We had to wake up at 3 30am that morning and I slept at 1am. Perhaps I was really excited since I was the earliest to wake up. All set for a trip to visit the village~ An experience I may never forget all my life.
I was in the midst of planning some outing with my sec sch friends and was asking the other 2 Hainanese friends, Shi Xing & Mao Mao, what souvenir they want me to bring back for them.
Shi Xing said he wants to go there himself while Mao Mao said "a Hainan girl will do. Other than that, nothing else." Lol. He sounded so serious about it that I was not sure if he was joking.
My first time at the Budget Terminal. I have travelled in budget airlines like Jetstar and Air Asia but I boarded these planes at Terminal 1 or 3!
Dad carried my bro's backpack since it was the lightest among our luggages.
And cousin teased that Dad is going to conquer the mountains.
Kind of like this photo since it pictured how the background was so occupied with what they were doing while Granny and Dad looked very laidback. Hahahaha.
First photo with cousin :D
Both of us didn't wear contact lenses. I was very blind! I used the front camera of my phone but still couldn't see properly if i am looking okie. But it turned out to be okie luckily.
After having Mac breakfast, Aunt went to buy some make-up and then wine for our distant relatives. According to what I found out, these relatives were planning to sell them to others to earn more! Aunt bought 10 XO and some other, and spent $2,000+. Omg! She is always so generous.
Then it's time to board the plane.
The Tiger plane! My first time travelling with Tiger.
I managed to get a clear photo out of it since the queue was pretty long and I took many photos of it and chose the best one!
I have heard that from budget terminal, there would not be shelter to te plane. Hahahaha. That's so true!
We headed to the plane and had trouble walking up the stairs into the plane along with our luggage. :D
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| From hainan island |
Dad has not gone overseas since 20+ years ago.
The last time he went was his Honeymoon trip with Mum to Thailand.
Since then, after having us, he never has enough for himself and has long forgotten the feeling of taking a plane. :( Bro and I have finally graduated, and hopefully I bring them anywhere they wanna go very soon!
Mun and Dad, 辛苦了 !
It was a joy watching Dad so happy to go overseas. :D
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| From hainan island |
Cousin, me and my aunt (Cousin's mum).
Cousin and I didn't buy drinks at the airport. We wanted to buy them before we board the plane (but after we got through the gantry), but were afraid that we might get caught!
And one ice lemon tea costs $5! Heard my heart cry. LOL.
Cousin and I had fun playing with her iphone games.
She showed me loads of very bo liao games that she really liked. LOL. And the 4 hours of flight seemed to go on very quickly since I spent this time laughing at Cousin the whole while.
And we finally reached. I was very happy with Tiger since our flight was on time and the air stewardess was so smiley and friendly. Their uniforms were a little funny though. They wore orange long sleeved shirts and black pants with tiger-striped belts. I thought air stewardess are supposed to dress very nicely? Maybe not for budget airlines!
We sort of held up the queue since we have many hand carry bags. 10 hand carry bags just for the wine Aunt bought. I had trouble carrying them!
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Our Hainan relatives came to pick us up at the airport. Hainan uncle helped us with our luggages and drove us to Haikou, the city area to have our lunch!
Hainan uncle's first impression of me is that I am very tanned. LOL.
Maybe cos my other relatives who went there to visit him before was quite fair. So in comparison, I am very tanned. Very much like the locals there! They are as tanned as me!
But before that, he had to drive by somewhere and get another vehicle to drop the wine at his house. The reason was that they occupied alot of space in his van and we had to sit in an uncomfortable way to accomodate the wine. :D
We passed by this villager wearing a straw hat and Cousin told me to take this photo since it was so vintage! LOL.
This was the other vehicle.
This is my humourous uncle (Father's younger bro)!
2nd photo with Cousin. Vampire tooth looked very obvious. But at least i wasn't blind this time.
Finally put back on my contact lens in the plane when we were about to reach.
It was funny how Cousin and I set the "put on contact lens" time and iterally followed that timing!
After an hour, we were finally at the Long Quan Cafe. It was quite a grand restaurant at Haikou and was the Long Quan Hotel's cafe. It served great food! The food was great because it is very organic and fresh. The villagers mostly grow food and rear the animals themselves.
The unique cup that houses milk.
Me! Got pretty bored waiting for the food.
Was glad that iphone has a front camera and i can take photo of myself without anyone knowing.
Was also at the same time looking at other customers at the restaurant. The locals were smoking and putting their legs up on the chair or table in the restaurant. Cool!
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| From hainan island |
The menu all written in Chinese and Han Yu Pin Yin.
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| From hainan island |
The coffee with milk. What's unique is they can shape the milk in a way that it looked like the face of a monkey!
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| From Hainan |
The meal that costs about SGD10 come with a soup and a drink. The drink can be red wine or orange juice. Recently, Cousin has a taste for wine and so, we went for the red wine. But the rest went for orange juice. Dad was looking at me at the other end of the table. Oops, sorry Dad.
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My Fish & Chips that tasted better than Singapore's. Food at Hainan was mostly great! :D
Soon, we were back at the van on the way to visit the first relative.
We stopped by a jewellery shop that one of my Hainan relatives own. I checked out the prices of one bracelet and it costs few hundred Singapore Dollars. I didn't take any photos of the shop as i am not sure whether they will be offended. I took photos of its surroundings instead.
The thing I noticed about the locals is that they are allowed not to wear helmets. Some wore caps as a replacement (lol) while others wore nothing on their heads. They are very experts at 'siaming' other vehicles and often press the honks. But none pointed their middle fingers, unlike some Singaporeans! LOL.
These umbrellas were so much like in the past. The walls were in a bad shape. And no bins were there to contain the rubbish. Flies were everywhere.
We went to the nearby minimart for a look. Baozhen supermarket.
Look at all the rubbish lying outside. And the cute mum and child with straw hats.
Cousin who never failed to pose for my camera.
Dad always laughed at such photos! He said that Cousin "has many patterns".
Cousin was showing her mum what uncle's wife recommended.
A Johnson & Johnson lotion that can prevent mosquitoes. Great for our visit to the village later on that day.
We tried the Green Bean ice cream. Never failed to surprise me!
Have never seen this before ever in my entire life. 2 horses facing each other?!
Hainan uncle later drove us to his shop, which is also his house.
This is his van!
Uncle owns this house.
Storey 1 is his shop while Storey 2 is his house. :D
He and his sister sells desserts for a living.
We were asked to call his sister "Ah Mai". I think it means young aunt in Hainanese.
She is a very amicable person!
They have this machine that helps create cover for their drinks. Just like the ones in our bubble tea shop.
They sell sausages too. I had one and it was .. erms.. weird? Maybe I dunno how to appreciate it.
Their drinks and desserts menu.
Dessert ingredients. I dunno what most of them are. They just tasted great.
Hainan cousin, who is just 12-year-old invited me and Cousin to her room upstairs. :D
I felt welcomed and kind of surprised by her warmness. Some nice characteristic instilled in her that triggered the thought of why I was so shy when i was 12! She is such a sweet and simple girl. Her name is Zhuang Hui Yun by the way! I think they don't translate their surnames to 'Toh'.
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| From Hainan |
Cousin and I in her room.
She gave us some grape candies.
And longans. I was full and didn't eat any.
Regretted it now ;(
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According to Hainan cousin, this sheep made its way to being the most famous character in Hainan. It is called 喜羊羊 in Chinese. The 喜 means happy. Direct translation would give u happy sheep sheep.
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Hainan cousin doesn't allow us to take photos with her so we secretly took some photos of her.
She played a Hong Kong show for us. The show which starred Charmaine Sheh as someone who is slow. :D
The advertisement was played before the show. And the actress in the screen was Ah Sa.
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| From hainan island |
Her hugging her toy while watching.
She has many plush toys! I was informed that her relatives dote on her alot and so bought her alot of them.
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| From hainan island |
Cousin named this mirror "old school". I have one at home too LOL.
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| From hainan island |
More evidences of 喜羊羊 in her room.
The sausage that tasted weird.
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| From hainan island |
Hainan uncle then drove us to the village area. First to where they grow their crops.
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| From hainan island |
Hainan cousin has already been so used to this tree swing.
They rear alot of chickens.
After they spoke alot of Hainanese which I didn't understand a word, they gave us jumbos that they grow.
A few of our relatives sleeps there. The bed was no mattress. It looked really hard! I dunno how they are going to fall asleep here in a place surrounded by lots of trees, dogs, cats, chickens, crops and maybe even snakes.
Me and the jumbo. Hahaha.
I treated the day like an excursion! It was a real life exhibition, something I have never experienced before.
Other Hainan uncle telling Dad about how they lived their lives here. Sadly, I couldn't understand. Cousin helped me once in a while in translating. She said at least i now know how to count 1 to 10 in Hainanese and the Hainan relatives would certainly be impressed by that. Lol.
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And then we drove deeper into the village to visit more relatives.
The whole village was surrounded by tall trees, leaving only a smal narrow muddy track for vehicles to pass. I dunno how uncle could navigate in this big forest but he just did. He drove his van as if it is those cars from Initial-D.
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| From Hainan |
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| From Hainan |
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| From Hainan |
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| From Hainan |
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| From Hainan |
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| From Hainan |
With the ducks.
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| From Hainan |
They rear pigs too!
The pigs kept lowering their heads. Couldn't take any photos of their faces.
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| From Hainan |
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| From hainan island |
These kind of small sour fruits grow on these trees.
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| From Hainan |
Hainan Cousin plucked this for me. Proud of myself when I took this photo. Nice right! They are really sour. There are plenty of seeds inside each fruit.
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| From Hainan |
Granny was trying to pluck these fruits and I asked her to pose for it. Cousin was saying that people in the past always take these kind of photos. Yeah I totally agree. Look at the MTVs from the past. Those models posed with leaves, flowers and everything from nature.
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| From Hainan |
Hainan granny plucked them down for my granny.
Then we went to this small temple to offer out regards to ancestors.
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| From Hainan |
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| From Hainan |
One of our uncles suddenly hangs a packet of fire crackers and Cousin asked me to get ready for the shock. As a true blue Singaporean in a country where fire crackers are banned, I really do not know the impact fire crackers can cause when lighted.
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| From Hainan |
The temple. Dad was inside already. He has to be the first to offer his respect since he is the eldest son. Followed by my uncle, and then my aunt, my bro, me and lastly Cousin. Cousin is elder than me but went later than me. Yes, it is because she was Aunt's daughter. I am my Dad's daughter. LOL. Seems like I am stating the obvious facts. What I am trying to say is that Aunt is a female and Dad is a male. Hahahaha! More obvious!
What I mean is that girls are less preferred in the Chinese traditional culture. :(
Aunt and Dad has gone crazy with 4D. Lol.
They tore their boarding passes and wrote 0 to 9 on each torn paper. Dad would pray and pick 4 numbers. And Aunt, Dad and Uncle made an overseas call to my other Aunt (their sister) who is in Singapore to buy 4D for them. That is how obsessed they are.
Aunt asked me to take more photos of Dad's craziness to show Mum. Sadly, Dad believe a saying that goes, "you mai cai you xi wang" which means, hope only comes with buying 4D. :(
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| From Hainan |
Then the noise we created alerted our relatives' neighbour, the uncle in white. This is also Aunt's father-in-law's brother.
Only until Aunt and her husband got married, then did they realise that their relatives are neighbours in the same village. Omg! There can't be anything more of a coincidence than this!
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| From Hainan |
The disastrous impact the fire crackers have left behind.
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| From Hainan |
Cousin used my camera to take this photo. I have shaky hands and have to rely on friends to help take photos. Cousin only likes high angle photos. "It will not expose our double chins.", she would say.
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| From Hainan |
Cousin and Aunt. Aunt asked me, the photographer, to take note of the word 'fu'. Everyone wants to be blessed.
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| From Hainan |
Went back to their house and they showed us the photos we sent to them many years ago. I took photos from the photos. The child in the picture is Cousin. Lol. She was boasting how pretty she was. LOL!
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| From Hainan |
Mum in her wedding gown.
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| From Hainan |
Cousin was teasing about Dad's long hair.
When we showed younger bro later on in Singapore, he also teased about the same thing.
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| From Hainan |
Uncle's wedding.
My brothers, cousins and I are all in the photo. Granny was holding onto me. She was fatter then.
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| From Hainan |
Back at their house they hang fire crackers again. Was surprised by the thunderous sounds and damage fire crackers can cause. The ground was shaking when they lighted. Sparkles were flying all over.
This basically concluded our Day 1 there.
We had dinner and went back to the hotel at the countryside. It was crazy how there wasn't any water when we got back. We waited for some time before the water supply came. There wasn't any lift in the hotel as well. We climbed 5 storeys high and the older people were panting.
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