry and honey dew ice cream. Some sort of Chinese hip hop was playing, so I sashayed over to Tian Fang sitting at a table. She got embarassed and said people were staring at me. I laughed and said I didn't care. One of the employees clapped when I was done (easily impressed).
That's about it. We ate the ice cream and then took a cab back to the smallpox guest room. It was probably only 10 PM at the time. Tian Fang wasn't tired yet, but I was exhausted from my illness.
We took a cab to the train station at 10:30 AM, but by then, all 3 of the days trains had already passed (4 AM, 7 AM, and 10 AM). Sigh, that meant we were stuck in middle-of-nowhere Golmud for 1 whole day. When we tried to buy tickets for the next day, the ticket agent had a computer problem and couldn't generate any tickets, so we decided to go eat brunch at a nearby restaurant first.
I was really lethargic at the restaurant. I barely had any appetite, and I couldn't even hold my head up and sit properly at the table to be polite. In between bites, I laid my head down on my arm on the table. Tian Fang had to explain to the restaurant workers that I was really, really sick (lunch ~50 RMB).
In my worsening condition, we decided to just find a nicer, closer hotel to rest at for the day. We succeeded on the second count, but failed on the first. When we mentioned in the restaurant that we were just going to look for a nearby hotel room to rest in, they said, why not stay in their guest room (20 RMB)? Well that was certainly cheap, so Tian Fang checked it out. She said it was fine; there was no shower, but there was a bathroom. Good enough for a sick guy. I had no intention of taking off my clothes and taking a shower in my condition anyways. So we went to their guest room. One of the restaurant workers helped me carry my large backpack.
Unfortunately, when we got to the room, it wasn't really fine. In hindsight, I think Tian Fang was a little overzealous in wanting to save money. First of all, there were no windows, so inside it was several degrees cooler than outside, and it was a little bit damp - kind of like a wine cellar, now that I think of it, except I wasn't feeling much like a Corton Charlemagne at the moment. Second, the blankets were all dingy and disgusting. No attempt was made to disguise the fact that they had never been washed, and you could no longer discern their original colors. If you can imagine what the smallpox-infected blankets given to the American Indians during
Colonial times (mid-1700s) must have looked like, I imagine they must have resembled these blankets. (Note that there is considerable debate regarding the actual degree and efficacy with which this tactic was used against the American Indians.) I'm actually surprised I didn't catch something else from that room, especially considering the next point. Third, we found out after I woke up from a nap that the room was infested by at least one, but probably more mice. I cannot report seeing any rats or cockroaches, although I believe there was a fly too. I slept through the afternoon this way - alternately sleeping and getting up to use the restroom. Tian Fang took really good care of me. She bought me a couple vials of traditional Chinese medicine - one of which I took before sleeping - and some bottled water.
Finally, in the early evening, I felt good enough to get up. Tian Fang and I walked to a nearby Internet cafe (2 RMB / hour), where I showed her some of my China farewell party and Burning Man 2006 pictures. I didn't get to show her that many because the download speed at that cafe was too slow. I think she was shocked by some of the pictures, but she internalized much of it for later. Oh yeah, and the first picture she saw of Barzel, she picked him right out and said, who's that? He's hot!
After the Internet cafe, we caught a bus (1 RMB / person) to dinner (~50 RMB). Tian Fang ordered a lot of food - 4 dishes between the 2 of us. We had a lot of leftover food since my appetite was still non-existant. 2 small things of note occurred over dinner. First, we heard a huge crash of dishes breaking while we were eating. It was the loudest crash of the most dishes breaking that I had ever heard. It sounded like perhaps 50 dishes breaking. I thought there had been a huge accident in the kitchen, but that later turned out not to be the case. Several minutes later, we saw 3-4 bellicose men being led out separately from the restaurant from an upper floor, each flanked by 3-4 other men to prevent any further altercations. You could tell which were the guilty parties because they were still mouthing off on the way down. The second thing that happened was that I noticed one of the waitresses in her early 20s at the restaurant smiling at me, so I smiled back. She covered her mouth and giggled, then went further away and told the floor manager that she thought I was cute (I read her lips). All the time she was still looking at me, so I smiled still more at her. Soon, she was too embarassed to look, so she ran off into an adjacent room and made busy. Once she peeked out to see if I was still looking at her, which I was, so she hid again, not to come out again until I left a few minutes later. As I left, I smiled at her and told her that she didn't have to hide in the other room. Chinese girls are too shy and immature.
After dinner, Tian Fang stopped in a dessert/bakery kind of place. She bought 2 sweet bread products, and I bought 2 scoops of strawberry and honey dew ice cream. Some sort of Chinese hip hop was playing, so I sashayed over to Tian Fang sitting at a table. She got embarassed and said people were staring at me. I laughed and said I didn't care. One of the employees clapped when I was done (easily impressed).
That's about it. We ate the ice cream and then took a cab back to the smallpox guest room. It was probably only 10 PM at the time. Tian Fang wasn't tired yet, but I was exhausted from my illness.
posted by Coquin at 4:54 AM
2 Comments:
Hi buddy, i got a somach flu after leaving DunHuang, would believe the food hygien is a problem. wathch what u eat, this is important in China.
nice to read your blog, keep writing: )
Ha, is that where my food poisoning came from too then? Too much of a coincidence!
Thanks for reading and posting, Yu! I couldn't read anyone's comments while in Tibet (blocked by firewall), so I'm just catching up now on old comments.
I'll see you when I get to Shenzen!
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