[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

[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.