In motherland
This theme could have gotten out much faster, it had errors and I had to rewrite the stylesheet (twice!) and everything else. But yes here it is. Please don’t tell me it look the same as the previous one because that’s what my sister said. Ok at least it is completely different to me. And after the theme was done, I realised I wanted a photoblog-styled blog but that’s ok, I will save it for another day before I decided to rip myself into pieces.
My mother called just now and said (in cantonese and her broken english):
“Take the chicken out of the visa and put it in the sink.”
And it took me a while to realised what she meant was:
“Take the chicken out of the freezer and put it in the sink.”
I came back on Friday and spent the next two days packing the huge amount of items I bought into my little storage area room. And then father, after much persuasion and 4 years, installed the spotlights into my display cupboard. Since I bought new toys and items for the cupboard, it’s about time it make it pretty.
And I have been staying at home ever since except Monday I met Audrey the Great and went to Ikea to pick up some new stuff for my room. It’s always like that, whenever i come back from a trip, I tend to stay away from any human contacts, maybe to not allow any distraction to affect my “still on holiday” mood. I thought I could still stay home till the weekends but I think it’s about time I head out, I am getting emo at home.
And Audrey, Death Cab is coming to Singapore in August!! :( Why aren’t you here with me to watch them?! I need a new concert buddy now, anyone? And I still own you 80 bucks for the Switchfoot concert.
That aside, I want to write about my trip back to motherland. As mentioned, it was a great trip. There were times I was tired, sick (I mean like flu kind of sick), grumpy and stoning majority of the time but it was still a good 3 weeks of away from boring Singapore. I learnt a lot about myself, God and my parents especially.
The little plane flew to Guangzhou, China where my 6th uncle and 5th aunt pick me and my mother up (father joined us later). Guangzhou is my father’s motherland. Yes my father is from China. We went back to my grandfather’s place which I love for some reason although you need to be best friends with cockroaches before you decide to live there.
The first storey is empty now that my 6th uncle and his family moved out. 
The room wasn’t very pleasant looking because……there’s mould one the wall! This is because the area we stay in is over a century old (my great-grandfather built it), and the area is in lowlands and it’s been rainy everyday and the climate is extremely humid. It did took me a while to get used to staying in the room. You see, my sheets and everything you placed in there is moist. So basically everyday when I sleep, I feel like I am still sleeping with a blanket and sheets that I forgotten to dry them completely. And every night I make sure I tug myself in tight so I won’t be touching the walls. I wrap myself like a chicken wrap.
So everyday was the normal shopping for my mother with my mother. And then one day it was a road trip to Pun Yu. It around an hour’s drive from Guangzhou, my dad used to work there. We drove to the near the end of Pun Yu, to the where you can rent a fishing boat to sea.
And on the second week we (me, mother, 6th aunt, 5th and their two friends) went with a tour to Shaoguan. Ok I don’t really know where is that in China cos it’s so big but I know it is (quoted from the resort pamplet) in Guangdong Province in the Qujiang District. The only district I know in Singapore is the Central Business District…ok that wasn’t funny. Anyway the tour is damn cheap, S$30 for 2 days to tourist spots, a stay at a Hot Spring resort. No wonder my aunts and uncles travel all over everytime, tours in China are cheap.
It’s a 3 hours bus trip from Guangzhou. First we visited a famous temple there. I haven’t got any nice pictures of the temple (no, the temple was nice, it’s just me) but I got a nice window. It’s a window preserved from centuries and centuries ago.
After lunch at the resort restaurants, we went to play water rapids! Ok I don’t know the exact term for it but basically a bus will take us up the moutain and we have to walk down to the starting point where we will wear helmets and lifejacket. Two to a rubber boat, I was with my 6th aunt and we will slide down the moutain on the water rapids, it’s a 45 minutes ride. It costed on S$15! It was really fun, the moment you get on the boat, the first slope down, you get drenched already, by the 2nd drop, my makeup has automatically washed itself off. The ride wasn’s that scary but it was fun! The highest drop was 3m, I drank some water and my ears got blocked for half a day. I am not going to post a picture cos I don’t look too glamorous.
This is the resort we stayed in. 7 rooms to a house. The whole tour group was small so we had 2 house. You don’t need to bring your front door key around cos there’s workers opening the doors for you when you go in and out! That’s cool. And you can call for a buggy ride to travel around the resort. It is a 4 star resort but it was just so-so in the room. We went to the springs at night, that was good though. They had like many, many sort of springs for you to soak in, hot, warm, cool, milk (there’s wasn’t real milk inside actually), wine, sand bathe, massage….
And the next day, we went to a Geopark. It is a canyon/ moutainous area called Dan Xia Shan. There was a few spots to see, and one of them was this:
I know what you are thinking, and you know what I am thinking too! And there’s a female version of that too, if are you are wondering and they are all natural, not man-made. If you look hard enough, there is a tiny shelter up the tip of that higher canyon, they actually had to use a helicopter to put that one. I wish I had time to climb up that!
Then it was a bus ride off to another side of the park. It was a long walk up the mountain. My mother didn’t make it to the top. I went with my 2 aunts. It was very steep, so steep the stairs are in your face, which means it’s almost 90 degrees. So basically if you trip, the whole bunch of people below you will roll down the mountain. That was quite an experience.
And this is what you see right at the top, with a river that meanders around the canyons. The whole city was submerged in the sea centuries and centuries and maybe millions of years ago so basically you can imagine an island on top with all these rocks supporting it.
The whole park is huuuge, can take you a whole day to walk around it but we only had time for one of the peaks. The weather wasn’t too good that day, drizzling here and there. But the weather has nothing to do with the time constraint thing, the weather just popped up in my mind.
Back in Guangzhou, besides the everyday shopping, we went to Bai Yun Shan. The only mountain in Guangzhou. It’s a nice park filled with retired elderly. Ok they aren’t even elderly, like 50 plus. Apparently Guangzhou has a very good retirement plan for retirees, they get lots of money. So many wake up early in the morning, go to the park with friends to dance, play chak tek and sing mountain songs or drink teas and travel around of cos. That’s a very good life. And there was this group of elderly dancing hip pop! It was damn cute! Yes really, hip-pop..they are healthier than me.
And the last night in Guangzhou was my grandfather’s birthday dinner. It was nice having all the relatives around, especially my cousins..they are very funny. I grow up without them and many times I wish I did. My grandfather is the old man sitting down, the happy peace-sign making man is my 2nd uncle. He tends to sing when he’s drank/high. Which of cos he did that night.
And my camwhoring cousins’ sons, very cute boys. I am serious with the camwhore, they made me take picture of them the whole night.
Then it was back to Hong Kong on bus. We joined a “tour-HK-in-a-day” tour. It was $20 for two person. That’s damn, damn cheap.
One of the places we visited: Repulse Bay. The richest people in HK stays there, multi-millionaires, celebrities, politicians..so if YOU have a house there…we can be friends! Anyway, the weather was so good, I wish I could tan then but I was wearing shirt and black skinny jeans, not beach wear at all.
We stayed at our uncle’s (mother’s side) house. He brought us around too. One of them was The Ping Shan Tang Clan Gallery. Clans in Hong Kong are among the richest people in Hong Kong. The government has to buy land from them because when they first arrive in HK from China, they own the land. There are still a few clans in HK. This is the Tangs. They are one huuugge family. One family stay in this whole area. This is the actual house preserved from the 12th century. It was really an eye-opener. The whole house is preserved, toilets and everything. I do know if I stayed there, I won’t want to go to the toilet at night, it is pitch dark and it looked like a dungeon. This is a very wealthy family’s house.
We met an old men and chatted with him. He told us the money earned from the government is split. My uncle asked how many he got and he replied “Very, very little not much, just a few million.” SO, you can imagine how rich they are. These clans are still very traditional though, you don’t get any money if you are female, and there are many traditions they have to follow.
And I met my cute little cousin’s daughter (please tell me what is the exact term for this).
Soon my parents left for Singapore, I stayed on and this skinny annoying girl called Stefanie came over. She is calculating her expense for the first night. We spent. And we spent a lot. Just the first night of shopping. We stayed at a guesthouse, it was very cheap and it was pretty good actually clean, with TV, pretty convenient.
Second day was museums visiting, we went to the art museum and science museum! And shopping at night again. Third day my uncle brought us around including temples, clans, shopping, mountains..woot.
Another clan visiting, the Chans. They are richer than the Tangs. My mum is a Chan, why isn’t she rich?
Then we went to Da Mo Shan which literally translate to Foggy Moutain and yes it was very foggy. We took a bus up but had to walk around 15 minute down the mountain for return bus stop. It felt those old Chinese movies, like we are in same lost lonely mountain region or like walking to the gates of hell or something. That was really fun, it was so foggy our hair was dripping with water.
Then we travel to the outskirts of HK called Sai Kung. It’s almost a rural island by itself. It was a long trip out.
Low tide, really low tide. Almost felt like the boats there got stucked.
And then we had to take another bus to Yellow Stone Tier. If only Singapore had such parks near mountains and waters. They have chalets areas, BBQ and stuff. This is what you call a real chalet and getwawy not East Coast park where you are next to a big highway.
Then we took the bus back into the little town’s central where there are many seafood restaurants. It’s a harbour, parked with fishing boats and private yachts. There will be these little sampangs with people selling live seafood. The poor little (ok it’s quite big) fish have to swim horizontally cos the container is so small (see the red fish).
The restaurants sells all sorts of seafood, some I haven’t seen before. And they sell giant Horseshoe crab, like bigger than my ass kind. Yes they are edible. And really huuuge ones, not the ones you see at Changi. I hate Horseshoe crab, they look so weird and scary. Do you know Horseshoe crab exist from pre-historic times? That’s why they look weird. I used to think why is there always a crab under a stingray. Do you get it? It was when I didn’t know a thing called Horseshoe crab exist.
That felt like an Audrey moment, haha! Ok sorry Audrey.
Then the rest of the days was just shopping and sleeping in. I didn’t take much pictures, I was either too tired or grumpy or just too busy shopping.
It was the first time I was in Hong Kong without my parents. They usually do all the directions things, order food so I never really realised it wasn’t that easy ordering food sometimes. I usually get weird stares like why this girl knows Cantonese yet she got no idea what’s she ordering and pointing. I wish I had more time and money and friends to go to more places but that’s for another time.
That’s about all for my trip, this is a very long entry, I took hours getting this done. I hope I didn’t sound like a textbook.
And now I will go photoshop all my photos to make them look pretty cos whatever I took was pretty bad.