[19th Dec, 09] China Day 5

Today's the day that we discover Dabu. According to the travel itenary, We were supposed to go to the Hakka Tulou (A World Heritage site) but they changed plans. Actually, the President of our Dabu Association, who is also the supervisr, changed the plans. It was fine for us but the Chong family got mad because they had plans to meet their relatives in the Tulou. After Mr. Chong gave the tour guides a scold outside the bus, the took a cab and went off, by themselves.

Poor tour guides, not even their fault. It's was Mr. President's idea!!

So, first we headed off to take pictures with a statue of a mother and two kids. I forgot what the statue's name but I remember the meaning. The reasonthey made the statue of a China woman, with an elder daughter and a younger is talking, is saying that you can only have 2 kids in China. Yeaps, it's their rule.If you have a first child and it's a girl, you can go for another one (so that you can get a boy). But if you're first child is a son, I don't think you can haveanother child. If both are girls? Well, you can't have anymore. That's it. I saw a lot of posters and writings on the walls about this matter. This statue, of course, is a reminder for the people.

The big foot :)

Next, we went to Yat-Sen's garden. This place is basically a place to remember Sun Yat-Sen. Any idea who this guy is? I only know that he has a pretty wife. haha The weather was warm when we got off the bus. Ermm...many of you might think that this place is his house, but TOO BAD! it's not. It's a place that he held a meeting in. That's all. Upstairs you can find Sun Yat-Sen's history. I found out that he has a pretty wife, and that his English is very good. hehe. I think the main reason for this place to be called Yat-Sen's garden is because there is a really green and beautiful garden behind the building. HAA

Warm weather. Everyone wore less. Except for mum. I think, in this picture, she wore like, 3 tops and 2 pants. HAHA

The meeting

After that, arrived to a house of someone I actually know a little bit about - Lee Kuan Yew. Any idea??? He's the guy who lead Singapore out of Malaysia. hehe. Sejarah bah this. I studied okay?
Oh yeah. A fun fact. Hakka people believe in Feng Hsui, that's why the front part of their house has water (pond, river, etc) and behind, mountains/valleys. This is what they believe.. Water brings wealth or something. I think it turned more into a tradition. All houses in Dabu are like that, and so it somehow makes it special :D

Dabu is well-known for it's pottery. No idea whether I should call it "pottery" or not but it has to do with CLAY. The weird thing is that Dabu people use plates, bowls and cups which are not made locally. haha. Went to look-see-look-see at one of the Pottery Factory (it rhymes! And I dunno any other way to put it :P)

haa. I wanted to buy for KAEMAs. But they're not for sale. All the cups there are for display only. If you want, you order. But you have to have a quota. lols

Lunch time. Normal hakka-choi

TEA, after lunch? hehe. Visited the tea plantation, which is famous for the i-dunno-what tea. It's not Lung-Jing though, it's something else. We had to drive really far and then take a smallvan up to the hills. It was far, and the roads were stiff, and it was really PAINFUL. We had to tahan our pee for like, 2 hours!!So, our van arrived there first, because our driver, Mr. Yong was super fast. But we wanted to pee so bad, we asked Mr. Yong whether there's any restroom and he said that there was one at the hilltop. So, he drove us there. Pa chose to walk. Who knows why.

Sad thing is, the hilltop was really high up and we had to tahan our pee. Worst cometa worse, no toilet T__T. It's a small pondok up there to let you take pictures. mhai

So, Mr. Yong took us down again. Other vans had arrived already. Took a group picture, then we realised that we lost pa =.= That's pa walking down hill. It's really far! He walked all the way up and all the way down again. And no toilet. You might wonder why we didn't pass him when we were coming down. Well, it's because they made one lane to go up, and one lane to go down. Pa came down the way he came up. Get it.

Went down the hill again... more this time. To the drinking tea place...

I didn't like the tea. All I wanted was the toilet. It was really funny. Everyone from the tour ran to the toilet!! macam Amazing Race. Then all the others wanted the nearer toilets so I ran to be back one, which was very far. haha. Don't care.

Drinking tea, is a time for old people, and parents, to get together and talk talk. I'm no parent nor I'm old, so I went outside to jalan-jalan.

Their benches

Mario!!

That's all. I think. We had dinner in the hotel, if I'm not mistaken. OH YES! We had dinner in the hotel. And I had another hairwash. Then, we found out about the Kew family more. It turns out that the 'uncle' is actually my cousin. maih. So, his son kept teasing me about being his aunt. laa

a picture taken early morning