"I've spoke with a friend of mine in Mudanjiang. We can get you train tickets to there and you can meet him there and he will try to go with you to the station to get you on a train to Yanji".
His English was perfect and charming with the typical Chinese accent where they can't really pronounce the R's.
During the night my ear had kept me awake some time and I had time to give the whole situation a thought, and I knew I needed to see a doctor.
"Thank you for your efforts Mr. Ding Yu, we really appreciate it, ,but I think we will go to a Travel agency to see if they can get us all the way to Yanji and book a Hotel as well".
"That is a very good idea." He looked very relieved as I suggested this way to handle our further adventures.
"But I need to see a Doctor because of pain in my ear."
"There is a very famous Hospital here and I'm sure you can find someone who speaks English there."
He wrote a note in Chinese saying the Name and address of the Hospital, and that I wanted to see a doctor because of pain in the ear.
"Show this to a taxi driver."
The first driver we met outside the Hotel, looked at the note and shook his head. He didn't want to take us there, why; I don't know and didn't have the energy to figure out why. Instead we headed out on the streets and lured a Taxi from there.
The building was huge and inside it was busy and looked quite like a Hospital. The signs was in Chinese and English so we tried to figure out where to go.
"Wauw, what a huge place, I'll just go to the information stand and ask the nurse sitting there."Nihao". Was the only Chinese word I could think of, but it didn't help a lot when you want to explain that you've got an ear filled with runny smelly stuff and that it hurt, so I just gave her the note from Mr. Ding Yu.
She looked at it and replied a whole lot of words, but when she realized that she as well could have been talking to one of the rare Manchurian tigers -which in fact lives there around- she just stopped, turned around and continued the word flow, but now to one of the Hospital guards. I guess she asked her to take this foreigner to the ear doctors, to stay with me and to get me through all the paper work, and - of course- pay what it must cost for an out patient.
The young woman took the note and let me understand that I just had to follow her.
We came to the 4th floor to a registration desk for patients who want to see the doctor. There was quite a line waiting, but she just pushed herself through to the nurse explaining the whole thing.
After about 3 minutes I was equipped with a Chinese medical health smart card, a medical journal and a receipt for the 45 Yuan I'd paid. The guard then dragged me along again and we came to a hall with about 30 people waiting. She just knocked on a door and entered. The two doctors in there and her had a short dialog and then I got dragged in and found my self in a dentist like chair with a big lamp shining into my left ear. The doctor -a young woman- sat down next to me and looked into my ear.
"There is something in there!" She communicated shortly with my private guard woman and soon a found my self again at her tail rushing through the halls again. This time to another desk and another nurse and yet another amount of Yuan and a receipt, and then she took me to another chair in yet another room and soon after another doctor -with face mask and safety glasses, sat next to me with kind of a pipe stock into my ear, soaking out all the nasty stuff from inside.
Minutes later nothing more came out and it went back to the doctor in the first room. Again straight in the chair- means jumping the line of the many people waiting outside, by whom the curiosity seemed bigger than the frustration to see this "foreigner" get treatment immediately-
and this time she put a cotton bud into my ear to try to get some samples of the stuff.
She put it in a plastic bag, handed it to the guard and then we were again on our way somewhere in that huge building.
Another desk, another receipt and then waiting. This was a lab, and they took a test to figure out what it was in my ear that caused the pain and the infection.
Soon the guard came out again and then back to the chair by the doctor. The people outside was looking very curious at me, and I felt bad and ashamed to jump the line like that.
Sitting in the chair waiting for the doctor to figure out my disease and the treatment, I could see all the different faces looking through the window, to see this "white guy" getting treatment.
"This is your disease." The doctor showed me the Latin name on the computer screen. I have absolutely no idea what that was, but I got some creme to put into my ear once a day, and I had to come back the next day, so they could soak out the discharge that would develop overnight.
So now we knew what to do part of the next day in Harbin; visit the Hospital, again. To cope with that and to prepare the next task -the visit to a travel agency to organize the next step- we went to the beer garden, to sit down, relax and charge up the batteries again.
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