Me just hours before disaster struck
The questionable hotel breakfast at one of the places we stayed in while in China.
The People’s Republic of China celebrated its 61st birthday last weekend, and in honour of such a momentous occasion, we were given Friday off, which meant a long weekend, baby!! I took off with three of my gal pals to the cities of Guilin and Yangshou, located on the Chinese mainland. Probably not the smartest weekend to go, since all 80 gazillion people in China (or how ever many people live there) also had the time off, and the getting from point A to point B (or, in our case, from point A to point B to point F to point W since we did a lot of “to and fro-ing” that weekend) a nightmare.
There was traffic at the border. Traffic at the airport. Traffic in the town. Long lines, tons of people, lots of heat, and therefore tons of unpleasant body odour EVERYWHERE. And let me not even START on the ghastly state of public toilets with so many people out and about. Ooh, child.
At any rate, the weekend was fantastic, but was dampened by a surprise visitor (in the form of a parasite) that took up residence in my gastro-intestinal tract (my other friend also got sick!). Luckily, Mr. Parasite came a-knocking on the last day of our three-day soujourn (actually struck RIGHT before we were about to undertake the epic voyage back to Hong Kong), so it didn’t actually interfere with my enjoyment of China.
But it was a doozy.
And needless to say, I was not amused. To be more accurate , I was not amused, but I WAS: vomitous, poopy, and writhing on the floor (of the dirty Guilin airport [!]) gripping my stomach as intense pains ripped through my abdomen and made me wish I had never been born. Thank goodness for good friends! My travel companions took care of me in my time of need (and utter grossness), bringing plastic bags I could hurl into, fizzy beverages to settle my stomach and lots and lots of wet wipes/kleenex. At one point, I seemed to have lost the use of my legs, so they got me an airport wheelchair and wheeled me through security and then on to the plane *dies of shame*.
After slumping in my bed in Hong Kong late Sunday night, I thusly spent Monday and Tuesday in bed skipping work, feeling nauseous (and sorry for myself), and watching as my stomach became more concave from not being able to eat. Wednesday, like a newborn foal just finding his legs, I shakily went into work, and have been subsisting on a steady diet of Coke (cures all ills!) and rice cakes ever since. I went to the doctor on Thursday, and they gave me an arsenal of pills, which I have been taking sporadically, since I can never remember exactly which one to take at which time. I have never felt so glad to see the end of a week as I was on Friday, where I felt like shouting T.G.I.F from the rooftops, because, well, Eureka!! I made it through the week!!
As for resting during my convalescence, I have averaged about 12-13 hours of sleep every night this week. This stomach bug has me pooped (pun very much intended). Being sick is exhausting.
I still don’t know what the exact culprit was, though I tend to think may have been food from our hotel since another family we met there had three sickies (in their group of six). Two of our group of four were sick, so it’s possible. All I know is that there are two lessons to be learned from all of this:
1) Be careful what you eat when you are travelling, especially in developing countries (I should know this, since I am the reigning world-champion of getting sick while abroad: I’ve been sick in Nepal, sick in Tanzania, and sick in Beijing just in this past year)!
2) There is always a silver lining to misfortune, particularly of the gastro-intestinal variety. Like those skinny jeans that I haven’t been able to wear for a year and a half? Slid them on this morning without a hitch. Didn’t even have to lie on my bed and suck in my stomach to put them on. You see? Bright side!
72 Comments
Been there, done that, not fun. 😐 At least you got better.
P.S. You've visited all those countries? Lucky. Very nice.
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Enjoy your SITS day! 🙂
we are quite possibly traveling to china next year. thanks for the warning! blech!
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