Food poisoning in Shanghai

For my first full day out of quarantine, I get food poisoning. I’m not even out on my own for 24 hours and I’m sick. Alone. And in a strange city where I don’t speak the language.

This is going to be a fun day.

Originally, I had planned on exploring around the hotel, but, as there is very little nearby, I decided to go see something more interesting – The Bund.

I had already been to the Bund a decade ago when I came to China for a vacation. We spent very little time there as we had somewhere else to be and something else to see.

This time, I would get to explore at my own pace and see some more of the famous Western-style buildings. This time I’d get a chance to walk around and see if there was anything I’d missed the first time.

After checking the metro map, I had a plan for my trip. I would have to change lines but it shouldn’t be too challenging. I’ve already taken the Shanghai Metro once and this time I wouldn’t be dragging around my luggage.

Little did I know, the station I picked to transfer at would require going out of the ticket gates to change lines. With the ticket I got (a single journey ticket), it was impossible to go back in without purchasing a new ticket. The machine eats the ticket when exiting the gates.

Now, I’m out on the street a couple miles from my destination. I’ll just walk. It was a nice day and I enjoy walking. No big deal.

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Unfortunately, about half way there my intestines decided that there was something wrong. Very wrong. I needed a bathroom and quick.

Luckily, there was one right around the corner. I just had to make it there without something bad happening.

After spending some time hanging out in a bathroom (I’m not going to go into any of the gross details.) and sweating a bunch. My insides had calmed down enough that I felt safe going back outside.

I had to decide if I going to continue my sight seeing attempt or if I was going to give it up and go back to my hotel room. I decided that I was not going to continue. I was not in a hurry to get to the Bund and it would be possible for me to go another day. If I had a limited time to see the sights, was going somewhere I really wanted to see, or knew if there were plenty of bathrooms along the way, I might have continued the excursion, but, I wasn’t. And I was still very uncomfortable and didn’t trust that my insides wouldn’t start misbehaving again soon.

Back to the hotel I went. I was going to try the subway, but as I approached the station, my insides decided that they wanted another trip to a bathroom.

Once I was free, I decided against taking the subway back to the hotel. It wasn’t a quick trip. If I could barely get to the station, how would I make the trip? I really did not want to have an incident on the subway. With covid-19, they’d probably want to take me to the hospital or put me back in quarantine.

I quickly hailed a cab and away we went. For the roughly 10 mile journey, I was only charged 50 yuan. And, I successfully made it to the hotel without incident.

Barely.

The next day, I still felt a little delicate (and for a couple more days after) so I stayed around the hotel, like I had originally planned for the day before. I found a little park with a river not too far away. There really wasn’t much else around – just apartments, offices, and small shops.

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And I got a Subway sandwich for lunch. My stomach greatly appreciated the nice, normal sandwich, and not more mystery Chinese food.