农村 (Village) Hospitality

The flower's real by the way. 

My couchsurfing host decided to host us in her parent's hometown, in the heart of a Chinese village. One I have yet to experience despite my three years residency in China. Shanghai lacks rural grounds.

 

A 3yuan bus ride from ZhongShan Lu (plus a 15 minute walk to the bus terminal) to where ever the village was located.

The trip ended more than an hour later, in what appeared to be an industrial area. A drastic contrast to Gulangyu and mainland Xiamen. Air pollution in this part of Xiamen was beyond hope. Either you breathe in the air with its pollution or just don't breathe. Which of course is not a wise move.

I wasn't as much bothered by the air than I was about my bursting bladder.

Note: If you have no idea how long a journey is gonna be, either visit the washroom before hand or avoid drinking in gallons.


Finding a washroom was a tedious task in itself. There were no motels or supermarkets or even street stalls with a dubious washroom hidden somewhere behind the shop.

Eventually what I thought was a clinic but turned out to be a mini hospital, allowed me to use their services. Travel, or specifically travelling through south asia has taught me to bring my own roll of toilet paper/wet wipes where I go.


So this time I was spared.


A little info about this hospital: If I ever get employed here would mean that half the time will be spent reading papers and painting nails. Least that was what I witnessed.

Just as I exited the hospital, my host arrived and we headed to her village. Her boss had brought his car, so we reached home real quick.

After some let-take-in-the-sights-of-nature and loads of "黑人" Black girl (I'm brown for the umpteenth time!), I decided to borrow a bicycle so that the villagers can also gasp at the weird looking girl riding a rusty bike, with a faulty right pedal and defunc brake.

This wasn't my makeshift "vespa". Almost there though..

Everytime we rode downhill I was expecting to crash into something at some point. Guess what I actually managed to kill 2 hours with that bike around the village roads plus having a conversation with this guy who came on a motorcycle, slowed down just to ask "你那个国家人" which country are you from？

My host was uber nice. So were her parents. They made sure we were well fed and our needs taken care of.


And we won't even speaking the same language!

Host on her bike

They cooked up an awesome meal using only vegetables and rice from their own farm. Ensure we had hot water for shower, breakfast the next day and a comfortable bed to rest our heads. 

Chinese Cabbages I think.

They even insisted on giving us a lift back to the bus terminal.

The dad's face was just a little too far off.

Eventually they did just that.

It is not down in any map; true places never are. - Hermen Melville

I have a fetish for things that are usually ignored.

Of Punjab, Patriotism and Popcorn

From Ahmedabad to Amritsar was the plan. And so the plan went ahead without any glitches. Everyone at some point would think Indian trains would delay and guess what, they didn't. Ok..maybe once. But in a span of 15 days with only one mistake? We can afford that, can't we.

I loved Punjab! I found it colorful. There was so much happening. And every other dude wore a turban. hehe.

After having been picked up by this driver to the hotel, which for some reason had a miserable water heater. 24 hours hot water supply we were told, but turned out to be something else altogether. After a quick shower, it was a ride to Wagah Border. 

Talk about Indian Patriotism...

I witnessed it first hand at the at the India-Pakistan Border otherwise known as Wagah Border. One side was cheering for India screaming "Hindustan Zinadabad" and on the opposite side of the gate there were the Pakistani females screaming "Pakistan Zindabad".

Pakistani Crowds

It was interesting to notice that the Pakistani female exuded way more enthusiasm then their male counterparts did. Whereas, where we were on the Indian side, the entire crowd never stopped to take a breather between their "Vande Maataram" and "Jai Ho".

Initially what I assumed to be National songs but were actually just songs related to Patriotism kept playing on and on. Some of the Indian women sitting at the stands were invited to dance in the middle. Women of all ages went forward to showcase their rhythms.

The dancers

Some women even volunteered to carry the tricolor and ran with it to and fro from the border gate. 60 year olds in their saris, mothers with their kids all running with the tri color - Truly Impressivo!

Once the flag is ended over to them, the women can hardly stop smiling. even this particular elderly woman who jog-walked her way with the flag without expressing an form of weary. She was fairly old.

I am not very patriotic when it comes to my own country. I never felt the need to feel connected to where I was born and bred. Hence it was truly a different experience to see the Indians and their love for their nation.

I did consider volunteering to run with the flag and later decided against it, for I assumed only Indian nationals were allowed. Which I realized was not the case when I saw a white lady partake in the celebrations whilst I could have done it too.

I can pass for an Indian. Most certainly can.

And thats how they make popcorns in India

Whats Amritsar or even Punjab if one hasn't witnessed the famous Golden Temple?

That will be in the next post.

Adios!

Foiled Doesn't Mean The End...

I DO NOT Plan!

Let's get that straight. However, I do have a few hopeful wishes that I would like to accomplish. They do not have a start or end date.

Just a "To Do List" that goes beyond the regular tasks of laundry, washing the dishes, keeping my desk neat, etc.

However, this summer I had one that went along the lines of "Lets go save some people!"

I was enthusiastic about it for not only was it medically related, I get to go to Kenya baby!

Mt. Kilimanjaro was a deciding factor too.

As it happens with pretty much 99% of our lives, somethings encounter unforeseen circumstances and we just gotta work around it.

I have worked overlooking these circumstances many a time, but this time I had reasons that wouldn't allow me to go ahead and stomp over the situation to get my ass on a flight to Kenya.

As it is, working around it has worked fairly well too.

I still get to use a bit of my medical knowledge and lots of PR skills I have to learn in aiding my Dad with his new venture.

The project is half way into its completion. Once it is time to reveal I'd reveal.

As of now, lets keep it under covers. For when the project first started, it appeared easy. Did I just use the word "easy"? Well at least from my point of view, thousands of miles away from home it did indeed appeared like a fairly simple thing to finish.

I should known that "nothing comes easy". And so the same task is now Herculean.

To summarize, Dad needs a little help and I'm heading back home to 'sunny' island Singapore.

But, I manage to talk mom into taking a short trip to Malaysia.

And of course I'm gonna hang around Hangzhou for

To visit any one Chinese city during my holidays is also on the To-Do list!

An Inconvenient Truth

While walking the Streets of New Delhi, in search of this particular cafe which owns itself to this qoute:

"Alot can happen over coffee". 

As much as we remembered the slogan, the name of the coffee house was not so much embedded in our memory. Least not mine.

The thing about walking on the streets of India, if you are not brown, you invite alot of attention. Some are curious and just eager to be your friends. Others are just trying their best to appear cool.

I was not walking alone but with two other friends who were Australian females and one of them was actually 6ft!

As this guy in shades and bright orange shirt passed between me and the tall girl, he really had to say

"What's up Babe!".

Now all there was to break that otherwise purely casual remark was the heavy Indian accent that came with it. He could have gone with a regular hi, but the whole swagger was just...You do the math.

When we finally managed to get into a rickshaw

And Just when you think, guess that was all the attention there was, comes another curly haired dude enquring if the tall girl was German cos she was just so tall.

"Vhere are you from? German?". 

And since we kinda lost and need directions, and this guy was already making conversations, the supposed "German" decided to seek his help.

Was that a bad move? Not exactly. But he never stopped talking and never left us till the very end!

"Oh Oh! You can't go there today, it is closed for protests march. There is a tourist help point ahead, you can seek them for a map. Do you like our country? I vill help you then vill you only know that aver country and its people are nice. Vill you then go back and say nice things about India."

And she was nodding head and walking really quickly I was finding it hard to keep up. The more she tried to veer away from him and his conversation he would start repeating,

"Hello! I am not expecting anything. I just want to help so you get good feeling about India".

He honestly was trying to help. Just a little too enthusiastic.

Some political protests and vehicles were blocked. 

The conversation, to me, as a spectator was entertaining and amusing. For the many times I visited India, I never realized how foreigners were being approached. I look Indian so hardly anyone ever walked up to me and started making random conversations.

The fact that I appeared Indian was further reiterated, albeit in a not so flattering manner, when the guy finally decided to leave before turning to say to me

"You're Indian na? Vhy I am saying this is, you look like me."

Date with Gulangyu continues...

Cafes, Cafes and more Cafes.

And yes of course if you're into seafood (that which I ain't), there's a whole rand of sea creatures from massive lobsters to pearl giving clams.

The pearls were replaced with something say..more edible?

They were on the grill so yeah, no one picked them up to hear for waves

Onto what we really accomplished today. Well...

We traversed some steep slopes, me in my flip flops and on lotsa Chinese women  in their platforms and on rarer occasions, stilettos!

We went all the way up just to climb down again for no apparent reason. The number of times I actually lost myself in this tiny island is beyond me.

On the way down, we visited 'ZhengCheng Gong', some awesome (according to Jan) official's memorial who played a significant role in China-Taiwan politics.

Zhieng xiansheng himself!

His memorial involved intricately designed murals, that I can only describe to the best of my ability for even a quick, discreet shot was conspicuous to the guards eyes. We were told off not once but twice "NO PHOTOS PLEASE".

Sigh!

We exited or you could say we sensed his potential move to chase us out.

While soaking in the sights and learning about new stuff is great and exciting, the stomach should never be neglected. Hunger should be taken care off immediately. Especially for a vegetarian. 

For the most part we tend to skip meals or eat random junk food to satiate our hunger since meat-less dishes can no where be found. And explaining to someone that sea creatures were once alive and so I don't eat them; can be a tedious task, I'd rather chew on my apple.

Fried Tofu with Chilli powder and pepper

Nevertheless there were a few dishes in Gulangyu that were vegan friendly. Breakfast thankfully have always been vegan friendly. Despite the overwhelming availability of seafood, they have yet to be accustomed with tuna bread pao or any other fish for that matter as breakfast. Which of course, worked well for me. 

Dough/Bao fusion with mushrooms and soy meat

I have been filling my tummy with lotsa noodles, bubble tea, vegan snacks and Mochi. Talking about mochi, there was this particular stall run by an old couple and man they make amazing mochi. It WAS THE BEST I have come across. I actually went "hmmm.." which made quite a few uneasy but that's not the point. It was so good I went back to get more. The sugar and the peanut butter combination was done perfectly to complement each other with having to taste uber sweet.

It has been in existence since 1987, as the small cut outs, and news paper articles on the mini mobile stall testified.

We boarded a what-should-have-been a short cable car ride but was instead very long, for it was moving slower than my granny's jog. And when the number of cars increased on a single cable, and the ones before us were yet to reach the end, our car stops mid air.

Yes, for about 10 seconds, we were suspended in mid air.

Jan who is afraid of heights started singing Church songs.

Having been suspended in air, made her feel closer to God I think. 


Hallelujiah!

Gulangyu: Its smaller than Singapore. Ha!

Fly China Fly!

Gulangyu, the island that houses about 200, 000 or less people and perhaps lots more seafood. The island is situated a short distance away from Xiamen mainland. This same distance can be covered with the aide of a 5 minute ferry ride from Xiamen. Interesting thing is, to head over to Gulangyu, the ferry carries no charge. However, on your return journey there is a charge of 8yuan. 

Xiamen Island from Gulangyu

Well...They expect you to return from the tiny island at some point. However, its free of charge, if you take the ferry ride between 10pm till 12mn. 

And thats probably because, they are not responsible for your safety in the dark. 

It was abandoned and I almost entered for a "Haunted Adventure" :D

The place reminded me so much of my previous trip to Yangshuo, Guilin. All for the following reasons of course;

• Tourists (mostly locals from other regions and Chinese from South East Asian Nations
• Narrow streets cluttered with cute little shops and cafes with stuff carrying exorbitant price tags
• Shops open late and close late: Supper is a huge deal!!

Quaint alleyway leading to a vintage stall

Shops lit up the street after 6pm, and street food stalls ranging from mini tables arranged onto the already narrow streets to middle age men or women pushing a mobile stall filled with desserts, fruit juices, fried tofu, ah yes and the famous dead creatures of the sea.

Loads of vintage shops and an odd looking Indian dress stall. Even the name of the stall was written in Chinese with Hindi fonts. How they managed that, I never found out. Unlike famous Bollywood stars covering the walls of the shops, it had a massive poster of a young Chinese lady dressed in anything and everything that screamed Indian giving a simple yet stern smile. She looked good actually.

The stall sold a range of summer dresses and skirts with symbolic patterns of elephants, mangoes all in the colors of orange, yellow, red, etc. Stereotypical or what?!

Lotsa newly weds were on the island having their pictures taken for the backdrop in this place was definitely very different from the rest of China. Most of the buildings here were once owned by the British during their rule on this island. The architecture still remains for it just moderately revamped into cafes, inns and hotels for tourism. Otherwise, many of these buildings, including a massive Trinity Church built by a Phillipino have traits of European architecture in them.

I call this 'Gulangyu Square'. Don't ask for the original name.

Jan and myself checked into a budget stay hotel which was kinda off the main street, away from the sea-views but closer and perhaps amongst the daily lifestyle of the Gulangyu commoner. Yes, our hotel was situated near the wet markets, the mahjong get together venue for over 60 year old men, shops with old style television mend by old couples selling basic necessities, you name it we were right beside it. There weren't exactly touristy spots but neither were entirely uninteresting. 

It provided us a glimpse of the way of life on this side of town, which albeit the language (they speak Hokkien, a Chinese dialect) were very similar to the average Chinese lifestyle.

From walking and more walking, what did I discover? No cars or bicycles are allowed on this island. Yes, they believe in being highly eco-friendly. Even the postcards were made of recycled material.

Their roads have a interesting feel to them.

However, they have recently introduced the tourist buggies which is kinda useful for tourists who have difficulty walking long hours. Otherwise, the cheap, best and possibly the only option to navigate your way around this 2km square island is by Number 11 aka as feet.

Every corner, every little cafe, has a thread with polaroids.

Advantages include loads of good photography moments, on the lookout for unique gifts as souvenirs, or even long summer dresses. Its like a trend here. Every single girl has a long colorful dress and a over the top sometimes simple summer hat even. After a while, one girl turns out to look like the other. After all these things are mass produced and this is a tiny island.

Massive Octopus at the entrance of "Underwater World"

When they run outta seafood for tourists to devour, and a storm is brewing around the island....

I think the "Underwater World" is a perfect back-up plan. :)