CHINA   

My first overseas trip - a dream became truth.  I was so excited and frightened because I was travelling with my father for the first time also to a foreign land.  This was the Eastern Route of China that brought us to places like Beijing (historical monuments), Hangzhou (producer of beautiful women), Guangzhou (wild wild meat on sales), Guilin (a fragrance park with flower "Gui"), Suzhou (ancient resorts or villa)..... 

Those mentioned above were a tour-planned iternaries, so no-sweat for the 14 days at all, but our adventure startED on the last night of the guided tour.  The Singapore tour guide did not buy the required train tickets for us to continue our journey to Shantou, an eastern province of Guangzhou to visit our relatives.  Both my aged father and me, a greenhorn were simply thrown to a local train station in Guangzhou to find our own way the next morning after the group returned to Singapore.  I, the only foreigner, was in that queue and to only find out an hour later that the earliest train leaves at 10pm on that day.  That one hour was also an "one-in-a-lifetime" experience in China when you have to make sure that no one try to pretend and move in front of you.  You got all the yellings and scoldings from those queueing behind when someone successfully done that.

Finally we decided to wave down a cab since it looked like the best way.  With no idea how far was the journey, we were rejected by at least 30 cabbies 'cos their cabs were not for long-distance rides.  In the midst of bargaining the fare with one cabby, he told me to look behind 'cos someone had just taken one of our only two luggages.  That man was gone when my eyes turned 180 degree back.  And guess what... there were at least a 100 people sitting at the train station and all they did was to stare at me and whispered under their noses.  A policeman walked by and I quickly related what has happened.  He took his own sweet time to ask me what were in the bag, which way he went and asked for my address and name....... Sudah lah (meaning forget about it).... my first experience with a Chinese "kong-an", only  to confirm their attitude as seen in the television programmes.

Finally, we gave in to an equivalent of "day-light robbery" of S$250 (that was 10 years ago) for a cab (he took a partner with him) to bring us to our destination. 

End of our adventures?.. no.. no.. on the road, they had to stop constantly to repair the vehicle, the tyres were so flat that it was only a miracle that the vehicle did not skid when we were on all kinds of terrible condition of the road.  We literally travelled on the coastal line of Guangzhou with all the winging-stone roads and edges of the sea.  I vividly remembered that I told my father to take turns to take naps during the whole journey,  'cos who knows, they could always dump us somewhere in the remote, as I did not even see a human being or another vehicle passing by us for a good part of our journey.

An unforgettable 11 hours when we finally reached the outskirt of my father's hometown at 11.30pm that night.  Only to gave myself a fright when I took a much-needed bath in a poorly lit inn.  The water running down from my hair was a thick brown creamy flow (it was those dust collected from the ride), but that instance I thought it was blood from the faucet..... Result of watching too much shows.

Ahhhhhh my eyelids too tired to think anymore, though the emotion part still worried, but the physical could not be burdened with anymore mental tortures .... thank you God for taking care of us, when at every moment before laying peacefully on that thinly mattressed bed, I thought our names could have been reported in the front page of the national paper, The Straits Time the next day in Singapore, for a missing father-and-daughter team in China. What would tomorrow be...ah..hh... zzz..zzzz.. ZZZZZZZZ.

Fortunately, "tomorrow" proved to be a welcomed-visit to my aunt's home.

See some of the proofs below that I actually been to my father's hometown.

   My grand cousin in China (no joke, it is true, I am the grand aunt there and my peers are so much older than me)               

  This was where I stayed during the visit

Open toilet (those cubicles in the background) and the man was actually carrying buckets of "human-fertiliser" for his field.

An eye-opener????  Nothing like having staying there for a week to experience all for yourself.  I must say that it was not too bad after all (of course not with a yardstick of Singapore's standard).  in fact 3 years after my first visit, I actually went back to visit my relatives again.  They are a bunch of nice people, just that they have to speak Teochew slowly, in order for me to understand them.