A change of plans

If you have been reading closely, you will notice that I have strayed slightly from the schedule to the right of this post. At the moment it does not appear as if I will be getting back to it until early December when I catch a flight out of Vietnam for India. However, I will not be staying in China either. In fact, in the interest of getting out of China prior to the expiration of my visa (which happens to be tomorrow, by the way) I will be catching a flight tomorrow to Khon Kaen, Thailand. I think this is really for the best. I will be meeting up with the CIEE program situated there, which is focused on enviromental activisim and working to further human rights programs. It is headed by Dr. Streckfuss, who happened to be the visiting history professor last spring at Wofford, so I will be meeting up with someone I know on the morning of the third of November. That seems preferable to me having to shank someone in a Chinese prison to secure my dominance, right? (I am not sure if the punishment for overstaying a visa in China is actually imprisonment - it is doubtful, in fact - but just roll with me here.)

After that? I don't really know; it is somewhat of a travel grab-bag. I plan on heading south and approximating my earlier itinerary, trying to make it to Siem Reap again and then continuing to Ho Chi Minh City to catch the flight.  But we'll see how that goes when it is time to make those choices. At the moment all I am looking forward to is the layover in Bangkok. I plan on taking a ludicrously long and hot shower and then perhaps reassesing the beard situation in which I find myself.

Will I be sad to see the end of China? Yes. But I am also ready to move on. I think I have been for the last few days. It is time.

Also, for the sake of accuracy, in the previous post I spoke about patients turning down modern AIDS cocktails in favor of herbal remedies. I did not mean to imply that I look down on this psychosocial choice. I do not understand it, but it is their decision and if it gives them peace, then that is the best decision for them. It is a prime example of the difference between this culture and the one in which I was raised. It is also an example of how stimgatized HIV and AIDS is in China, though most cases arose from an incident involving contaminated blood banks... Also, for those interested, if you look into the scientific literature there are some natural products which are proving naturally anti-retroviral (with the most researched coming from a plant found in Samoa as documented by Cox et al.), but the herbal remedies used in this particular situation are simply palliative.

I believe that is it for the moment. Until Thailand!

Comments

[kathy]

Jon, I am so glad hear that you're leaving China! Maybe there will be smooth sailing for here on out.

[Chuck]

For more layperson information about Paul Cox's Samoan discovery, check out:

http://archives.pireport.org/archive/2005/january/01-25-08.htm

And to see what's being done with it today:

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2008/may7/samoahiv-050708.html