Back to our roots (金門-寻根之旅）

December 29, 2015 Leave a comment

This may not be the most beautiful beach but it is one dearest to me.

Since young, I heard so many stories from my late Ah Mah about her life in Kinmen (金門). Even at the final days of her life when most memory failed her, she kept reciting about the beach where she and grandpa went to collect oysters every morning. The beach must have left her with such a deep memory, even at the final days of her life, she couldn’t remember me or her loved ones, she kept reciting the same old story time after time.

When she passed away in 1999, I promised myself that one day I must visit this particular beach where Ah Mah and Ah Gong used to live. With my loved ones and family.

I never forget this promise. It takes me 16 years to fulfil this promise.

This is the one and only reason why we come to Kinmen. To find back our roots. It will be a meaningful trip for my parents and my son. For me, I have been dreaming about this “beach” Ah Mah often mentioned, I want to be at the spot she mentioned in all her stories.

Thanks to my cousins Xuejun and Chee Bin who directed me to the right local contact, we managed to locate the address of our late grandparents’ old home. The old house sits opposite the beach in a very small district of Yangshan (21,22 洋山).

An old distant relative and some neighbours came out to welcome us and brought us to the old abandoned sealed house. It was very very old. A government seal was pasted on its wall. It stated the owner of the building (my deceased Ah Gong) and it was under the protection of the government. The exterior walls looked clean and intact but the building’s interior was occupied by dense vegetation. It was impossible to enter the compound.

There were a lot of empty oyster shells littered around the compound. I asked the neighbour about the beach. They told us it’s a short walking distant right across the road. Before we left the compound, we took a 3-generation photo (my dad, son and me) at the entrance of the old house and headed out to the beach. It was only a short 3-minute walk away.

“Look opposite and you see Xiamen” the old neighbour pointed to us.

The seashore is unlike the sandy beach my Ah Mah described, it is now bunkered by concrete stabs to prevent erosion of the shoreline. A road separated the house and the beach. I was a little disappointed when I saw it. It was just so different from what I had imagined.

“So this is where Ah Gong and you harvested oysters” I thought to myself. “And this is the sea view you see every day before you came to Singapore. Too bad, this place has been urbanised, there is no more oyster.”

By some divine intervention or the old neighbour was able to read my thoughts, she said “Look beyond the shoreline at the shallow water, there are a lot of oysters there. If you come early, we can go down and grab a few!”

I was surprised and delighted to hear that and took out my camera to capture the areas she pointed. The neighbour then brought us to another house where we saw a middle aged lady extracting oysters from the shells.

“This is how we do it here. We put sticks or nets in the water for the oysters to grow. One year later, we draw them out and extract the meats” she explained. “This is tough work, only the old folks are doing this today. The young ones left home for better jobs outside Kinmen.”

Just before we left, I went back to the old house to take more shots. At the back of the house, I bumped into a very old lady who sternly questioned (in Hokkien) about my presence (you might be able to spot her in the video below). I told her I was taking photo of my late Ah Mah’s house. To my surprise, she said she knew the occupants of the house but that was so long ago. Before we left, she smiled at Elkan and me with these parting words, “Yes, they (deceased ancestors) will know that you are back. Young people should come back to revisit their roots. This is your home after all.” 

On the way back to our cab, I took one last look at the sea and the rocky sandy beach, I can finally put a good closure to the missing part of my 16-year vision of the story my late-Ah Mah shared.

It is nothing but beautiful. Miss you so much again, Ah Mah.

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Droning on Christmas Day (over Fujian Tulou)

December 29, 2015 4 Comments

I always like to blog or vlog on the actual day so I can extract the most from my memory. It is also mentally exhausting for me to go through 2-3 days of content.

However, after 3 late nights of video editing and blogging, I fell sick on Christmas Day. I was down with a very bad painful sore throat and fever. I totally lost my voice. My parents and wife were worried about me and I promised them that I will rest more. So, no blogging or video-editing until the end of the trip.

On Christmas Day, Leon and Qiaoqiao made special transport arrangement for me to visit an UNESCO World Heritage Site, the legendary Fujian Tulou. Built between the 12th-20th century, the Tulou is famed for its large, circular fortified earth structure. It is like a Royal castle with thick defensive outer walls and upper-deck gun holes (to fight against armed bandits), except these unique buildings were built for a large family or clan. Despite using very basic materials, the oldest Tulou stands for over 700 years. Each Tulou comes equipped with its own water wells, ceremonial hall, bedrooms and bathrooms.

Due to its unique shape and uncanny outlook, the Tulou were once mistaken for missile silos by the Americans during the Cold War.

We took an hour train from Xiamen to Longyan City (龙岩市) and from there, we travelled for another 40 minutes to Hongkeng village. There are a total of 46 Tulou listed by the UNESCO and the driver took us to the “Prince of Tulou”, 振成楼. Completed in 1912, the Prince of Tulou is a double-ring structure, consists of 184 rooms.

The weather was bad. It was foggy and gloomy. It wasn’t the ideal condition for photography. Nevertheless, Leon and I took the drone out and prepared for flight. Drone pilots often attracted many curious onlookers. Even before the flight, there were already a couple of onlookers waiting beside us. The drone flight was delayed by damn DJI as its app alerted us that we have to upgrade the new firmware which I did a few days ago. Anyway, we wasted a good-10-minute battery life for the completion of upgrading. It was kind of worrying as it is never good to do remote upgrading just minutes before flight time.

The drone took off successfully and the view from above was spectacular! A few local villagers stood beside me to peep at the screen. They were excited as this was the first time they saw their homeland from above. They were surprised how beautiful and big it looked.

Leon and Elkan took turns to operate their first solo flight. Leon was impressed how user-friendly and powerful the drone was. (I was trying to persuade him to join the drone club!) Elkan was super excited and happy that he managed the landing unassisted.

I wished we have more time to drone over more Tulou. However, we have a farewell dinner to attend and we have to rush back to Xiamen. Well, I got what I came here for. All good and beautiful. Time to pack and head back to Xiamen.

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The impregnable Golden Gate（金门之旅）

December 28, 2015 Leave a comment

Kinmen (金门), the Golden Gate of the East is a small island with only 50,000 residents. Today, over 100,000 Kinmen descendants are residing in southeast Asia. It is rich in its war history and was the place where the last China-Taiwan war was fought. Thanks to American’s intervention (with a serious threat to nuke China if Kinmen is ever invaded), it miraculously survived 2 Chinese invasion attempts and over 500,000 bombardments.

Other than its historic war monuments, Kinmen is also famed for its white spirit (金门高粱酒), knives (金门菜刀) and herbs (一条根). Surprisingly, not many people know how close Kinmen is to China, it takes only 30 minutes on ferry to get across between these 2 countries. Due to the passenger volume, there is a ferry every 30 minutes.

Kinmen is relatively a green and clean island, life on the island is slow and peaceful. Local islanders are extremely warm and friendly, everywhere is peaceful, safe, spacious and quiet. Air is fresh, there is almost no pollutant here. Greenery is aplenty and very well-maintained. Drivers give way to one another and strangers make small talk along the way. The main road is mostly empty and there is no major shopping street or night market. By 9pm, the island sleeps. It reminds me of Australian and New Zealand towns. (Perfect for me as I slept early due to my bad flu.)

It is very tourist-friendly as over 90% of the attractions do not require any entrance fee. At the custom, I saw many tourists from China, mainland Taiwan and Hong Kong.

We stayed at a cozy local B&B hotel where it is named after the owner’s Dalmatian dog, Dingding 叮叮. The owner volunteered to pick us up at the ferry terminal (which was extremely helpful as we have 6 pax and many big luggage). Breakfast were provided daily and they were very tasty. (As Tracy is vegetarian, they went out to buy her breakfast!) Our rooms faced a very small man-made lake which was amazingly clean with fishes and ducks. And broadband was surprisingly fast too!

Getting around Kinmen is easy. There are a lot of yellow cabs around and the bus drivers are friendly to guide us around. Private car rental is at NT500/hour and most attractions are located within 5-10 minutes ride away.

As it was a trip to visit our old house, we didn’t make any pre-holiday planning. We relied on the local’s recommendation and travellers’ reviews on TripAdvisor. Too bad, the weather was wet and we didn’t get to cycle around the island. We visited many free attractions – underground bunkers (dug manually during the war), old traditional residence, Kinmen cultural museum, underground navy base and the original Kinmen Liquor Company (it is cheaper to get the liquor here than at duty free stores at the ferry terminal). At night, we dined at Asia’s largest duty free shopping complex, Everrich Downtown Duty Free.

It was a short relaxing 2D2N trip, the main purpose is to visit our old house. This morning, we left Kinmen and returned to Xiamen to catch our train back to Shenzhen. Leon came to pick us up at the ferry terminal and had lunch with us.

The year end family vacation is coming to an end. Next stop Hong Kong, with my old folks.

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Who needs Santa when you have Mermaids for Christmas!

December 25, 2015 Leave a comment

I only slept for 3 hours last night. We have a wonderful Christmas Eve. I took tons of footage and photographs. By the time we finished our little Christmas countdown and video-edit, it was already 4am! Tiring but every second is priceless!

This is the first time I celebrate Christmas with my parents and Auntie Amy’s family overseas (outside Hong Kong to be exact). It is certainly great to have them around during this festive seasons. Our usual end year travel becomes noisier with joyful chattering, laughers and lots of blissful nagging.

As there is no public holiday in China during Christmas, Leon took 2 days off to accompany us. I felt guilty as he was working in between during our visit (and he paid for all our expenses!). Qiaoqiao and him planned a special Christmas Eve dinner for all of us. Knowing I am an avid blogger, he promised it will be a “spectacular” dining venue for me. I really appreciate their kind thoughtfulness and love.

We set off to the one-and-only-must-visit tourist attraction of Xiamen, Gulangyu Island (鼓浪屿). The island is only 2km2 and is home to about 20,000 residents. Gulangyu is famed for its mishmash of architecture and alleys of local eateries and souvenir shops.

The 20-minute 3-deck ferry from Xiamen was all packed with visitors. My first impression of the island reminded of Taipei Jiufen. Rustic with lots of sweet surprises at every turn. The old colonial buildings and confusing narrow lanes, Gulangyu is like a mini Venice of the East. There are just so many things to see and explore. We saw many Taiwanese eateries and souvenir shops. Price was surprisingly reasonable and we could bargain with the shop-keepers too.

Leon’s princess Zhuzhu was the star/spice of the day. She won our hearts with all her comical poses, little pranks and mischievous tantrums. Annoyingly adorable!

Thanks to our great hosts Leon and Qiaoqiao, we had the most unusual Christmas Eve countdown at a very unique restaurant. The dining place they booked exceeded our expectation. Surrounded by full-height glass- walled aquarium with many fishes, it was like dining under the sea. The buffet hall is incredibly huge with a wide range of dishes! I covered less than 50% of the spread. (Cost: RMB395/adult)

In my opinion, it wasn’t the wide selection of food that attracted the big crowd. I believe it was the magical enchantment of the restaurant’s resident-mermaids that lured everyone here. It was certainly very distracting to dine beside an aquatic stage filled with sensual aquatic dancers from Russia. The mermaids performed many graceful routines that drew almost 80% of the diners to the tank. They were eye candies and I have deep respect for them. One thing is for sure, this is not an easy job, especially performing in such a tight space. These mermaids are professional! Who needs Santa when you have Mermaids for Christmas!

What an eye-opening and mouth-watering treat from my dear cousins! Certainly, this will be one unforgettable Christmas Eve family dinner ever! We had the best of everything – great food, great dining concept and most importantly, with the presence of great company of family and friends.

This blog is dedicated to Leon and Qiaoqiao for being such a wonderful and thoughtful hosts! Thanks for the generosity and time! 

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Road to Xiamen

December 23, 2015 3 Comments

What a dramatic and rocky start of the day.

First, we hijacked someone’s transport unintentionally (at the Shenzhen hotel) and we had issues with our train tickets. We nearly couldn’t make it to Xiamen (not again!!!). It was a close call and almost a deja vu. 2 years ago, Tracy and I were didn’t make it to Xiamen and we ended up in Xian! For a moment, I thought fate was replaying itself when the ticket officer told us they couldn’t issue the tickets due to a typo. Luckily for us, we managed to replace the invalid tickets with 2 “standing-tickets” and boarded the train just in time. What a frustrating morning at the train station. Not to mention a terrible driver who smoked and talked on the phone when driving.

The train from Shenzhen North Station to Xiamen North Station took about 3.5 hours (1st Class Seat: RMB181/adult). Traveling at a top speed of 215km/h, the ride was extremely comfortable, clean and smooth but don’t expect any in-train entertainment or fine dining. My only complain is the frequent ear-pressure that can be very uncomfortable. The train crossed many wetlands, streams, hills, farms and gigantic electrical towers.

This was supposed to be another “surprise visit” masterminded by Auntie Amy. We wanted to surprise my cousin Leon and family but my auntie accidentally let the cat out of the bag 2 weeks ago (and she thought her son was dumb enough not to see through her trick). Last week, my cousin Leon revealed to me that he knew about the surprise and asked me to carry on with the act. Now, this is getting quite complicated and confusing. To surprise or not to surprise?

Leon picked us up at the train station. My parents were so delighted and surprised to see him. We spent a couple hours back in the hotel to unpack/chat/rest/recharge and the grannies started their chattering and nagging ritual the moment I flashed my gears & toys. Usually when I travel, my hotel room is always empty. It is so good to see my room packed with lots of people. It was chaotic, noisy but full of family love and warmth. For a second, I thought it was CNY (and not Christmas)!

We didn’t spend much time touring Xiamen today. It was purely family gathering and dining. Leon treated us an awesome/sumptuous dinner with many “never-seen-before” dish decoration. In total, we had 20 over dishes! Thanks bro for the wonderful hospitality and generosity!

There is something unusual with the weather. Winter isn’t that cold in Xiamen. At a cozy 24°C, there is no need for us to wear any thick winter clothing. The weather is just perfect for me! Hopefully the haze clear up by tomorrow so I can start flying my drone and explore this small dynamic island of Xiamen.

What a tiring and eventful day. I am looking forward to a great and relaxing Christmas Eve tomorrow!

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Oh dear, his grannies are in town

December 22, 2015 Leave a comment

Today is an exciting day for the family. My mum and dad flew in for Christmas! Today is also the Winter Solstice (冬至), a festive day when Chinese family get together to eat glutinous rice balls (汤圆) that symbolise reunion. We will all meet in Hong Kong airport and then make our way to Xiamen via a 3-hour train from Shenzhen the next morning.

Elkan is nervous meeting the grannies. Being the only child in the travel group, he gets all the nagging from the old folks. I can understand his fear (whenever Elkan isn’t around, the grannies will start to nag at me!). He calls my dad “creepy grandpa” after our last vacation in Maldives 2 years ago. Both sharing the same room, my dad kept talking to him late into the night. Couldn’t understand the dialogue, Elkan wasn’t sure if my dad was talking to him or talking to himself. Elkan totally freaked himself that night.

Thanks to my massive gadgets (projector and speakers – I’ll explain later) and gears (drone and cameras), we had a difficult time getting a cab to the airport. Luckily for us, we met a cab driver who excels in “brick-game”. With a little tweaking, the cabbie managed to pack all our luggage into the cab. Oops…Due to this slight delay, my parents were at the arrival gate 20 minutes before our cab arrived. (And I arrived even later as I was “replenishing” more gears at the airport DJI-pop-up store.)

After a quick (and heavy) dim sum lunch at the airport, we departed for Shenzhen. We will be staying one night in Shenzhen as we will be taking a morning train to Xiamen the following day.

Thanks to an invitation and recommendation by a friend who is working at DJI, I brought the entire family to visit a new city attraction, the Shenzhen OCT Harbour (欢乐海岸). Located within the Hongshulin Mangrove Forest, the 1.2m-sqm OCT Harbour hosts many China’s firsts – China’s first international waterfront shopping, first 5-star cinema, first multimedia water theatre and eco-tourism exhibition complex. With such a cool foggy weather and so many glittering structures, the OCT Harbour is so beautiful and magical at night. I am surprise to find such a place in Shenzhen.

DJI just opened its first flagship store 2 days ago here at the OCT Harbour and that is main reason why I am here tonight. It is housed in an iconic building and the showroom is huge. Thankfully, it wasn’t as crowded and crazy like its opening day. There wasn’t a lot of people tonight. I had all the space to myself to browse and interact with the friendly shop staffs.

I spent close to 45 minutes in the store and bought a couple of accessories and shared an informal retail-audit report with my friend. Overall experience: B+. It looks good but the instore engagements aren’t interactive enough to trigger purchase. There are little product demos that allow users to test the drones or the cameras. In short, it isn’t very “experiential and interactive”. It looks like a pretty modern showroom with lots of repetitive drones. I guess this place is more for new users than regulars like myself. All the shop staffs were extremely friendly but the first two staffs who I engaged separately couldn’t offer me deeper technical advices. Only one shop staff was impressive and he took an effort to fetch me an item that was out of stock.

We had our Winter Solstice dinner at a Taiwanese hotpot restaurant and glutinous rice balls desserts at our favourite Hong Kong Honeymoon Dessert. Elkan got himself totally drenched playing at the water fountain. We had a great cozy evening at the harbour. Love the weather and the lovely company!

Tomorrow will be another long day of traveling. Tracy and Elkan are now in my room waiting for me to setup the projector to screen our favourite Singapore TV drama. Yes, now you know why I bring along a portable projector and speakers.

Filed under Family, Travel

No more work till 2016!

December 22, 2015 2 Comments

Today marks the first day of my year-end vacation! This is the day Elkan has been looking forward to for the past 5 weeks in Hong Kong. Days waiting for dad to come home after work were dreadful and disappointing. Often I came back home exhausted and late, leaving very little bonding time with him.

So both son and dad are going to give poor mummy a free day to do her own things today. Finally, Felicia is free to do her shopping without baby-sitting my grown-up prankster. Like most boys at his age, Elkan hates shopping. I can understand that. Even at my age, I am not so sure if I have the same stamina to company any lady to shop. It is not about the waiting, it is the endless fruitless walking and browsing.

Late last night, Elkan and I planned to wake up at 6am this morning to jog around Victoria Harbour. We both played games until 1am and all of us overslept. Yes, we are simply too lazy. No excuse at all, we decided to go for a late jog and do some household chores for mummy.

10 minutes into our journey, I changed my mind. I told Elkan that I have a better idea than jogging. He was worried.

“Huh?” he sighed. “Don’t tell me you are going to shop again?”

“No,” I quickly comforted him. “Daddy is going to bring you to a new place!”

“But I still want to jog!” he insisted. “And I am hungry.”

We took a long walk to IFC and walked towards the Central Pier. There, I pointed to the Ferris Wheel and winked at him with an “evil, sly” smile. His face brighten up immediately and nodded!

“Yes, yes! Now, that’s a good idea daddy!” Elkan exclaimed in excitement!

We hopped on the Ferris Wheel and had the entire gondola to ourselves! It went 3 rounds before we alighted. While on the Ferris Wheel, we saw the AIA Christmas Carnival. I told Elkan we can do some sports inside the carnival. The weather was excellent and there wasn’t any crowd at all! What a perfect day to go to the carnival!

We spent an hour inside the carnival. We ran around freely and there wasn’t any queue at all. The rides are pretty expensive but we had great fun! Both of us love the bummer-car a lot. When I suggested to play one more round, Elkan rejected me. He said it’s too expensive and we should just skip it. Aw…he is always so thoughtful and lovely!

We decided to keep our little getaway a secret. We came back home and didn’t tell Felicia anything about our little adventure. She only found out when she saw the video I posted on Facebook. See below.

Later the evening, Felicia planned a little Christmas Surprise for everyone. She invited all of Elkan’s favourite aunties and uncle – Harshad, Chowpo and Tracy to a little Christmas Game at Causeway Bay – LASER-WARS!

We have no idea what’s going to happen. I thought it was the “Escape Room” game that we have played 2 years ago. When we were told the game only lasted 12 minutes per session, we were quite disappointed at the short length of time. We were very wrong. Thankfully, it is only 12 minutes. I certainly wished for much shorter game play.

This game is super intense and chaotic! I totally underestimated the toughness of this point-&-shoot laser sport. I was already breathless just 5 minutes into the game. It was super-tiring and back-breaking.

Unfortunately, Felicia booked 2 games for all of us. By the end of the first session, Elkan topped the chart with the highest score. Chowpo was awarded with “Trigger-Happy” title while Felicia won the “Sharp-Shooter” award. We took a 15-minute break before re-entering the war-zone again.

What a happening and exciting first day of vacation! Tomorrow is another big day for me! My mum and dad arrives in Hong Kong and we will be heading to our old ancestral home at Taiwan, Jinmen Island. It will be another one week of excitement and adventure with the old folks.

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The tears behind his debut TV drama (Updated)

December 21, 2015 3 Comments

“Is that Elkan on TV?” 

Since the sequel of the Dream Makers aired on Singapore TV 2 weeks ago, Felicia and I received many messages from our friends and relatives asking if our son acted in the drama. Yes, that is indeed our little prankster, Elkan.

The story began almost 7 months ago (May 2015) when Elkan was attending a 30-week acting course for children. Thanks to his teacher, he was invited to an audition for a MediaCorp Channel 8 drama. Felicia and I had no idea what role Elkan was auditing for. All we wanted was some new experience for our son. Nothing more.

The next day, I received a note from Felicia that Elkan was selected for the role. I was delighted and asked about the role. She said the crew was looking for a child to act in several crying scenes for the drama and Elkan passed the test.

“Wow, how did he convince the casting panel?” I asked.

“He cried. Really cried, real tears,” Felicia answered.

“Wow…amazing, how did he do that? It must really difficult to get him crying in front of the strangers,” I exclaimed. “Did they ask him to use the eye-drop?”

“Not really, it was you,” she said.

“Me?” I laughed aloud. “Must be one of those episodes when I was scolding and yelling at that naught boy, right? Oh dear, the crew must be thinking what a cruel dad I was!”

“No. I told the crew to ask Elkan to think about you. Especially those sad farewell moments at the airport. He cried immediately the second they asked him about you.” Felicia said. “He misses you a lot.”

My heart sank instantly and guilt filled my soul. Tears blurred my vision. I couldn’t carry on the conversation. I remembered vividly the scene outside the moving taxi. It was making an U-turn outside Times Square, heading towards Central.

Felicia’s words rewinded in my mind for many days. I never knew the impact I had on my boy. It was really bad.

Like the old Chinese proverb “人生如戏 戏如人生”，Elkan’s character in the show mimics our situation. In the show, Elkan’s mum (played by Huang Biren) left the family to pursue her career. In our case, I park my wife and kid in Singapore while I pursue my career in Hong Kong. The difference is we meet as much as we can and we treasure all the time together. Absence doesn’t divide us, it bonds us stronger and closer.

That summer holiday, we had one of our happiest holidays in New Zealand! Felicia and Elkan had to fly back to Singapore 1 week earlier for the shoot. As the show required Elkan to cry in a couple of scenes, I was worried about his mental state. Thankfully, the crew and his teacher were very kind and encouraging. He managed to finish all 7-8 scenes in 12 hours. We were told to catch his debut in December.

Being abroad for so many years, I have not watched any Singapore Channel 8 for the past decade. It was only 3 weeks ago when I read about the drama “The Dream Makers II (志在四方II)“, I realised Elkan was indeed very lucky to act alongside Singapore’s veteran actor/King of Caldecott Hill, Li Nanxing (李南星) and actress/Meryl Streep of MediaCorp, Huang Biren (黄碧仁).

Thanks to my son. I fell in love with Singapore Chinese drama once more. I have been watching Hollywood and Hong Kong dramas and realised Singapore drama has improved so much! It is indeed a very emotional and powerful show. I love the characters played by Jeanette Aw, Zoe Tay and Rui En. Just so addictive.

Certainly, Elkan is less excited than his old dad and mum. Afterall, he isn’t from our era. Elkan was more interested in the camera equipments than his old folks’ idols. And “fame-chasing” isn’t something in his mind. All he wants is to have fun and experience new things. He is more worried about facing his school mates when school reopens in the next 2 weeks.

So, here’s me – a very proud dad, sharing my son’s debut (and maybe his last) reel! Enjoy! I am sure his grandparents will be thrilled! I remember my first school holiday job working in my dad’s timber factory. This is certainly a more meaningful one for my boy! While there is both sweat and tears in his work, I hold his emotion dearest to my heart.

This blog is dedicated to Elkan’s best friend, Harshad who sees the rockstar in my boy since the first day they met. Harshad is also one of the reasons why we sent him to the acting school. And big thanks to his teacher for giving him this priceless experience! And big hugs to mummy for enduring 30 weeks and 12 hours of companionship.

Filed under Family, Jo's Thoughts, Life in Singapore