Hainanese on Hainan Island Day 2

Day 2, woke up at 7.15am, which was a big ordeal for me. Even when I was working at Miko I woke up at 8.30am, sometimes even 9. Luckily my roomie was an early bird, so he woke me up. Washed up and went to the lobby at 8, feeling stoned.

Our "driver" drove us to his wife's stall, selling 抱罗粉。

抱罗粉 stall. Me sitting there with my mom, stoning.

The "market". Pretty cool, but unhygenic.

粗米粉 + ginger + peanuts + pork bak chor + sweetened beef = 抱罗粉。 Heavenly.

My sis camwhoring while I gobble down my breakfast.

The tiny stall.

After breakfast, we decided to buy firecrackers, fireworks, and some offerings for the village, and so qiao we met my granduncle, who is also the caretaker of the house my family owns in the village. Today we're going back to my dad's hometown.

My dad introducing my granduncle to us. Hamsum old man.

FIRECRACKERS!

Random vendor on the streets selling claypots.

FIREWORKS!

While my dad was negotiating the price with the store owner, this old lady just came along acting as though she knew us.

My grandaunt buying 金纸 while the old lady watches on.

Congrats Greg, I found someone shorter than you.

After buying all our stuff we were driven to our village. On the way my dad told him to drive us to a shop that was owned by my great-grandpa. Since my great-grandpa's passing and my grandpa leaving Hainan Island the shop was rented out to some weird guys.
泰隆城。 Don't know what they're doing inside though.

After driving for 1/2 hr, we're finally here!
宝鸡孙村。 Weird name eh? The area is called 宝鸡，and its the 孙村。

Moving the things in.

Mmmm, dog. Yummy.

Welcome to my crib.

Some really cool paintings on the wall. The house is 300+ years old btw, and these paintings have been there since it was built.

Cloth that was put up to "bless" the house i think, buy the construction workers. Also 300+ years old. And never washed. lulz.


Outdoor tile paintings. Also 300+ years old.

300+ years old kitchen. Not sure about the wok though, don't dare to ask.

After looking around my grandparent's house, it's time to pay respects to the guy that founded the village. Something like the 1st Hokage.
The Donation Wall outside his shrine.

5m long firecracker!

Fat, fat fat chicken. Walk away from me now, you'll be my lunch later.

Kids in the village.

100-yo granny. She's not the oldest in the village btw.

Wooo my name on the Donation Wall. Now I know where my childhood ang pow money went.

The 400-year old ancestral shrine.

The inside of the ancestral shrine.

乾隆皇帝赐的牌。 siol. Check out the top left hand corner, got his name and the imperial seal.

Setting up another roll of firecrackers, 3m long.

Mom and I admiring the inside of the shrine.

Arsonist in action. Lighting firecrackers was fun, u hear the "sssssssss" sound then u RUN.

Me paying respects. Dont know why this joss stick "bowl" is near the rooftop. I had to stand on a table to reach it.

My grandaunt burning hell notes.

Me setting off fireworks

Not much of a vid, but it was deafening in the enclosed area. Plus I stupidly stood there and inhaled all the smoke because I wanted to see firecrackers. And pardon my sis's crappy video capturing skillz.

After the firecrackers we went back to our house to get the things to pay respect to my direct ancestors.

Go buy 4d.

On the way to my less-distant ancestors' graves.

Another look at the village.

The plantations on the way to the graves.

Pepper.


After walking for ~20 mins, we're finally at the 1st grave.

My great-great-great-grandfather's grave. There's 2 more just beside it, which is my great-great-great-great-grandfather's and great-great-great-great-grandmother's.

My dad preparing to set off small firecrackers. We did it at every tomb we paid respect to, and according to my dad it was for "waking them up" so they "know we're paying respects".
I <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nRw0Bs7O-jc/SCMIBWytZmI/AAAAAAAAAKo/gKP0P7W5dds/s1600-h/CIMG2225.jpg">Chicken thigh. With 1 inch of fat.

双喜牌香烟。

90+ years old and still going strong. Moral of the story: Smoking doesn't kill. 2nd hand smoke does.

After lunch, we went to visit my dad's primary school.
This is what I call sex education.

We went back to the hotel because my relatives were whining. "Aiyo so tired, walk so much today~" Wah piang.

Anyway, DINNERTIME! And we're having... Steamboat!
Fish soup, and mutton soup. Yummy!

饺子。 It's very different from the ones we have in Singapore, the skin's pretty thick, and there's not much filling. Which is interesting, it made them really chewy. I think it's the way the local Hainanese eat their food, everything's chewy.

Goat liver.

Goat's tail. With hair.

馒头！The brownish one is white sesame flavour, and the greyish one is black sesame flavour. Can't tell the difference though.

After the really great dinner, we went back to the village to set off the fireworks we bought earlier in the day. Turns out the whole village was waiting for our arrival.

There's no lights outdoors, so everybody had to carry torchlights.

Cousins I never knew I had.

Sadly my sis didn't take photos of the fireworks. They were pretty impressive, considering they were set off by me.

Me and sis with the village chief. Check out the serious bling.

Turns out my dad was the village chief's childhood buddy.

Gathering at my crib after the fireworks.

My granduncle again. He's smoking all the time.

After the crowd dispersed my sis and I were hungry again, so we left the village again for supper.

Street stalls selling various local delicacies.

Kuay-Tai-Din, aka 鸡屎-something. The reason why it's called that is because it's shaped like chicken shit, but it's actually made of flour. Tastes like 汤圆 without the filling, and it's ginger soup too. Really good. Don't ask me why it's grey though, I don't want to know either.

After our wonderful supper I went back to the village to stay for the night, while the rest of my family and relatives went back to the hotel. It was like field camp all over again, except I wasn't sleeping on grass.

It was a great day.