Monday, January 11, 2010

[18th Dec, 09] China Day 4 FREE DAY!

Ahem. The day I've been waiting for! FREE DAY! hehe.
The provided us a free day to go back to our village to visit the family there. Each family in our group had plans on that day. All going home to pay a visit, all going back to give money to the old folks, all going back to see how well their families are doing there...

but but but...

Our family had no idea which village we came from. No clue.

So, do what? Families in our group were suggesting that we get some info from one of the old guys (who always ate breakfast with us ..). Saying that since we came miles away, we might as
well grab the opportunity to search our "roots. So blah blah, we really had no intention to go back to our beloved kampung (wherever that is) but the non-Hiew's say MUST MUST MUST. And they
even went to ask the old man for us. So, we planned to balik kampung, for real this time, in the afternoon.

Then..morning leh? Oh easy. After breakfast, we went to walk around the city. Four of us walked with my aunt's family, so 8 of us in total. Maybe because it was too big of a group, we eventually split.


And one more reason was because my aunt's family are super slow. Not saying that they're slow-pokes or we're fast runners, but they're pace is just too slow. We split without even knowing that we did.Something from breakfast. Like Taiwanese Machee dipped in Syrup. haa


Man Tou. Not really. It's sweet and yucky XD

Dabu city (the city itself) is not really big. You can finish strolling in a day. It's fun. I liked this day the most mainly because it was most relaxing. The whole trip had been relaxing but that was the time when you can walk around the streets freely. The good thing is that Dabu is one of the safest places in China. No pickpockets or anything like that. Children walk home everyday during lunchtime. If you cross the roads, the cars actually stop for you.

I mean, when can you see a car stopping for you in KK? When can you cross roads here without fear? There, you can. Just cross :) And the streets there are clean. Shop owners come out and sweep their own pavement, sweep the floor when they're free. And they're friendly. That's what makes a place great. Hakka people, you guys are awesome. No matter where you guys are :D


haha.. since it's considered a small city so there's no McD or KFC.
They came up with their own..


That morning, we conquered the shops, roads, and the MARKET. Yeap, the greatest market ever. I remember going to a market in KL, which is a more developed town compared to Dabu, and it was so yucky. The one that we went to was clean. Imagine, a MARKET floor clean ... WOW! I liked the market, saw a lot of weird food, haha. but fun.


the red sausage-like stuff are a type of BAN (kuih) again. I tried it. Yuck.




We bought some biscuits here. They're yummy.

The little girl escaped when her mother was packing for us..


Young man making shoes..





haa. You can half of it too. I wonder how they eat it?

yong tau fu. Here in KK, you can't find that much inti (filling) on a tofu.
But in popo's house, I CAN!


Yeap, they sell fish like that.
Oh and those were the weird shells we ate the night before.


!!




Behold the humungous chun-kien










THE FOLLOWING PICTURE MAY UPSET
SOME OF THOSE WHO HAVE A WEAK STOMACH.
SCROLL DOWN QUICK QUICK IF
YOU'RE SCARED YOU MIGHT PUKE.
ANIMAL LOVERS, BRACE YOURSELF!













a-huh.

It's too late to stop now. this is a c-sectioned dog for sale here. Gross huh?
I took lots of close ups btw, but it's really gross.











This is rabbit meat. I think you can get this in KK


cigarettes. How many boxes are there??


they have a lot of these..

Ate lunch at a small shop. Had no idea how to order. We just went into that shop and asked what they serve. In the end, I think we ordered too much.


Pa, Nick and I had noodles (something like kon lau mee, but without so much sauce), Ma had the famous Lau Chu Fun (Noodles made of rice..). Ma, Nick and I each had a bowl of meatball soup. 10 HUGE meatballs!! And pa had some weird vege soup haha. And you know how much that oh-so-delicious meal cost?? I think RMB$25 if I'm not mistaken. Cheap, no? It was so tasty. Until today, I still want to go back there to eat the meatballs and noodles again....
Ma's lau chu fun

huge meatball soup



pa's


After that, we went back to our hotel and waited for our trasport to take us to our village. I really really didn't want to go. My aunt found the name of the place but I didn't believe that the sources were true. All I wanted to do that afternoon was to just rest and have a little bit of "me" time.

The journey back to our motherland took us about 2 hours, on road. My grandma told us (after we returned home) that she had to take a small boat to reach there about 20 years ago. Now, it's so much easier. And there's reception there. You try going to Mesilau, see the line is so good or not lahh.. there you can get FULL bar :DSo we arrived there and saw, dried paddy fields. haha. Then an old man came out and greeted us. Then, they talked and talked to my dad and his sister. I don't really get what they say because they're hakka dialect is different. so la la la la

I went to take pictures of cows, poops, and paddy fields yang sudah kering ...


We found out that my grandfather (he passed away long before I was born. If he'd were still alive, we'd call him yeye) went to Malaysia with his whole family. So there are no roots left there actually, the whole family moved together, young and old. But the old folks who are still there had the same sirname, Hiew. Actually, that whole village is a Hiew village. haha


My grandfather stayed there once upon a time. I think this was the place they studied or something.
This is their house, my grandfather's family.



-after this my batteries went flat. I had no extra because I didn't bring my bag-


Then we walked to somewhere to look for an old lady to ask her about something. And then, we went back to our hotel, another almost-2-hours drive.

Ate dinner at a restaurant where our driver/tour guide dropped us off at.

After we went back to the hotel, we saw others from our group coming back from their village. So we chit-chatted and seems like they had so much fun (and food) in their village. So okay, turns out that the Kew family (the ones from Ipoh) ARE related to us. We didn't know how are we related but we assumed that the father of the family is pa's cousin, and his children are my cousins.

Walked with Ling che (the others decided to stay in the hotel) and some others from our group who hadn't had dinner yet. So, we walked around the city to look for food. Sadly, because it was almost 8, all the food shops in MeiShi Jie were already closed. I don't get the point why they call it MeiShi Jie (Which means food street). The stalls and shops are all closed, and we had to walk really far. They were all left hungry, so kesian. In the end, I didn't know whether they ate or not because Ling che said that she wanted to wash her hair in the saloon so we went ahead first.

That's the day.

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