I'm Home!
I'm back! :D
Well, I enjoyed myself I guess. I did a lot of new and sometimes crazy things, like:
- Seeing an avatar of myself that is associated with my Chinese Zodiac sign, the Tiger. They say everyone's avatar looks like him or her, and it's eerily true.
- Driving a dune buggy on a beach.
- Eating.
- Getting 'married' to a girl. It's just a demonstration of how the ethnic village groups over there had their marriage customs, and they uh... force males that are over 21 to participate. And also expect them to cough out 50 yuan after that. It's interesting (and embarrassing, what with the whole family looking on and laughing and stuff), but the mandatory paying is just not cool.
- Visiting the temple of Confucius. I prayed to the scholar and told him what I want. I hope he listened.
- Eating.
- Going to a place where a Summit was held. Sorry, but the exact name of the event escapes me at the moment, but it was quite high profile and stuff.
- Going to see some huge rocks. They're naturally formed and they sit at a beach near the sea, or ocean. The Chinese call it 'Tian Ya Hai Jiao'. I'm not really sure of the significance, though.
- Eating.
- Visiting the statue of the Goddess of Mercy that's over 100 metres and sits at the Southernmost end of Hainan Island. It's apparently the second largest statue in the world, and it looks majestic. You don't see monuments as grand as that anymore, but Egypt still has some. I wanna go to Egypt next.
- Visiting the village of my ancestors. I had just recently learned that my great-grandfather came from a very wealthy family, owning huge tracts of land, about 1-5 acres, maybe slightly more. Since my grandfather came to Singapore though, there's no one left to look after the estate, and everything has deteriorated since. The buildings degrade and crumble, and some have already collapsed. One that I saw only had a few bits of rubble with only the road marking out where it used to be. The crops, along with the numerous coconut trees have all been taken by other villagers to use for their own ends. People have taken over lands and houses that used to belong to us. It's a shame, really. But there's no way to prevent it; there's just nobody there to look after them. Fortunately there is someone who has represented us for all these years though: the sons of the neighbour of my grandfather, before he left for Singapore. It is said that those two were more like brothers than mere friends, so when the time came he looked after my grandfather's more personal stuff, and so does his sons now that he's almost reaching a hundred years of age.
- More eating. I ate a crapload of stuff over there. There was chicken, and beef, and mutton, prawns, and pork. I ate about 6-8 kinds of clams. There was crab, and there was lobster one night. There was also a dish of worms too, served in the dodgiest restaurant I've ever eaten in. It's like fly city in there. I also got the chance to eat some puffer fish, and I guess the chef did his work well, for I'm still sitting here typing out a whole wall of text instead of languishing in a coffin somewhere underground. It was really nice though. The puffer fish, I mean.
- Visiting the place where the Soong sisters lived. The three sisters were huge ambassadors between China and America during the WWII era, and after that. They wielded some measure of power partly because of the men they married: One married Chiang Kai-Shek, the other went with Sun Yat Sen, and the last got married to an official whose name escapes me at the moment. But they were all very intelligent, having graduated from american colleges. I guess they had to use their intellect when they decided to cross over to the world of politics and diplomacy.
So yeah, it was fun. But on the flight back home I started to get sick and stuff, so I had a horrible first night back. But I'm fine now and there's no place like home. :)
I have holiday snapshots too. Maybe I'll post some when I have the time.
Well, I enjoyed myself I guess. I did a lot of new and sometimes crazy things, like:
- Seeing an avatar of myself that is associated with my Chinese Zodiac sign, the Tiger. They say everyone's avatar looks like him or her, and it's eerily true.
- Driving a dune buggy on a beach.
- Eating.
- Getting 'married' to a girl. It's just a demonstration of how the ethnic village groups over there had their marriage customs, and they uh... force males that are over 21 to participate. And also expect them to cough out 50 yuan after that. It's interesting (and embarrassing, what with the whole family looking on and laughing and stuff), but the mandatory paying is just not cool.
- Visiting the temple of Confucius. I prayed to the scholar and told him what I want. I hope he listened.
- Eating.
- Going to a place where a Summit was held. Sorry, but the exact name of the event escapes me at the moment, but it was quite high profile and stuff.
- Going to see some huge rocks. They're naturally formed and they sit at a beach near the sea, or ocean. The Chinese call it 'Tian Ya Hai Jiao'. I'm not really sure of the significance, though.
- Eating.
- Visiting the statue of the Goddess of Mercy that's over 100 metres and sits at the Southernmost end of Hainan Island. It's apparently the second largest statue in the world, and it looks majestic. You don't see monuments as grand as that anymore, but Egypt still has some. I wanna go to Egypt next.
- Visiting the village of my ancestors. I had just recently learned that my great-grandfather came from a very wealthy family, owning huge tracts of land, about 1-5 acres, maybe slightly more. Since my grandfather came to Singapore though, there's no one left to look after the estate, and everything has deteriorated since. The buildings degrade and crumble, and some have already collapsed. One that I saw only had a few bits of rubble with only the road marking out where it used to be. The crops, along with the numerous coconut trees have all been taken by other villagers to use for their own ends. People have taken over lands and houses that used to belong to us. It's a shame, really. But there's no way to prevent it; there's just nobody there to look after them. Fortunately there is someone who has represented us for all these years though: the sons of the neighbour of my grandfather, before he left for Singapore. It is said that those two were more like brothers than mere friends, so when the time came he looked after my grandfather's more personal stuff, and so does his sons now that he's almost reaching a hundred years of age.
- More eating. I ate a crapload of stuff over there. There was chicken, and beef, and mutton, prawns, and pork. I ate about 6-8 kinds of clams. There was crab, and there was lobster one night. There was also a dish of worms too, served in the dodgiest restaurant I've ever eaten in. It's like fly city in there. I also got the chance to eat some puffer fish, and I guess the chef did his work well, for I'm still sitting here typing out a whole wall of text instead of languishing in a coffin somewhere underground. It was really nice though. The puffer fish, I mean.
- Visiting the place where the Soong sisters lived. The three sisters were huge ambassadors between China and America during the WWII era, and after that. They wielded some measure of power partly because of the men they married: One married Chiang Kai-Shek, the other went with Sun Yat Sen, and the last got married to an official whose name escapes me at the moment. But they were all very intelligent, having graduated from american colleges. I guess they had to use their intellect when they decided to cross over to the world of politics and diplomacy.
So yeah, it was fun. But on the flight back home I started to get sick and stuff, so I had a horrible first night back. But I'm fine now and there's no place like home. :)
I have holiday snapshots too. Maybe I'll post some when I have the time.