Constanze left to work at the choir center in the morning and I worked at home on my PC. For me, keeping my diary updated and trying to catch up with cutting the videos, is kind of work. I can easily see that by the way FB can distract me (reading the disgusting news about Austrian politicians who forgot or never knew what democracy, law, constitution and politics are) and by the way I prefer to do the less “important” things first, like “cleaning” my traveling data on excel.
But here I am ?
For my cargo ship trips, I always need a certificate from a doctor that I can stay on a ship without need of treatment, because I am in a healthy condition. This paper must be issued 15-45 days before departure and regarding the trip from Kaohsiung to Melbourne, this starts now. Only after that I get the ticket from the company and with this ticket I can show that I will leave Taiwan and only then I get the ticket for the ferry to Taiwan, so I want to get the certificate soon.
Constanze had given me the address of a hospital treating foreigners and on a website I had seen this department should be on level 5. When I went there, on level 5 there was a “VIP”-department and they sent me back to level 1, to the information. The lady there pointed on a sign with Chinese writing and with a gesture to 2nd floor. There, a nurse took me by the hand and brought me to a doctor. This doctor sent her with me to another doctor, who looked on my papers and sent her to the information at level 1, always holding me at my arm and pulling me so that I looked like an emergency case.
From there, she went outside the building, showed me the direction (“go straight”) to another building and left me. I went there but there was no clue for me where to enter, so I asked a doctor. He went to me to a department with the promising -English!- name general health care department (or similar to that, I forgot) and finally translated the information he got:
In this hospital, I will not get that paper, but at least they gave me a card with another address. But it was afternoon and in 2 hours Constanze and I would meet at the choir center. And then, there is weekend and on Monday, she goes home to her parents and I leave to Shenzhen. Maybe I can do it on my way to the ferry, but I will have my fully packed bike then.
I went to the centre and luckily, Constanze had showed me a photo of the entrance, because it was above all a center for business and I would have thought I am wrong.
I was early, so I went in to try by chance to find the right door. At the end of the corridor, I heard piano music and through the glass door could see Andrew, the conductor of the Zhuhai Classical Children’s Choir playing, so I had found the right place by just walking straight. Andrew, Constanze and I talked for a while and then, he had to leave, because he was going home to another city, where his family lives. Constanze took a city bike and we went to a restaurant and had a big dinner, hot pot, but not the spicy one ?
Later, we went to a supermarket, because I wanted to get unsweetened Soymilk, but you cannot get it and also no chocolate made in China. We saw normal milk coming from Poland, Germany and Ireland but no Chinese milk. Instead, we saw fancy apples with writing on the skin.
Finally, I found organic milk made in China and took it. The 1,5l-carton-package contained 12 small Tetra packs, for me symbolizing the mad love for useless multilayer packaging covering South-East-Asia maybe even more than the rest of the world. At least, some articles like dried beans or nuts are offered openly in many supermarkets, but when you want to buy them, the immediately also land in a plastic bag.
Some things must get worse before they become better, it seems. And as to prove me right, we came to a fruit shop where every fruit, except a few bananas, was packed in foil. And if someone buys those fruits, they of course land in plastic bags.