Thursday, January 1, 2009
- My "Hometown" -
juz came back 4 days ago from my trip to my grandparents hometown in hainan island in china! its my 2nd time there only but it was an eyeopener coz the 1st time i was there din really see much and forgot most of it coz i was only err... p3 i tink.
basically hainan island is dominated by little little villages and huge huge (i really mean HUGE) plantations, farmlands crops and all. i heard my dad saying hainan island was like bigger den taiwan! anyway my grandfather's hometown village was called 龍閣瑞村(long ge rui cun). i chose to write it in trad chinese coz the name really is v nice in dis form. btw there will be some chinese in dis post too so yeah. anyway these villages were everywhere and my specific village comprised of mainly ppl of several surnames mine being the majority lor.
Day 1: woke up at 3am to change and eat something b4 my family scrambled into a taxi to changi airport. managed to slp about 4 hours b4 so not dat sleepy but v tired still coz its 3 in the morning! so we arrived at about 4.30am at the budget terminal to check in and all. ohh forgot to say dat the group of us had 12 ppl lol. den disaster struck. my aunt was a malaysian and was a PR in sg but needed a visa to go to china. she did not have 1. nobody knew about it so my mum tried all ways to see if she could get her onto the plane. she tried to call the chinese embassy (at 430am LOL) to try her luck but to no avail (also it was xmas morning so yeah =X). so sadly my aunt could not go leaving my uncle to go with his little son lor. so there were 11 of us now. so we checked in and boarded tiger airways flight TR936 heading from SINGAPORE to HAIKOU at 6.30am 25th December 2008. long long time since i took a plane. i switched places with my bro i tink to sit at the window! my bro had motion sickness cant stare outside the plane 1. as for me, buahahaha shiok ah managed to catch the takeoff and landing coz cool mah. the flight was quite scary at 1st coz got turbulence den the whole plane shaking 1 zzz. but after dat nothing lor.
i was told dat it would be about 19 degrees in 海口 for the few days we were there. when i left the plane could feel the cool air liao. i thought ok lah juz like aircon liddat but boy was i wrong. it got colder and with wind in ur face it was juz freezing. my windbreaker was my best fren the next few days. haikou was in the same time zone as sg so no jet lag thingy. was about 1030 when we arrived and headed to the hotel to drop our luggage b4 and go for lunch b4 heading towards the village.
a close relative picked us up so we decided to go for lunch tgt at dis place beside the hotel. we were adviced by our relatives to have pig trotters, eggplant and other stuff which were in HUGE portions (there is an interesting reason behind it). btw most of the food we ate there during dis period were grown on the island itself.
dropped by at dis convenience store (wasnt dat convenient but nvm) to buy a huge load of stuff for the village folks and prayers and stuff. reached the village only to be warmly welcomed by my relatives! my mum told me dat if we were to trace back up the family tree we were all related! damn and i thought i had alot of relatives in sg zzz. we chatted and all not in english, hardly in chinese but mostly in hainanese! i could sorta speak hainanese but could not really understand their accent lor. u noe lah china chinese (lol i sound racist). was a gd chance to really improve my hainanese dis few days too! was introduced to all my uncles aunts cousins blah blah blah yada yada yada.
den came the fun part FIRECRACKERS! haha i remembered the last time i came they also ignited firecrackers. i learned dat there were 3 standard sizes of firecrackers big medium small. small was about the size of the cylinder container for dis medicine called gouzaiwan for stomach aches. medium was abit bigger den a cigarette. big was abit smaller den the baton for passing during 4x100m races. THEY WERE LOUD AS HELL! haha too bad cant get to do in sg.
den came dinner which we ate almost the exact same stuff as dinner again in huge portions. kinda sick of it coz i stuffed myself during lunch LOL but managed to eat them again lor. din do much after dat but watch china tv which showed nothin much and was boring. slept early for a long day ahead (actually not v early at 1145pm haha).
Day 2: woke up and headed to the convenience store to pick up more firecrackers and stuff for the 3 sessions of prayers we had. din really do much cept admiring all the stuff u could nv possibly see in sg. like chickens and ducks running arnd, the type of houses they have here and their condition. everything is new(to me, actually everything is physically v old) and interesting. so went on with the prayers and den me my bro dad and an uncle went to dis little temple dat was built long ago.
it was probably only the size of a jamming studio and it had its own structure which i felt was v unique. it was built long ago by ppl of the village and ppl donated to have it built to honour the local 土地公 (land god) for good crop harvest and the safety of the farmers. many aspects to dis sturcture namely the main construction, its deco and the sculpting of the figure which wad they believed looked like. at dis point my dad and uncle pointed out dat my grandfather was the top donor for all dis categories coz they carved the names of all the donors beside the doors of the temple. happy to noe dat my grandfather had contributed so much to the village b4 he passed on. being able to do something dat meaningful for so many ppl really is not ez at dat time as money was really scarce for them.
side note: my grandfather oso top donor for all the other aspects of village upgrading "projects" too!
so came lunch(again in huge portions) and we sat at the backyard close to the small opening where we had done 3 sessions of burning(silver paper dat kinda stuff if u noe wad i tokin about). lol eat halfway got few gusts of wind blow the ashes towards us and the food! but only abit so nvm juz eat not like will kill liddat. den i remember got 1 BIG piece of ash drop into my cup of drink so dat 1 had to pour away haha! wasted sia still half full.
din do much after dat. headed back to hotel for a 1 hr nap b4 goin dinner. huge portions again and boy was i damn sick of pig trotters. slept early after dat coz tired after 1 long day liao. kinda boring but interestin anyway.
Day 3: today was more like the visiting day. after breakfast went to 龍閣瑞村 for about 30min juz to bid farewell as it was the last time we were there on dis trip. took in the sights 1 last time b4 heading to my grandmother's village. forgot to ask about the name of the place when we arrived. not v far away oso about 15min bus ride. kinda similar coz all the villages pattern quite standard. juz the setting abit diff. all the villages can compare to HDB ba all same same 1. had lunch (again in huge portions in case ur sick of me saying dat lol) at my grandmother younger sister's house.
quite interesting u see all ur paternal relatives for 2 str8 days and den got another huge group of maternal relatives u have yet to see. kena intro to so many ppl dat i see all until i SEH liao. nothin much happen cept for the other kind of firecrackers dat we decided to play with today! it came like in the shape of a matchstick box(but bigger) den oso like a match stick u need to light it with a flick on the side of the box. den the firecracker will be alight and u have about 5s to throw it somewhere. it goes out with dis loud "BANG". note dat dis firecracker belonged to the small category so i was quite shocked something so small can make so much noise. den oso bid our goodbyes and went to our final place of visit of the trip - ancestral cemetary.
we came to dis little clearing which is probably like a space between villages. it contained the tombs of quite a few of my ancestors bah. only showed to 3 of them which were the 1s of my great grandfather, great grandmother and great granduncle(i tink). my great grandparents were buried tgt in dis big area which is surrounded by a little cement wall thing. its quite diff from sg de cemetary like dat of lim chu kang. there got whole lotta land and stuff and the cemetaries hold v few 'ppl' as compared to sg.
looked at the names and engravings on the tombstones and stared to wonder, wad would have happened if my grandfather did not take the leap of faith and come to nanyang(last time sg called liddat mah) to search for something better? i probably would be smoking and drinking like a farmboy on hainan island rite there. yeah forgot to mention the males here smoke and drink alot too. they dun really bother about health bah coz its juz their lifestyle and they really follow in the footsteps of their parents. alot of them oso uneducated so its quite sad so better cherish everything i have! also my great grandmother had the same surname as my grandmother and they were from the same village. probably coz of the matchmaking thing bah. they do practice matchmaking like they do in TV shows u noe! 1 village supply girl and another 1 supply boy LOL. btw my great grandparents had v nice names juz like mine! =P (thks mummy and papa!) kinda like my name now too coz i feel its v unique leh. i suddenly feel wierd y im not called robert or something =X
Day 4: woah last day oso woke up early at about 5am to change and grab a bite to take a 2hr bus ride to 海口美兰国际机场. nothin much ba juz a little sad dat we were leaving dis great place even though its v diff from sg. haha the funny thing was every1 took off the jackets the moment we stepped out of the plane coz sg is freakin hot! nothin much liao coz im back to reality.
and the trip was over. it was juz great and hope to go back there with my family again lor. o yeah remember the food being all in huge portions? there the ppl all will order so much dat u will always have so much left over its more den u have eaten. coz they feel its a courtesy to make their guests be able to eat as much as they could. if the guests are able to finish the food, they will feel dat they are stingy and have not treated their guests properly. u may den ask, eh den the remaining food how? lol the hosts all 打包 for themselves as their next meal so hardly any food is wasted. but 1 interesting thing is dat they dun use containers! they juz pour all the food (all diff dishes de! like fish, veg, meat) into 1 plastic bag and go! u can basically see wads in the plastic bag lor. abit sick but dats how every1 does it so yeah.
oso on the street is damn noisy. coz every1 horns each other alot. i really mean alot. in sg we horn ppl to screw them like "EH U CUT MY LANE!" or "HELLO U AWAKE ANOT" or "(anything dat pisses us off)" but there they horn ppl to tell every1 u are there. its a v funny thought coz the driver there horns at every1 to alert motorists (btw there are alot of motorcycles there more den cars). oso they dun really care about age and safety bah lol. got ppl about 16 can drive motorcycle and all without helmets zzz. too big a country to manage i guess. oso most males there smoke. go everywhere oso see ppl smokin or can smell the distinct smell of 2nd hand smoke. haha my bro was offered a cigarette by a relative probably coz he was tall which he obviously rejected, damn funny.
din really take pictures coz not v convenient to take pictures oso. got some which i will post next time. btw will take a v long time coz my com is down now so yeah, using my bro de lappy v hard to post =X
HAPPY NEW YEAR to every1 and may all ur DREAMS COME TRUE! keep tryin and they will! =D
Music Took Control at 7:45 PM
