17 November 1997 Ron and I have exchanged multiple email messages between Nanning and Virginia. The interesting thing about these email messages is that none of them showed any return address or path in the header when I read them from home (where I was reading them) or at work today when I looked at them in my mail handler; however, when I brought them into the editor to prepare this distribution message, a much longer header showed up that tracked the full path the message took. Perhaps some of the computer whizs on this distribution can explain this to me! Luckily, Ron gave me the return address in the body of the second message from Nanning, so I was able to send him messages from home. Without that, I would have just tried 'reply' and hoped for the best! We agreed that rapid exchange of email wasn't as good as talking in person, but it was certainly exciting, especially after the couple of weeks without any communication when he was in Vietnam.
Ellen
Message 1, sent Sunday night 16 Nov 97 Hi Ellen, and by cc to Ned.
Arrived in Nanning from Vietnam this evening. After finally finding something to eat, I tried following Richard's map to China on-line. Either the map was wrong or no one could help me figure it out. Anyway, a man at the Kodax [Kodak?] Store helped me, and located the telephone company which he says has e-mail when they are open, which will be tomorrow morning.
Then through his mobile phone he got in touch with an English teacher, and then brought me to his neighbors house. His friend has a computer and a connection to the internet for email. So here I am at 11:31 Sunday night in an apartment on the 7th floor somewhere in Nanning with several people watching as I send some email.
They have my hotel name and room number, and say they will call me with messages I get back. But let me try another option first.
Tonight or early tomorrow morning I will find out what time the sleeper bus goes to Kumming. It there is a late afternoon or evening bus, I will plan on taking it. In this case I will go to the phone company in the morning to try to use their email services. If I get there by 10 am, it should be either 9 or 11 Sunday night your time. When I crossed the border back into China, I had to move my watch forward one hour. I think in Vietnam we were 12 hours apart. Now my mind is not functioning to figure out how to adjust your time.
If I can send you a message tomorrow morning, it should provide you with an address to reply back. However, if we miss, you might be in bed or I may take the bus before your reply comes. If you have anything important, than you should send it to the address provided in this message and hope it gets to me.
I got your letter of Oct 13-16 in Hanoi, but I haven't checked the post office here in Nanning yet. (will tomorrow morning, after I try the email).
Miss you and look forward to being with you before very long. Tomorrow would be fine, but I guess it will take me a little longer than that to find my way back. So until tomorrow...Love you.
and a message to Ned
Hi Ned...I miss our being in touch. Just wanted you to know.
Ron
[I didn't send any reply to that address, thinking I would wait for another message that might have an address in the header.]
Message 2, sent Monday morning 17 Nov 97 (Sunday evening Eastern Standard time in US) Hi Ellen,
Nothing looks like it did at night in the morning, so finding the same places is most difficult and confusing. And before leaving the hotel, of course everyone wanted to talk, and it is difficult to explain that I am in a hurry without being rude.
An then getting help at the busy telephone company is really a challenge.
But, here I am on the second floor in this hugh room with several computers, all alone. Such private space is difficult to find in China.
My return address I am told is nntserv@public.nn.gx.cn
Put message for Ron in subject.
You must be about ready to get into the bathtub, but I will try.
The bus leaves tonight at 6:30, so the latest I will try checking for your messages is 4:00. And of course I will check in about an hour. It is now 10:32.
Ron
Message 3, sent Sun 16 Nov 97 Hi Ellen,
How was that hot bath? [He was absolutely right -- I was in the bath!]
Yesterday morning biking from Lang Son to the Chinese Border, and then from the border to the next little town in China, I felt like I was in an oven. I was totally wet from sweating. Perhaps the pepper in the pho also contributed to the internal heat.
This morning in Nanning it is cold, and I put on my long sleeve heavy silk t-shirt under the green shirt I gave you (and you loaned me) from Vietnam in 95. And I was still cold on the bike getting to the telephone office. Once here however, I was sweating fairly heavily, as a result of the energy biking (I was passing a lot of the motorscooters in the motorscooter lane, avoiding the bike lane because it was too dangereous. Last night the police pulled me out of the motorscooter lane and directed me into the bike lane (separated by a barrier). If they were concerned for my safety, they made a mistake.
Now my thermostat seems to have readjusted to the office environment, and I feel comfortable.
The trip yesterday and the day before was a combination of biking and busing. It is a toss-up on which is safer. It is more enjoyable and pleasant on the bike, but pulling the suitcase up mountain roads in the heat makes the bus seem inviting.
Once I reached the small town in China (which I think was Pingxiang), I came upon the bus station on the north side of town. First I tried the little buses, since my experience in Vietnam indicated they were faster and more comfortable, and often had small compartments behind the rear seat with access from the back door, which would hold the bike. However, none of the small or mid-size buses were going to Nanning. A large sleeper bus was leaving but it wouldn't take me. The driver of the next sleeper said he wouldn't be leaving for a couple of hours, so I kept checking for a small bus leaving sooner. Finally this guy just sort of adopted me, and took me to the huge sleeper bus. He pointed out the concrete steps that lead up to a platform level with the top of the bus, and indicated my bike and suitcase should go up there. Great. This meant I could load them and tie them down myself with my bungee cords. So up I went. But then there was someone to help me, and I had to be insistent to get the bike safely fastened to the top rack of the bus, and get the suitcase turned on its back to protect the tires and axle. But this beat any of the conditions using buses so far!
While not actually like returning home, arriving at the bus station in Nanning was easy since I knew the place, and the people at the hotel remembered me.
I will send this and check to see if there is an answer from the first.
Love you, Ron
[I sent Ron a long message/letter I had written and had all ready to send off, since I knew he was going to try and send email from Nanning and that there might be a small window of opportunity for a reply. The next message came in while I was in the process of sending him my long message.]
Message 4, sent Monday 17 Nov 97 Hi Ellen,
Just checked, and found no response. But will keep checking for a while.
Last night after sending you the message from Mr. Lin's apartment, they were interested in my trip, so I gave them the URL of Where's Ron. Well, unlike the connection in Hanoi, he could also surf the internet, so I got my first look at your creation. While I got to see only a little, it looked great. The man that helped me at the Kodak Photo Store was Mr Huang who is a professor of business. He and the owner of the store are coming to the US next Feb to attend an internation fair in (I think) San Franciso, and then will be touring the US by train. So I showed them the pictures of where we live and invited them to visit. I also told them it would be cold in Feb, and showed them pictures of our house covered in snow. Mr Huang said it was always hot in Nanning, and seemed to look forward to it being cold.
They also got around to reading the message I sent you, and pointed up that I made a mistake in spelling Nanning. I had added an "s" at the end. They were concerned that it may be mispelled on your "Where is Ron" page. So...please correct. You may also find a few other mistakes to correct.
Well, I will send this and check again for a response.
Love, Ron
PS Mr Lin had a neat little program, which I was told came from Singapore. He would place the cursor on a word and in a small window a definition in Chinese would appear. At the same time a voice would pronounce the word in English. I think he could also get the definition spoken in Chinese. So he could read the English and get help as he read. Really beats looking up words in a dictionary off line. I think I will look for such a program to read Chinese when I get back to HongKong. I already picked up a good stack of programs that I left with Jeff.
[I quickly sent Ron a message saying that he should tell Mr. lin and Mr. Huang that Nanning would be spelled correctly on the Web page and in this distribution, and that I corrected _all_ of his many spelling errors before sending messages out!]
Message 5, sent Mon 17 Nov 97 Hi Ellen,
I just got two of your messages. Great to talk to you by email.
I read some of the first and then checked the second, and wanted to send you this before reading more of the first. Just in case you are still up.
It is now 11:55 am here on Monday morning.
Not actually like talking to you live, but it feels great.
Love, Ron
[This morning, Mon 17 Nov, when I got to work, the following message was waiting for me. This means Ron will be in Nanning until 2:30 pm Tuesday 18 Nov his time, which is 1:30 am Eastern time in the US, before setting off on the 26 hour bus ride.]
Message 6, sent Monday 17 Nov 97 Hi Ellen,
Back at China Tel-com and finally after waiting a bit, a new person logged me on to their computer. It seems they have these computers to demonstrate e-mail to potential customers, then if they sign up the telephone company charges them so much a month for the service.
So I am the beneficiary of their demonstration set-up.
After our communications I went to get a ticket for the bus to Kunming. There was a long discussion, most of which was not understood by me, about why I had to take the 2:30 bus instead of the 6:30 bus. Best I could understand was the early bus originates in Nanning, while the later one comes through. Finally, they agreed to something, and sold me a ticket for the 6:30 one. There would probably be some problem getting a seat, is my guess, and for a 26 hour ride, this could be important.
After getting the ticket, I was leaving the counter, but who should walk by: Chong Chen Cha, the interpreter and Lao Shal Ping, the manager of the bus station - hotel complex. They invited me into Chen Cha's office, and discussed various things including where is the main post office, the market for their round hats that fold up into a neat little ring, the trip to Viet Nam, the fact that Shal Ping had also gone to Vietnam, the same border town I had gone to along the coast, but a few days after me, my experiences with sending e-mail earlier in the day, and why I was in such a hurry to leave Nanning. After several requests that I should stay longer, I finally agreed to stay and take the 2:30 bus tomorrow. I have no idea what will happen tonight, but the nagging thought of having a bad seat on a 26 hour bus ride finally did the trick.
Today between 12:30 and 13:00 I was to call Mr Lin at 5860049-3368 to see if I had any messages, but I could not find a phone. Could you please try sending them a reply and explain I could not find a phone. And ask Mr. Lin to please send you his email address since it didn't appear in your headers. I don't understand how you get a message without a return address?
When I come home I must update the pictures of our pets. Everytime I show the snow scenes with Rags and Supervisor, and Molly, I get memory pains. Even the one of you, Sharon, Derrick, Steven and I has Saki in the picture.
Since I will be here tomorrow morning, if you would like to respond, I will come and check for messages...probably late morning, say 11:00 am here [10 pm Monday 17 Nov US Eastern time]. If there are any interesting e-mail messages you want to forward from my cfw account, please do so.
I checked at the Post Office for your letters, but there were none there. [I mailed a letter to Nanning on 13 November, so it would be very surprising if it had reached there already -- my aim was that it be there when he comes through Nanning on his way back from Kunming.] It was a disappointment, but then getting your email made it ok.
I love and miss you,
Love, Ron
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Last updated: 22 May 2002