Friday, December 15, 2006
ok pipette, i've decided to update
family holiday was super fun, especially the 3-day stay in the village when we went to visit our relatives
on the eve of departure, i went for tkd training just to kill time. training was at toa payoh with other JCs. usual stuff - kicking, sparring footwork and sparring. and i got a knock on my foot again....this jinx has been bugging me since my green belt days. then reached home super late, took a super late dinner and slept super late cos i was watching Asian Games opening ceremony.
nxt day, wake up and chiong to airport. 8 ppl in total = 1 family. then boarded a Boeing 737. smallest plane i ever took in 12 years. endured 4 hrs with little legroom, but the food was nice. then we began our tour. our guide took us for foot massage to prepare for our mountain climbing. took a domestic flight to Mt. Wuyi and did a lot of mountain climbing in 3 days there. there was also a 1.5 hr trip on a bamboo raft. then we took another domestic flight back to xiamen. after that, we went to chaozhou and visited the Ming dynasty city wall plus musical fountain at night. the fountain went up to 30 metres.
hotels were kind of a problem. we had 4 rooms for 8 ppl, but 2 families of 3 each. so shimon the people-pleaser (at least for that 10 days) decided to change rooms almost every night (i.e. rooming in with another relative). yeah, i got kind of "fed-up" with changing rooms that for 3 nights i squeezed with my parents in a double-bed room.
on the 9th was the beginning of 3 days of village life. we reached there at around 9 plus. then (tried to) settle down. then we had a talk cok session cos the last visit there (which my cuz and me didn't go) was 18 months ago. so the singaporean kids received red packets, and in turn my cousins at the village got theirs. it's a customary gesture i guess. after talk cok session, we grabbed bikes at cycled round the village. the roads there were all dirt roads suitable for mountain biking, but since there was no mountain bikes except normal bikes, we had no choice. but biking was fun. then we had lunch and went to visit my grandfather's hometown, which is in another village nearby. in the late afternoon, i followed my 2 cousins from the village (one is 2 months younger than me, the other is 2 yrs younger than me, both are brothers) to the basketball court with other village guys. then me and the older brother played against a 4-man team, and we won. haha, gave them a thrashing. then night came. Younger brother went to study, and i followed him. Older brother was downstairs playing with another cousin.
day 2 - went to market to buy breakfast. the afternoon just drifted off. then my parents plus my singapore cousin's family decided to stay in a hotel in chaozhou that night. i didn't go cos i was thoroughly enjoying village life. they left at 4.30pm. after that, it was the best 1.5 hrs of my life. me and the 2 brothers took the bikes and vanished from the adults. we biked to another bball court where they were selling really big hotdogs. we had one each. then we watched ppl gamble openly at the bball court. after that, we passed a piggy sty and crossed the main road with all the huge trucks honking at us on bicycles. yeah, we just rode across the road in the midst of those trucks. we went to a billiard centre (quite run down, no air-con) and gave the guy 50 cents (china money) for 1 hr of gaming. he didn't make any noise. no way u r gonna get 1 hr here with 10 Singapore cents. at 6pm, the adults called the older brother on his hp. so we left and re-crossed the road, this time with motorcycles and trucks honking at us. again, we just rode across.
day 3 - the 2 brothers had to go to school. breakfast for them was just porridge, quail eggs and shellfish. then the hotel-goers returned. at 11.30am, we bid farewell to our relatives. Younger brother returned in time to send us off, but I never had the chance to say thanks to the older one for day 2's 1.5 hrs of extreme fun. they'll nvr see this post, but i wish them all the best in their studies.
ok, took a plane back from xiamen (which is 4 hrs drive at 100 km/h from the village), reach home, sweep floor, shower, open presents from them, slp.
yeah, that's it. end of story.
family holiday was super fun, especially the 3-day stay in the village when we went to visit our relatives
on the eve of departure, i went for tkd training just to kill time. training was at toa payoh with other JCs. usual stuff - kicking, sparring footwork and sparring. and i got a knock on my foot again....this jinx has been bugging me since my green belt days. then reached home super late, took a super late dinner and slept super late cos i was watching Asian Games opening ceremony.
nxt day, wake up and chiong to airport. 8 ppl in total = 1 family. then boarded a Boeing 737. smallest plane i ever took in 12 years. endured 4 hrs with little legroom, but the food was nice. then we began our tour. our guide took us for foot massage to prepare for our mountain climbing. took a domestic flight to Mt. Wuyi and did a lot of mountain climbing in 3 days there. there was also a 1.5 hr trip on a bamboo raft. then we took another domestic flight back to xiamen. after that, we went to chaozhou and visited the Ming dynasty city wall plus musical fountain at night. the fountain went up to 30 metres.
hotels were kind of a problem. we had 4 rooms for 8 ppl, but 2 families of 3 each. so shimon the people-pleaser (at least for that 10 days) decided to change rooms almost every night (i.e. rooming in with another relative). yeah, i got kind of "fed-up" with changing rooms that for 3 nights i squeezed with my parents in a double-bed room.
on the 9th was the beginning of 3 days of village life. we reached there at around 9 plus. then (tried to) settle down. then we had a talk cok session cos the last visit there (which my cuz and me didn't go) was 18 months ago. so the singaporean kids received red packets, and in turn my cousins at the village got theirs. it's a customary gesture i guess. after talk cok session, we grabbed bikes at cycled round the village. the roads there were all dirt roads suitable for mountain biking, but since there was no mountain bikes except normal bikes, we had no choice. but biking was fun. then we had lunch and went to visit my grandfather's hometown, which is in another village nearby. in the late afternoon, i followed my 2 cousins from the village (one is 2 months younger than me, the other is 2 yrs younger than me, both are brothers) to the basketball court with other village guys. then me and the older brother played against a 4-man team, and we won. haha, gave them a thrashing. then night came. Younger brother went to study, and i followed him. Older brother was downstairs playing with another cousin.
day 2 - went to market to buy breakfast. the afternoon just drifted off. then my parents plus my singapore cousin's family decided to stay in a hotel in chaozhou that night. i didn't go cos i was thoroughly enjoying village life. they left at 4.30pm. after that, it was the best 1.5 hrs of my life. me and the 2 brothers took the bikes and vanished from the adults. we biked to another bball court where they were selling really big hotdogs. we had one each. then we watched ppl gamble openly at the bball court. after that, we passed a piggy sty and crossed the main road with all the huge trucks honking at us on bicycles. yeah, we just rode across the road in the midst of those trucks. we went to a billiard centre (quite run down, no air-con) and gave the guy 50 cents (china money) for 1 hr of gaming. he didn't make any noise. no way u r gonna get 1 hr here with 10 Singapore cents. at 6pm, the adults called the older brother on his hp. so we left and re-crossed the road, this time with motorcycles and trucks honking at us. again, we just rode across.
day 3 - the 2 brothers had to go to school. breakfast for them was just porridge, quail eggs and shellfish. then the hotel-goers returned. at 11.30am, we bid farewell to our relatives. Younger brother returned in time to send us off, but I never had the chance to say thanks to the older one for day 2's 1.5 hrs of extreme fun. they'll nvr see this post, but i wish them all the best in their studies.
ok, took a plane back from xiamen (which is 4 hrs drive at 100 km/h from the village), reach home, sweep floor, shower, open presents from them, slp.
yeah, that's it. end of story.
