The Post That Took 2 days

Haiz! PRC National Day holiday is over... Headed over to Xia Men for the NDay Hols with my dad for 4 days of no holes barred fun. On the 30th, we checked into this SEEEEEEXXXXX hotel! As you can see, Sheraton outshines all the other faggots around it :P And it seeminly is 1 of the only 2 gold buildings in Xia Men. It really stands out like a soar thumb (a VERY luxurious sore thumb :D)

This was breakfast! And best of all, you could have as many servings of this as available! It comes along with the standard cereal oats, break milk and cookies on the table. Ok, so after a nice night in warm beds and a hearty BF (sure beats the crutty outfit they have decked up for me at 东湖花园... to think the president sleeps in the same accomodations sometimes..., but hey, the laundry and housekeeping is settled, so theres no complaining on my part). We head out to explore Xia Men.
中山步行街was our first stop.

I do have this "fettish" for the Espirit line of jeans with the little red/yellow/green tags hanging on em which says stuff like Jam, Beat, Rock etc.

I call this piece - Beauty and the Beast. I think its vulgar and crude accent really brings out the true colors of Xia Men WHICH tourists do not often see. This was taken at the backstreets of 中山步行街. A must go place for walking shopping and wasting time :P To come here, I had to bravely step out of my VERY comfortable zone and into the backstreets of 中山, risking capture or rape. But well, it was all worth it in the end. Being able to humbly bring back some pictures to let the world see for themselves. People here live in filthy hoffles, the rear their own bird to sell (and at 30RMB a bird, thats really .. - cheap..) I really got a sense of nostalgia, as I stepped into this 1960/70s version of Singapore, where people washed clothes on the streets, paddled their goods in small street stalls etc.

This place really IS humble living... I don't know man, but I feel damn lucky to be born in Spore in the 1980s and not 60/70s and not here. The people here really struggle to make ends meet. But yet, you still see them smiling at you, you still see kids playing happily and you still see them going about happily with what they have. I guess, its kinda like the frog in well theory. If you do not know better, you will probably not feel like crap in your current condition. For me downgrade to that kind of living standard (close to street sleeping... I wun be surprised if water leaks and rats scurry about whilst Im asleep) is really not easy. OK, enuf of that! hahas. Lets get back to the main street where tourists are SUPPOSSED to be in.
By the time we finished exploring the side and back lanes, it was close to sun set. I managed to snap the 2 pictures of the sun hahas. Talk about walking into the light! The sun was really bright and it metaphorically pierced my eyes.... like I had to put my hand over my forehead once in a while to shield my eyes form the sun cause it was hurting my eye. For our first dinner at Xia Men, we ate like a load of stuff... Thanks to the nice lady at Sheraton who recommended us the street to go to.

水煮鱼！我在北京第一次吃了以后，立刻爱上了它！可讲是一见钟情！ This dish is just EXTREMEly hot oil, with 5 spice and what not, poured over fish slices.
Another was this standard operation procedure dish - 铁板牛肉片. I guess nearly all of you have tried it before, so it needs no introduction. hahas... in china, anyhting can be done.... Yea, aside from the 2 dishes, we ordered 2 bowls of noodles, beer, coke and a vegetable dish. And guess what? It all added to 14Sing dollars...

Oh yes! If you go into most cabs in most states in CHina, you would have realised that they have cages around the drivers compartment (llike a long knife or a pistol won't be able to penetrate the 3cm gaps between bars.....) Xia men has adopted a more practical approach, that is to place video cameras ! And there is a small red button on the bottom left of the steering wheel(accessible ONLY to the cab driver) which activates the cameras ! cool huh.

Ask anyone who has gone to or know of Xia Men, and they will tell you that Xia Men's (gu lang yu somewhat like the sentosa of xia men) is a must see.

This island is somewhat THE sentosa of XiaMen, and only accessible by boat. On the island itself, you can see many old colonial buildings as well as streets flanked by stalls selling jades, clothes and island crafts (shell necklaces etc.) And it does not have a single car or bicycle on it. All visitors have to walk on foot.
夜晚的古兰与岛！

At Gu Lang Yu island, we came across this stall and saw some girls eating deserts like these! We just had to try hahas. Mine was the "OH Ni on ice (oh ni ice kachang)" hahas. with milk toping... it was like omg.. heavenly...

My dad tried the sweet soup with beancurd, peanut, red bean and green bean. This soup wasn't actually that nice, we found it too sweet and I guess only if you have and extremely sweet tooth, you will not enjoy it.
One of the many shops that sells Xia Men's main art work. Gold plated scupltures on ceramic.
Along the streets, you also see many of these things - YUCKS :P hahas. Dried squids, baskets of dried prawns, dried fish etc.

Another place to go to is Pu Tou mountain (or rather hill)! This is a mountain with a nice scenic tip, over looking Xia Men and a temple at the bottom (very characteristic of the chinese).

Another of the many 3motor cycles I saw hahas (Heil Hitler!) I would buy one of these and repaint it :P If it were cheap and if i lived here. Hahas, turtles cluster fucking at the temple rivers !

At the bottom, many devotees and tourists alike say their prayers in the temples. Hahas I was like some tourist journalist snapping away frame after frame (i would have posted the pictures here, but why i can't???? cause the Nikon D200 is too expensive.... :P so stick to film lor)This picture explains itself ! XP

Along the way, I saw many carvings and paintings on the rock surfaces like this 福神 god of properity?
At one part about say 1/3 the way to the top, I saw this amazing collection of statues of every god possibly imaginable! And the whole area was like say 3 metres deep by 5 meters wide, and it was just bear rock! Someone had the idea of placing all these inside one of the small "caves" in the mountain.
And yes... at certain places it was really tight... like freaking half a meter wide ( i had to twist my body to navigate this one hahas.)
Like thanks... take picture first, read later! I don't really bother to read the words lar.. but i guess its meaningful? 哈哈
Then like 1/2 way up .... the chinse are really amazing.. you see this small shop setup! Selling straw made roses and grasshoppers... raw materials costs close to nothing, but the effort taken to gring the sutff up... (and I assume they do it everyday..)... is just..... commendible!

And YESS!!... hahas we see chickens again EVEN on the mountain like hundred meters above sea level. (gives you an idea of how birdflu spread so fast :P)HMMM I already see KFC in her, she will make a fine chicky meal :P hahas

AND we finally reached the top! and what did I say about business anywhere? hahas. a refreshment stand! Where I got our much needed bottle of pepsi and dad got the 茶叶蛋s for us.

The view ofcourse is all worth it! Gu Lang Yu is the island on the far left of the picture. (this was blocked by terrain lar hahas.. but the other view was really nice :P)
At the bottom, there was another street of shopping, selling japalang things. Ken Ken like!
hahas Another random guy driving the 3motor cycle. Anyway, we finished Xia Men in 2 days.. honestly speaking, there arn't really much places to go to in Xia Men (GLY island was a crushing disappointment..) only 铺头山 and the back/side lanes at 中山步行街was worth visiting.. hahas we decided to go to another place called 泉州under the recommendation of the nice lady at the Sheraton lounge.

Ok, so we were told to go do 5 things. Eat Ba Chang. Climb a mountain (laozi mountain something like that) and go see 古民村. Also to go see some old military installation.. We accomplished 2 of the 4 tasks. For 500bux, we rented a taxi which drove us all day from Xia Men to Quan Zhou and around Quan Zhou! Go see the twin pagodas temple.We arrived at 泉州at around afternoon, which was just perfect for eating hahas... to htink we travelled all the way (2hours...) just to find that specific BaChang stall on deming road to eat hahs..Sex bachang lar! Like my granny makes (but not as good :P as granny) cause it has loads of meat and mushroom inside. Unlike the ones in spore so stingy one hahas. (scarely its the 60%meat 40% board!!)

Then we headed on to the twin pagodas! Not a bad place if I say so myself, becasue the temple was like freaking 1300years old (tts wat the bald guy says lar), there were like photo opportunities abound!) I love photographing old and historical stuff.

Hahas, one of the small businesses setup! You like give them your name, and they write a poem for you. But my dad said it was all BS, nothing great about the poems:P hahas (ken ken doth make the sun shine bright, he is like a snowy dove trooping with crows, he is like the jewel in an ethiops (black guy) ear. Ive never seen true beauty (ken ken) till tonight!!! hahas.
So yea.. after the temple, we headed to the olden people village. erm.. what can I sae.. the place was FARKING disappointing.. like 7 out of 10 of the houses are fake (remodelled) or atleast you can tell lar, that extensive renovations and remodelling has been done on the property..

Hahas.. so like it is back the Xia Men, and we went on our last night to HuLi Street, another place selling japa lang things! But this place was worse then ZhongShan lar, we like walked it fast then headed back home liao hahas. Round 2 was a 酒吧一条街。Hahas, that was like our standard MO throughout the entire 4days :P

Bloody disdainful and shameless act upon the face of this earth.......bloody bitches can copy ANYTHING... even freaking KFC got copied hahas.... like wad sia..
Hahas Jiao Kiam Um Pat Lastic (a pharse my mom likes to use hahas, meaning the bird does not even know that he is facing the sling shot :P The chinese equivalent is 班门弄斧！)

Aight so thats a BRIEF summary of my holidays hahas tata! miss you all and at the same time wish you were here :P Like fark sia.. I dreamnt that I was back home after the 5months and on sentosa beach talking to some of the TB17 ppl...