… Or should I say succeeded in poisoning me! Nanjing was the trip that wasn’t. Here’s why:

Disclaimer: this blog post is not for the squeamish Stop reading if you don’t think you have the stomach for it.

As in life, all foreign adventures have their ups and their downs. This one was an unforgettable down for me.

A trip to the southern capital of Nanjing had long been on my wish list. Capital to the first Ming Emperor in 1366 and again in the 1920s and 30s this small city (currently 10 million) has a rich history culminating in the 1937 Rape of Nanjing when the population were brutally massacred and abused by the Japanese, a fact which many Japanese today refuse to acknowledge or apologize for and this causes tensions in the region.

We decided that as I had visited several places during the year that we would leave Nanjing until Kevin was back so that he could have the experience too.

Only 4 hours drive away or 2 hours on the bullet train, it is easily accessible from Shanghai and we planned that we would have a trip after the Taiji Summer camp. Unfortunately our plans changed several times as Kevin’s passport hadn’t been returned from having his visa renewed. Our original plan was to go on the Monday via Suzhou which was half way to Nanjing. We had friends from Spain starting at a school there and they needed assistance with a visa health check. In the end we just made that a day trip.

Back in Shanghai on the Tuesday I secured a receipt from the visa office which would allow Kevin to check into a hotel and Leping rebooked everything. That day we ate very little as we were still full from the huge banquet the night before in Suzhou

So packed and ready for departure early the next morning we had a light evening meal. Our Ayi had made a small dish of the traditional Shanghai speciality egg and tomato but I also found a bowl with 4 dumplings and soy dip. We split them 2 each. What Kevin neglected to tell me is that they were leftovers from a meal that he had had about a week ago. He just hadn’t thrown them out.

Now his 2 dumplings were fine. One or both of mine were not. I had an early night but was awoken at 11pm with massive gut pains. I spent most of the night until 6am in agony getting well acquainted with the bathroom! By the morning I felt exhausted but hoped that as often happens in these cases that once the ‘problem’ has been expunged that you just rest up and rebuild your strength. How wrong I was.

I told my friends what had happened and they said they would make as many pit stops as I needed. Looking back, it was fairly rash of me to even consider a 4 hour road trip in that state but I knew that Leping had worked so hard to arrange and rearrange everything and if I didn’t go then Kevin probably wouldn’t.

We hadn’t gone 15 minutes down the road when the most awful cramps attacked and I broke out on a sweat. They were so sweet and pulled off the overpass to find a public toilet. Fortunately there was one down an alley and I stumbled down to it.

I will be forever thankful that the facility was a) clean and b) had a western style sit down toilet in one of the cubicles. What a mercy that was! What ensued was explosive, violent and extremely nasty. I came out trembling and told Leping that I didn’t think that I could make the drive. She had a rush of brilliant inspiration and suggested that she and I take the train. As it happened we were very close to Shanghai Railway station and the thought of being within striking distance of a WC was a god-send.

It was busy but Leping managed to get some returned tickets on the same train although not together. Mine was in 1st class which I appreciated because it was quieter. Although it was 36.5 degrees outside I was shivery in the AC so Leping bought me a scarf and a supply of ‘salty’ carbonated water which is supposed to contain electrolytes and help with dehydration.

We arrived at the hotel first, checked in and I crashed out in a little more comfort. When the car of men arrived I was feeling a little better so we all set off the the Presidential Palace.

Built in the 1900s it was the home of Sun Yat-sen the leader the the Nationalist Party which overthrew the last of the dynasties, the Qing Dynasty. Here it reestablished Nanjing as the southern capital.

It was very hot, humid and thronging with hordes of people but you got a flavor of the era. Sun Yat-sen is regarded as the founder of modern China.

It was all a bit too much for me though and after a couple of rooms I had to sit outside on a bench (near a WC) and wait for everyone to complete the tour and come back to me. I was going downhill rapidly.

I wisely decided against going out for dinner that evening and indeed stayed in bed for the whole of the next day. They very kindly sent me photos of where they were and what they were doing. So here are some of the bits of Nanjing that they saw but I didn’t:

For more information on any of those things you will need to ask Kevin!

We all assumed that after a day of rest and only a banana to eat that I would be fine for the evening meal. Leping had booked a very special restaurant called 1912 which is set in a 30s style decor and had local specialty food. I too was hoping that I would be fine for at least something that evening but as we sat there my stomach remained hubbly bubbly and the cooking smalls started to make me feel nauseous.

Nanjing is famous for 3 knives. The blades that cooks use in the kitchen enable them to cut extremely finely and produce effects like the flower above. The scissors used by barbers and the nail clippers used by podiatrists are all of high quality and Nanjing has a repo for producing skilled and talented professionals in these three areas.

As for me, I was once again sinking rapidly and couldn’t face going to the sound and light show on the city walls. So I gratefully went to lie down in the back of the car while they all saw this:

Next morning I rallied again which was good because we were due to check out. I managed a bowl of rice congee and a croissant for breakfast and we all went to the Temple of Confucius.

Built in 1168, thisis the site where the top performing intellectuals from each province would gather each year to sit an exam which would later inspire civil service entrance examinations through the world.

The most successful of these students would be offered government positions and the position of their family would rise in society. We have been to small towns where the people put up a gate in honor of a local boy who made it to one of these exams.

Conditions weren’t easy. The students would sit in cubicles for 3 days and they all had to bring their own food!

The highest scoring students would then be invited to attend a further examination in the Forbidden City in front of the Emperor himself

The museum was very well done and mercifully cool inside. I loved the decorative wall made of old Chinese bamboo books

And another full of raised chinese characters

I was delighted to have made it to one attraction but I was glad to leave as I was not functioning on full energy after not being able to eat properly for 3 days. I am so grateful to the Zhang family for all their care for me. I don’t know what I would have done without them.

The drive home was long but largely uneventful. We arrived in Shanghai and had a meal where again I could only stomach Congee but I went to the toilet and to my relief, started to see an improvement.

Any improvement was extremely short lived and I spend all of Saturday with severe cramps and multiple episodes of diarrhea. By Sunday morning I decided that I needed to see someone. After all, online the advice is if your diarrhea continues for more than 2 days and I was now on day #5, you should see a doctor.

School did not want us to use the clinic that we had been going to after the whole thyroid biopsy incident (see earlier blog) so we had to find a new one. Incredibly, even on a Sunday, I got an appointment within an hour! That would be unheard of the the UK even for private.

As most of the expats have left or were on holiday this clinic was quiet. I had blood taken and then was given what felt like the world’s longest abdominal ultrasound. When your stomach is uber delicate having an ultrasound is quite uncomfortable. Anyway they ruled out any problems with my gallbladder, pancreas or appendix (phew)

The blood test results came back in half an hour (!!!) and the marker for infection which is under 10 in a healthy person was registering 142 for me. So I had a VERY wicked bug in there.

It was decided that I needed antibiotics immediately and was put on an IV. The clinic has one nurse and one doctor on duty and I was aware of only 3 patients including myself. The nurse told me that they very rarely do IV so they only have one pole but one of the other patients also needed IV so they had it! WHAT ARE THE CHANCES!

So I was out in a consulting room, near the door so that my bag could hang on a hook! It was another one of those situations where someone had to accompany me to the toilet and carry the bag. Now when you have a bug as nasty as mine you also get very painful gas and with each bout of cramping pains and dash to the toilet you never know what is going to happen.

One of the things that the doctor wanted was a stool sample! But even with rampant diarrhea you cannot alway produce on demand. It took several hours before I was ‘ready’ and would you believe it, the doctor was in the only toilet. I ended up dancing around my pole (I had it by then) and the nurse eventually had to knock on the door to hurry the doctor up, she took so long. Not what you need when you are desperate. I can confirm that providing a stool sample when you have raging diarrhea AND are tethered to a drip is quite a challenge. Anyway, the net results proved that the infection is bacterial and not viral. So Kevin definitely did poison me.

As a result my Ayi and I have decided that Kevin is no long to be given any responsibility for food management in the fridge!

As I write I am on day #7 and only just starting to keep food in. I have never had food poisoning quite like this before. The whole experience has bookended my summer vacation with trips to various Shanghai medical facilities. Let’s hope that I have now done my quota for the year.