"On the Trail"

The Journals from the Road

Sunday, July 8, 2001: The Terracotta Warriors of Xi'an - Xi'an, Shaanxi province, China

Monday, July 9 to Thursday, July 12, 2001: Ancient treasures in a construction zone! - Xi'an - Guilin, Guanxi (40-50 kms by bike around the city)

Tad here...

This was my first mega-long train ride. It was over 30 hours and it was not air-conditioned as the others had been. You get to know the other 5 people in your sleeping berth pretty well and you become a disciple of the rotating fan, hoping it will hover a bit longer in your direction and bless you with its holy breeze. It was fun though. I met more good people, wrote up some journals on Zeek, and did a lot of sweating.

In Guilin..

In search of a rabies vaccine...I have spoken before about this rabies pre-exposure vaccine and about getting them all in Beijing. With my time running out in China, I decided to check out options in Guilin and ahead on my route rather than cut my time short here to get all the way back to Beijing. I thought Guilin just might have something, being such a tourist spot. With phrase book in hand I went to the hospital and then to the rabies center but they were using a vaccine made out of hamster liver an not human tissue and, according to my doctor in Beijing and others, non-human vaccines were not what I wanted. I, finally, with the help of IAMAT.org and a call from Mom to Kathmandu, Nepal found two clinics that would administer the third vaccine to me. Yeah!! I was so happy when I heard this. I am simplifying the description of my search a bit on this journal but it was about twenty hours of work and time pinning this down.

A perfect moment for an English test...one of the side benefits to this rabies vaccine hunt was that the rabies clinic was right next to the testing location for a university entrance English exam. I was invited to come visit by two students I was having lunch next to. When I came into the school courtyard there were about 200 high school students milling around, waiting to take the test. Me showing up was a good tension breaker for everyone. Many of the students wanted to practice their English ski ls and I was having a great time sharing with them. This was an elementary school on summer break so there just happened to be a world map on the wall. You probably know where that led...

After a great exchange of email addresses and website info it was time to take the test. One of the English teachers invited me to share a drink of tea and we had a good talk. I then went to the now open rabies clinic and after much sign language and pointing to the wall posters confirmed they did not have the vaccine I was looking for. As I walked back towards town I wondered about journeys and destinations and smiled.

Guilin beautiful and under construction... this city really has some neat sites to see such as Seven Stars Park, especially at night with all the Disneyland-like lighting. There are night markets for tourists and a nice riverfront area. From what I hear from locals much of Guilin has been rebuilt in the last few years and this process is certainly still underway, near the railway station in particular. To get to my hotel one had to hop over puddles, dodge dirt piles, and inhale a few pounds of const uction dust. But then this is the process that culminates in those nice, wide streets with separate bike lanes...so on goes progress and don't mind the dust in the meantime.

While spending some time here finalizing travel plans, I also met some university students who showed me around town. Thanks to Daved and Jongfor the instant welcome and for the tours of the city. Another big thanks to the group that helped me get a bus to Yangshoa!

Watched a bit of TV before bed each night, a behind the scenes in movie making and this guy who catches snakes for the camera, both overdubbed in Chinese.

TV Couch Potato- a rare experience for me,

TAD

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