China Xiamen Trip Day 5

The tour officially ended for us this morning, as we are going back to my home village to take a look and of course visit my paternal family.

My uncle and my cousin came real early to pick us up from the hotel, and from then on, it is a really long drive to my uncle’s home, as well as the village that my dad spent most of his childhood in. Along the journey, my parents were chatting with my cousin and my uncle in Teochew, which I must admit that I do not understand totally caused some terms are stuff that you never hear in Singapore. But the scenery along the way slowly changed from the bustling city life to one of the sparse countryside, filled with farms and vegetation.

Ok, so after a drive of 2 hours (it is long in Singapore’s context, but short when you are in the UK or china), we finally reached the village, 芦青村 in 揭 西 county. I must say that I was delightfully surprised at the village; unlike those zinc housing that we passed (looks more like slums), my village is brick houses which have real big courtyards (looks like those conserved Chinese shophouses in Chinatown, just that it is much bigger). Oh, I was also amazed that the pigs my uncle has actually lives within the house too!

Alright, the house is definitely not as fanciful as those in Singapore, but they certainly are decent (there’s electricity, freshwater and also television). Well, we had a good lunch there (it was sumptuous!), and there were so many interesting food laid out which you can’t find in Singapore. For example, all the lovely sweet things made from yam paste, some plant called 牛角, real fresh green vegetables, and many more which I can’t remember now. In all, there was more than 10 dishes altogether! Thankfully, my uncle’s family is huge. Just counting my 3 direct cousins alone, I have altogether 11 nieces and nephews!

Oh, we also visited my aunt’s house as well as walked a bit around the area. There were ponds, crops, padi fields all around, and you can really appreciate the fresh air. Next time if any of you wants to experience a farm stay, I think you can happily hop over to my uncle’s place. Haha. Oh, I also saw my family’s old house which is the place which my dad grew up in. It is really small, and certainly not as luxurious as the houses now, and way much simpler too.

In the evening, we left to the nearby town of 绵糊 to stay for the night. We got a family suite for just the price of S$70! We visited my cousin’s house as well, and it is really huge. In fact, it looks just like those apartment blocks that you often see in Hong Kong drama serials, but my cousin owns like 1 whole entire block! In fact, it can still continue to be built upwards!

We had dinner at a small restaurant. The dining places over there close real early – it was barely 2030 hours but most shops and food spots had closed by then. In fact, we are like the last customers for the place we went to!