Relatives and Gulangyu Again

Maternal great grandfather’s home

Breakfast at the hotel was a repeat of the greasy fare from two days ago.  I skipped the greasy rice and noodles and settled for congee and greasy vegetables.  Even the pickles were greasy but they went quite well with the congee, as did the very fine ikan bilis.

We had arranged to meet up with Ah Kheng at her home, which was my maternal great grandfather’s home.  We took a taxi to the temple near her home where she waited to guide us in.

Finally, I was pleased that I could show Mum her grandfather’s home.  Ah Kheng continued the story of her hassles retaining her home as she now faces eviction by a relative, so that the property can be demolished for high-rises.

We snacked on fruit at Ah Kheng’s.  The persimmoms here are very tomato red rather than orange.  And they are a horrible mushy texture.  I wonder if it is an old variety as some people hate persimmoms from their childhood days when it may have been a much mushier fruit.

Ah Kheng got her son-in-law to drive us back to our hotel.  As we weren’t hungry, we snacked on steamed buns for lunch.

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Gulangyu Take 2

I wanted to return to Gulangyu to find the old mansions and big bearded trees which I saw some years ago.  Going with only step-dad sans Mum meant that we were able to cover more ground.  This time we managed to catch the correct ferry, the public one.

We walked around for about 2h and I found all the places that I wanted to see again.  We didn’t pay to inside the ticketed area at Sunlight Rock which I believe includes the temple.  Likewise, we didn’t go to the aquarium or bird park.

Interestingly, the scenic historic areas of Gulangyu (with the mansions and bearded trees) were deserted. Local tourists seem to prefer the busy commercial areas.

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Dinner with relatives

Back in Xiamen, after a rest, we took a taxi to Ah Kheng’s place for a home-cooked dinner.  Both her daughters were there along with one child each.  The young girl was a very noisy “performer”.

They seemed to have gone into a lot of effort in preparing many dishes.  Again, there was no rice, being somewhat of a banquet-style meal.  Unfortunately, not all dishes were to my taste.

Chatting to Jian De, I learnt that his Chevrolet car is made locally.  The rebadged Daewoo that is the size of a Toyota Corolla costs USD15000.  Rather pricey compared to outside China.

After dinner, we watched a TV concert and also fireworks.  We also played a local Xiamen game called “Puak Piah”.  Five dice are thrown and one collects mooncakes according to the scoring.  I won the big one and cut it up to share.

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Ah Kheng’s other son-in-law drove us home afterwards.  We took our last walk of the island-city for we depart tomorrow.  Mum bought a brick of Pu Er tea when she managed to bargain the price from CNY130 to CNY50.  I settled for an ice-cream.

Back at the hotel step-dad told lots of stories from his youth.  They were interesting stories and Mum said I should write a book on his behalf.  [Edit:  Sadly a dozen years later, he had dementia.  And a few years more afterwards, he couldn’t even recognise photos of his daughter or late wife.]