The Village... not M. Night Shyamalan's

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The next morning I woke up feeling really good; physically and emotionally that is. I guess finally being in my grandma’s hometown makes me feel that I have achieved a goal. Today’s itinerary is to visit some places of interest and my grandma’s village/house when she was still in China. Frankly, I was not so keen on the other sights and sounds other than to go to ‘ng chu hang’ .. so I am gonna skip like 90%!o(MISSING)f the hoohaas at Chaozhou and dive straight in to the 1 sight that I enjoyed and the village itself...

My Aunt had gone to the market with Xipeng's wife, so Xipeng was stuck with entertaining me. He gave me a bowl of Lotus seed sweet soup and drove off on his bike to buy me a 'zhang kui' which is actually a glutinous rice dumpling with sweet or savory fillings. The 'zhang kui' he bought me was a combination of both. It has a finger sized slice of braised pork, a roasted chestnut, a salted egg yolk, some ginko nuts and about half a tablespoon of 'orh ni' . So that was breakfast for me. Oh! Not forgetting some Chinese tea to wash that all down of course!

The drive to the village was pretty fast from Xipeng's house. but once we got to the village, a villager has to guide us in and a red packet was given to his mother for helping pray to Grandma's ancestors while she was in Singapore. My 1st Uncle was the one to recognize the house. He pointed out this tiny tree between 3units and that's how he recognized the house. The house was more like a room. A tiny one. It was locked up and we could not enter. We did peer in and of course could not see much. Some of the surrounding units were owned and we had an idea what the locked house looked like inside. We walked down to the Ancestory Hall which was just next to Grandma's house. Just beyond the door was a huge panel with the names of people of donated money to help with the restoration of the place. We moved on deeper into the village and came to another 2units owned by Grandma. These 2 units were not locked but were used as storage by some of the neighbours. The units are tiny; approximately 2mx4m. The roofs in each unit has a hole from which sunlight enters and cobwebs form around.

After the village, we headed of to lao kim's house which is slightly larger then the 3units combined. It was simple, a bedroom and a living. Xipeng owns it and his mother moved in after he got his current house. Her children were by no means unfilial. She chose to stay by herself to have some peace. At her house i saw many old phone hanging... of which shows my Grandma, my Dad and my Aunt in their younger days. It was....... .

Actually i might have got the sequence of events wrong the sight seeing might have came 1st but oh well.. you will hear more in the next entry...

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Photos

Village restoration donation list
That's my Dad's name on the 2nd panel. 2nd name from the left. =)

Neighbour's signage
Only occupied units get the signage

Family Photo!
my Uncle, my Dad, my Grandma and my Aunt

Siblings
my Dad and my Aunt in their younger days