Guangzhou 26-28 May
The airticket price from Beijing to Guangzhou (and back) suddenly dropped on Thursday morning. So I bought the tickets to Guangzhou. The 2-way 3 hour domestic flight costed me about s$300 in all.My dad and my uncle went to Guangzhou to visit my ah-mah last Weds, and I have always wanted to join them but I have to go to work every Monday to Thursday. Now that both the timing and the costs form a good match, I made the sudden decision on Thursday that I will go to Guangzhou to find them on Friday and leave together on Sunday. And boy .. it was a super good choice hehe =)
It was a great great great trip.
The Main Purpose
I saw my ah-mah again, about 4-5 months since she left SG to stay in Guangzhou. I'm so glad she is happy and looks healthier. Her hair has got thicker and has darken as well. Now I know what it means to 嘘寒问暖, when now it 'makes sense' for her to ask me if I am feeling cold in Beijing, and me asking the same for her in Guangzhou. I haven't heard her for a long time, and she still tells me not to fool around and work hard for my studies, telling me that my dad did not have the chance to study and now I should not waste my chances. As long as she is still concerned (although she always look nonchalant and thinks I do not understand what she is saying), I would be very happy.
I also met lots of relatives, all I have never seen before or never thought I would have. I now have lots of cousins, lots of '老表' and '表叔 表姑' etc soo distant that even my ah-mah gave up and tell me to just call them 'uncle' 'auntie' haha Really nice to have met them .. although I struggled to understand their Cantonese (I don't understand/speak Cantonese well anyway), it was a very happy experience talking to them. They are very hospitable people, they really made me feel at home. On my way to her place where we stopped for petrol, I found the Ricola sweets she liked and always had at her place when she stayed in SG, and I wanted to cry. It is this type of small small things that remind you of someone special. Somehow, this type of Ricola candies is very hard to come by in SG liaoz. I couldn't find those big big tins she had, so I settled for this small one.
If any of you guys can lay your hands on those big big tins, please tell me where to get them.
The Food and the Drinks
As a result of their hospitality, I ate non-stop ... except when we are driving .. really haha. Of all the countless stuff and names I couldn't recall nor translate into Chinese, I remembered eating the 狗肉火锅, 烧鹅, and the ‘双皮奶’, which is a super nice dessert. Something like a white custard beancurd thingy. And they never stopped drinking, unless they were sleeping haha except for the 表叔 who drove. They were always inviting me to drink with them (''yam peah', or 饮啤, drink beer in Cantonese), which I accepted for the first dinner with them where we had the 狗肉火锅. I think I might have demostrated a good hold of liquor and that was quite a nightmare haha. They invited me to drink at every meal, even at breakfast! Dimsum breakfast with beer is jitao a stun for me. I cannot tahan even half a glass and I keep covering my glass when the waiteress came around with the bottle to refill our glasses. My uncle see liaoz also know I not their level liao and never 勉强 me for beer at breakfast. But they din stop inviting, and I didn't stop rejecting, coz I still had to tahan a long lonely night at the airport, and then the 3hr flight back to Beijing. If I drank, I would be dehydrated and the sleeplessness + flying would make me feel like shit.
Getting there and back
You see, I reached on Friday noon, ate the 狗肉火锅 that night. Went yamcha dimsum breakfast on Sat morning, and left together with my dad and uncle when they had to leave to return to SG on Sunday midnight. While they took off at midnight, my flight was at 8:20am, so I stayed at the airport that night. Driving from the place where my ah-mah stayed to the airport takes 2 hrs. It doesn't make sense for my 表叔 to drive home after 12midnight to reach home at 2am, and then drive me out again at 4am so I can check in at 6am. Despite not drinking, I still felt like shit when I reached Beijing on the Sunday morning. I haven't been able to sleep the night I 'tuanged' at the airport. It doesn't operate 24hrs like Changi does; they turn off all the lights at 12midnight since there are no more flights between 12midnight till 8 in the morning. The seats at the airport had sleeping-unfriendly armrests, sleeping on the floor is uncomfy and 'xia-suay' looking, the sofa couches are for some air ticket agent promotion gimmick and cordoned up. I sneaked in and lay on it for a short while until I got so pricked about the possiblities that the security guard discover me and accuse me for tresspassing and suspecting me of trying to steal things or what that I sneaked out not more than 15 minutes ... so I stayed up reading 水煮三国 at the very pathetic lights available at the luggage wrapping counter. I finally gave up reading at about 4am and slept lying down on the counter table, constantly waking up hoping that no airport staff would come and chase me off. At 5am the lights came on and I walked about wondering between the luggage deposit counter and the e-ticket counter waiting for either one to start their operations so I could get on with the checking in. Furthurmore, I'm the type who couldn't sleep well while travelling, you could say I didn't sleep at all. And the rest of the Sunday when I reached home at about 2pm, I was groggy and slept till dinner, woke up and ate, and slept at about 10pm till it was Monday morning. I'm not young anymore, I just couldn't stay up all night and not feel very tired for the next day, and recover fully after a night's rest.
The sightseeing
While we were in Guangzhou on Friday afternoon, we went to 上下九步行街 to shop but nobody is interested to make any purchase so we headed to 陈家祠 which was simply astonishing. I saw the legendary 43 layered elephant tusk ball that 故宫 said it used to have and lots of exquisite craft works which is simply breathe taking. The architecture of the 陈家祠 is soo different from those we see at Beijing; the ceiling is very high and there are very detailed stone carvings on the beams and on the walls. So so so amazing to see the craftsmanship built into this place.
We also went to 肇庆 on Saturday afternoon to see the 七星岩, which is big lake with 7 islets in it that (they say) look like 北斗星 from the sky. The place is beautiful whether or not they have that '北斗星 from the sky' anyway. It is expensive to go into that place. It costs 50yuan to get in, and it does not include all the other 景点 entrance fees inside the 七星岩 area. You can take the 25yuan ride with tour guide or walk the whole 9km by yourself. It rained the whole day and so heavily at long stretch of times while we were on the road that I thought the typhoon chan-chu came back. It drizzled on while we were at 七星岩 and so not many people were around, somekind of sight soo rare in China sightseeing spots haaha.
Lastly...
No pictures this time, until I finish the last 10 shots in the roll. So I will upload them maybe ... in 1 or 2 weeks' time.
I am feeling so happy about the trip, that I am still feeling high today on Monday. It is like a short dream, which was a very good dream that you think about it again and again, and hope you will dream of it again tommorrow night.
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