Leaving on a jet plane
What a long strange trip this has been! Okay, there have been longer and stranger journeys, but this was certainly an unusual one for us. We're back from a trip to Kunming--a totally unplanned and unwanted vacation. It wasn't horrible, it wasn't great, it was just...well, a journey is the best way to describe it. The best way I can think of, anyway. I'm still trying to process it all.Flashback: Thursday, September 28th, 2006
The "holiday" started on Thursday morning, about 10:30. The kids were up and doing their morning things. I was on the computer, reading my news or some trivial thing. The phone rang and I answered it. It was our "boss" in Kunming. They had got word that there was an outbreak of bird flu in our prefecture, and that they had even closed the local airport in response. He had consulted with folks in Hong Kong and the States and they were of the opinion that we should head out to Kunming "as soon as possible." Heavy. I told him that I would get right on it and get us sleeper bus tickets and all that. I hung up and told the girls. Typically, Siu Wan was quiet and Ga Dai was not. They didn't want to leave for some indefinite time. Plus they were frightened. That makes sense, since we've never experienced such a thing before. Besides, Ga Dai is in the middle of a book that's set in London right after the plague. It's no wonder that talk of quarantine and evacuation should trouble her.
As for me, I didn't want to go to Kunming, either. I wasn't all that frightened--just annoyed. We had just decided not to try to travel over the October break since our finances are a bit tight this year. Now we had to head to Kunming and I was just sure that the expenses would come out of our funding somehow. (An illogical thought, once you think about it, but I didn't have time for contemplation.) Anyway, in a somewhat negative mood, I decided to head over to Yau Neih's classroom and try to catch her over the break. I started planning who to inform and what tasks we'd need to accomplish. Ga Dai came with me and we got to the classroom about five minutes before the break. (Siu Wan was finishing breakfast.) Either Ga Dai looked especially forlorn or Yau Neih was curious, since she excused herself and came out into the hallway. I broke the news and we discussed what needed to be doing while mother comforted daughter. (There's a big scientific explanation about how women have two lobes in the brain so they can multitask like that. I won't go into it now since I only have one lobe and want to talk about last Thursday.) We were pretty much in agreement on everything except that Yau Neih wanted me to at least look into flying instead of taking the bus. Usually my wife is pretty frugal, but she's quite willing to go the extra kwai when it comes to avoiding the sleeper bus. She also pointed out that, since we were trying to avoid an infectious disease, a half hour plane ride made a lot more sense than being cooped up in a bus for 12 hours. Common sense trumped stinginess.
I went back to the apartment, telling our neighbors that we wouldn't be available for English corner that evening. (grumble, grumble) They showed concern and understanding, though they didn't seem to be rushing for the airport themselves. I think that's when my irritation over being inconvenienced started sharing room with feelings of guilt. Why should I leave while other folks are staying? Anyway, I didn't have time for those contemplations, either. I went back to the flat and did some quick web searches on airfares. I had to go fetch some money first, after all. I also did a bit of poking to see if there was any news about airport closures. There wasn't, but then again, in this part of China, one would not expect to get any sort of real time information about local conditions. I trudged over to the bank and withdrew some money without much hassle. When I got to the airline ticket office, I sat down and tried to use my phrase book to put together a query about whether the airport was open or not. In the time that it took me to do that, a number of people came in and everything seemed to be business as usual. So I changed my tactics and filled out a ticket form for an afternoon flight. I figured that if no flights were leaving, they'd let me know soon enough. As I waited for my turn at the counter, I tried to peek at what the other folks were purchasing. I saw at least one other person had purchased a ticket for that afternoon. When my turn came, sure enough, they sold me the tickets with nary a problem.
I returned home and grabbed a quick bite. Yau Neih had contacted the dean and a couple of other ex-pats around town. Nobody had head anything, but they started asking around. After a couple of hours, word started filtering back. Various folks had been told that there were a few chickens found to have the disease, but they had been "killed, incinerated and buried deep underground". Nobody had heard about possible human infections or about airport closings. And even our group had called back saying that the airport thing couldn't be confirmed. Even so, they wanted us to head out to Kunming as a precaution. (They have to pay the insurance premiums, after all.) We agreed, though I was starting to feel a bit like Chicken Little. So we finished packing up our school books and headed out to the airport.
The trip was uneventful, hardly what you'd expect in an evacuation. Of course, we were the only ones being evacuated. For everyone else, it was business as usual. Our boss picked us up at the airport, took us to dinner at Salvador's and then dropped us off at the hotel. We dropped off wondering what the heck was going on and if there was any purpose to our long weekend.
posted by John @ 4:24 PM
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