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Published: July 24th 2007
Greetings from Xian, China.
Okay, maybe it's not exactly a 'disaster', but it is the name one of my favorite Busta Rhymes albums.
In my 9-plus years of vagabonding around in various corners of this planet, this has been perhaps the crappiest day of them all. The same could probably be said about Pachi's years of travel. It was a one-two punch.
It started at around 3am. Pachi and I had planned on taking a day trip out of Xian to visit one of the 5 sacred mountains of Taoism, but things started to go south at that early hour. Pachi woke up very ill with symptoms of a severe bladder infection. I was dispatched to go find water, lots of water. She had an aweful night and before the sun came up, it was already clear that there were no sacred mountains in the cards for us today.
I tried to let her sleep-in, coming down to the cafe to send some emails and work on the blog, hoping that with a little rest and about 6 liters of water in her system, she might wake up feeling better. No dice.
The new plan for the day soon became clear: find medical attention somewhere in Xian. Add this to the travel experience: I now personally know a little about Chinese hospitals. After a bit of walking around looking for the place, we came across one of the two hospitals in the city that supposedly had someone who could help us in English.
We walked in and began to communicate with the receptionist. She didn't speak a lick on English, so she brought us over to some line where we found a guy who spoke just a bit of it. Now that James has split, I'm having to supplement my very minimal Chinese with charades. The only thing funnier than trying to act-out pee-ing to this guy may have been in Beijing when I was trying to tell the girl working at the KFC that I wanted a breast and not a thigh. He was of little use--bless his soul--but thankfully, our guardian angel walked through the front door right at that moment, coming in from her lunch break.
A nurse that spoke decent medical English saved us, interpreting everything from the consultation with the doctor, the lab tests, and on to the emergency room. In all, we spent over 4 hours in the place, and more than two of those were with Pachi was sporting an IV drip pumping the bomb dose of antibiotics into her veins. We got her a prescription and were on our way by late in the afternoon only around $30 lighter in the pocketbook. Cool.
We jumped into a taxi and hustled over to the one remaining spot in Xian that we hadn't hit yet (I'll post a blog on them all once I get over this crazy day), a smashing Buddist temple and pagoda. It was serene and nearly surreal, and I was able to take some absolutely great photos, like ones of saffron-robed monks next to Budda statues and the towering pagoda. Over the past week, I have taken some incredible shots in both Shanghai and here in Xian, really some of the best I've ever had the privledge of taking. Thats where the number two punch comes in.
We got out of the taxi, as I always do, I patted my pockets to make sure that my wallet and camera were there, glancing back at the seat in the taxi to make sure nothing had fallen-out of my pockets. Right where we got out, there was this little store selling splendid chocolate ice cream pops, two for 1 yuan (about 15 cents). Yum-yum. Hungry as I was, I wolfed mine down before we even went down the stairs to walk under the street (that's the way it works here) to get to our hostel.
When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I realized that the camera was not in my pocket. I asked Pachi if she had it and she, in fact, did not. At this point, I'm sure all of the blood flushed out of my face as I felt a wave of panic coming over me. I flew back up the stairs, desperately hoping that somehow I had left it at the ice cream stand. No.
Grief, saddness, and a profound anger came over me immediately. Did I get pickpocketed? Could I have somehow left it in the now-long-gone taxi? I suddenly began to accept the terrible truth: our camera--the one my brother and sister-in-law had so generously given us as a wedding present, the one containing hundreds upon hundreds of pictures I'd never be able to take again, the one that I was planning to take once-in-a-lifetime photos with tomorrow while going to see the famous terracotta warriors--was gone.
I'll never know what happened to it. That fact--along with many others--was crushing. Taking pictures for our own memories and sharing them with others has been perhaps one of the greatest joys of this trip. I eventually cried, and that deep sadness was complimented with a feeling of rage that could have enabled me to punch a hole right through a wall, literally. I'm actually amazed that now, only hours after the fact, I can write about it. Call it therapy.
There are a couple of silver linings here. First, I had made a CD of all of the photos I had taken up until right after our first night in Shanghai, a week ago. Yes, almost all of the pictures I took in Shanghai plus those of Xian are gone forever, but those before that time are not. Secondly, we were lucky enough to be able to buy another camera tonight, maybe or maybe not just as good as our old Canon, but at least we'll have something to capture the memories of the terracotta warriors, the Great Wall, and everything else. I immediately gave the new model a test run as I ran around taking as many night shots as possible right after we consoled ourselves with a pizza at our hostel's cafe.
All is not lost, and luckily we are going to bounce-back. I'll still be able to capture images of some spectacular stuff, and I'm so very glad that I made that disk earlier. I'm not sharing any of this to elicit pity, but rather to tell the tale and to share a personal real-life example one of my own mantras about travel: there will be times when things don't do as planned, or as you wish that they would. That's part of the experience, as ugly and painful as it is. You have to keep rolling-on, in spite of the difficulties.
I stand by what I felt and preached before this not-so-fortunate day: we're damn lucky to be able to do what we do, to see what we see, and to experience all of this magic. Bad things will happen, but they are grossly out-numbered by the wonderful experiences and countless blessings that allow us to do this. How many people on this lonely planet would gladly trade places with me, even with the bumps in the road?
I'll leave you with another axiom I live by: a bad day of traveling is better than a good day of the daily grind. I'll take my chances with the road and, for now, pause for a little sleep.
Living the experience, until next time,
Shaun Hopkins
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ryan
non-member comment
camera shamera, no worries man. Keep on plugging away. May you continue to have an enjoyable time. Bless you Pachi, will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Travel sounds great. Sometimes there are hidden costs with ice cream products. Your house is great, will mail out bills this week. Love you dude and dudess.