Tricked by the Pig

Day five of our trip. Our plan to reach Xiamen by going through Guangzhou was disrupted when one of our members was stopped as we passed through customs.  (Yes, even though Hong Kong is part of the People's Republic of China now, you still must pass through customs when entering and leaving it; they also have different currencies)

Me, Sarah, and Meggie woke up at 5 am, we checked Meggie's temperature: she had a very low fever, but felt fine.  Since she was feeling fine, we decided to go ahead with our plan to leave Hong Kong.  We got to the train station without too much trouble -just a lot of steps!  The escalators to the road overpasses and in the train station itself weren't working yet because it was too early, so we all had to carry -or drag- our luggage up a lot of stairs.  But we bought our train tickets and had plenty of time to wait for the train.  The train ride itself went very smoothly; we were on the very comfortable, fast, and clean express train (I think that's what it was called).  The train attendants were wearing face masks, and came around with temperature guns (they look like little guns and they point them at your forehead) to take all the passengers' temperatures, then wrote down our temperatures on the slips of paper we had to show the customs' officers.

He was trying to get us quickly out of the customs area before all of us could get dragged to a hospital.

We arrived at Guangzhou city two hours later, feeling very excited about starting the next stage of our trip.  Dr. Allard, Sarah, and Jeremy passed through customs first and waited for me and Meggie.  Meggie went next, and she must have triggered some sort of heat alarm, because she was taken to an examination room; you'll have to read her blog for the details, but she later told us that they took her temperature again, made her wear a mask, and didn't listen to her protests that she was fine.  I  passed through customs smoothly, and waited with Sarah and Jeremy while Dr. Allard went to go help Meggie.  Some time later he came back, told the three of us that Meggie was being taken to a hospital and that he was going with her.  We were to find some place in the train station to wait for him and watch all of the luggage; he would come back and find us once Meggie's situation was settled.  He was trying to get us quickly out of the customs area before all of us could get dragged to a hospital.

We wandered downstairs, feeling a bit overwhelmed, but then found a restaurant with a wall of windows looking out into the main station area.  We decided to park there while we waited because it had air conditioning (it was very warm even in the train station) and because it had food -even better, it had (relatively) Western-style breakfasts! We were there for a few hours before we saw Dr. Allard wandering around looking for us.  After he joined us in the restaurant, he explained that Meggie had been taken to a hospital to spend the night; they had transported her in an ambulance, with people in Hazmat suits.  Francis was supposed to go back to the hospital also (mostly just because the doctors knew he had travelled with Meggie) but he asked if I would stay at the hospital overnight as well, to give her some extra company.  I agreed, and then we split up to get settled for the night.  Jeremy and Dr. Allard went to find a hotel, then the boys watched the luggage while Sarah and I exchanged money.

We dropped our things off at the hotel, said goodbye to Sarah and Jeremy, and then Dr. Allard and I took a taxi to the hospital.  It took us awhile to find the hospital, even though the taxi took us to the right street, Dr. Allard and I walked around for nearly an hour because he couldn't remember which building she had been taken to -it looked very different from the back of an ambulance.

Eventually he got in touch with the hospital, and they sent someone to come show us the way.  We weren't really allowed to see Meggie.  The nurses and doctors were all in suits that looked like what people wear when performing operations -no skin or hair was visible except for their eyes; even their shoes had booties on them.  We talked to Meggie through a window that opened in her door; of course, she still had to sit in a chair several feet from the window, but we managed to talk nonetheless.  The nurses spoke no English, and the doctor spoke only a little.  We dropped off some supplies for Meggie, but the doctor told us that the three other beds were full, so Dr. Allard and I couldn't stay there.  So we said goodbye to Meggie and promised to return in the morning.

We got back to the hotel to find Sarah and Jeremy nearly hysterical with laughter.  They had spent the morning watching some apparently hilarious -and not a little trippy- British cartoon shows on TV.  After filling them in on Meggie's situation, it was time for dinner.  We were all too tired to go far from the hotel, so we just circled the area until we found a small restaurant that turned out to have very delicious food.  All four of us were ready for a drink or two after that very, very long day (and I should mention that there is no drinking age in China, or if there is, I've never heard of it, so it was perfectly legal for all of us to buy and drink alcohol there).  Unfortunately, finding a drink in Guangzhou was not as easily done as we expected it to be.  Our hotel had a dance club attached to it, but it was void of customers, and the managers wanted to charge us 600 RMB (about a hundred american dollars) just to sit at a table.  We respectfully declined and wandered around until we just picked a restaurant and bought some Bai Jiu ("white wine" that is actually not wine at all -just very strong liquor) and Tsingtao beer (which is actually pronounced "Ching-dao").

Dr. Allard took pictures of us all taking shots of Bai Jiu, the first time Sarah and Jeremy had ever tried it, and my first time on that trip.  Actually, I thought it was better than when I had tried it the summer before.  It was a fun time, though we all wished Meggie could have joined us for it.  Finally our long day came to an end, and we all fell asleep in the same hotel room.  (Dr. Allard made Jeremy sleep on the floor, and me and Sarah shared a bed)

The next morning, Dr. Allard and I returned at 8:30 am to get Meggie, only to be told that we would have to return at 10:00 am because her blood test results had not arrived.

Which leads me to the title of this blog entry.  While we waited til we could return for Meggie, Dr. Allard and I decided to buy some Chinese cell phones, so communicating with our group members would be easier when we were separated.  We found a stall that sold, basically, knockoff cell phones that nonetheless seemed to work.  After we bought them, Dr. Allard was trying them out, calling his wife at home, and Sarah and Jeremy at the hotel.  That's when he learned that Meggie's blood test results had come in.  Her mild fever, cough, and headaches were not the result of a cold after all; according to her blood results, Meggie had the H1N1 virus, commonly known as Swine Flu.