Day39

Our group of people wake up early today because Tom going to bring us a one day tour around the city which is opposite of his house, An Hui. Before going to the city Tom told us lots of information of the city especially shopping part which he said only got a big shopping centre that is smaller than Wuhan. Early in the morning the parents of Tom already wake up to prepare breakfast for us. Tom told us actually his parents wanted to prepare something special for us but we went Tom’s house is to have a “taste” of their lifestyle therefore we took their normal breakfast which is porridge. The porridge is plain in taste but inside contains green bean and peanuts, it taste really special. The dishes that we have a type of seasoned long bean and fried peanuts with salt are the most common dishes they have in every morning. Then, the salted eggs and tea eggs are freshly made because they seasoned the salted themselves and the chicken eggs were lay by chicken is rear by themselves. Last time I used to think that rural life is bored without entertainments and everyday doing the same things but as I try out I realise that is actually more relaxing and not that stress as Singapore do. After breakfast Tom’s dad rent a car to drive us cross a special bridge built across Yangtze River. The bridge is so long, in Singapore our longest bridge as compare to them is nothing. I realise that Singapore is too small, China is so big and the world is enormous. We went to the city of An Hui and begin with visiting their temple and followed by shopping. Tom is a good translator, he told us about the tower which is built during Qing dynasty and designed by the Zhu Ge Liang using the Ba Zhen Tu. I have my first time of picking lot to know our family safety and love life. The temple is a peaceful and cosy place which is the only place I hope to go again. Tom suggest that we should buy some souvenirs for our relative if we want to so we ended up in a short shopping street and in one of the Chinese Traditional biscuit or cakes shop. We try lots of stuff like one of their famous cake which is like muffin and lots of different types of biscuits and sweet. Actually, we like the “muffin” a lot more that the biscuit but later we decide to get some of their sweets because the duration for the cake to expire is four days only and this is the3 days before we are going back therefore it is not appropriate for us to do so. As we heard that Tom’s mother love that ‘”muffin” we all bought him lots of that to bring home to her mum. After all these, we went to one of the shops to eat lunch as we going to have very late dinner for today. I realise Chinese people love spicy and hot stuffs even their noodle also spicy but as compare to Wuhan the foods in An Hui taste better and more healthy is less oil and salt especially what Tom’s parents cooked. Around 3plus, we went to the zoo which is near to Tom’s aunt house, did you realise everywhere in An Hui Tom got someone he know? The zoo is a small but it has lots of different kind of animal. The animals inside the zoo make me feel that they are sad and I think every one of them looks pitiful to be kept inside the cage. Since is a small zoo so Tom tells us that it is likely the animal are angry because not much people visit the zoo until the vacations so they might not have money to buy foods for them. Then, we went to see the TV by using the lake water to form the screen according to the people is that the musical fountain was there every day is for them to relax and is free. I feel amazed by the fountain because the scene is grand when the water “dance" with the music. In fact, we actually do not want to go over to the main entrance of the fountain to see, we wanted to stand far from the musical fountain because near Tom’s aunt house we are able to see the fountain but not clearly in order to see clearly we have to walk a long distance but last minute we decide to go because we may not be back again. Though after we reached one minutes the musical fountain ended, we have no regret because the fountain is pretty. After that we quickly rushed back to Tom’s aunt house because we fear that the parents of him might be hungry waiting for us because after that fountain is already 815pm. So we took two cars from there to his house. We took a government car which is again a new experience, did you realise that if that the drivers in China heard the horning sound produce by government car they will always give way to them? In my opinion, the government officials in China are like “emperor” if anyone joins the government work they are considering the “biggest”, everyone must give in to them. Today dinner is cooked by Tom’s parents. Surprisingly, the father cooked though the mother cooked too. Tom’s family gives me lots of surprise and different view of China people especially different from that in Singapore. Not all male Chinese are male chauvinist. I love a family like this I even envy them though I am in a happy family like them too. The dinner dishes is all their hometown dishes which all the An Qing people usually cooked for dinner and some dishes especially for special occasion like chicken and duck which taste a thousand per cents nicer than that in Singapore and I know their parent already choose the most nicest meat around the drumstick for us. Their warn welcome and everything they did make me feel so guilty as we did not pay we just eat at their house and even sleep at his parents room. We keep toasting and talk a lot about what we eat in Singapore. All the dishes were so nice and healthy, you know the Chinese preserve and salted sausage we eat in Singapore is red one but the original colour is not red is they put colourings that is why is red? In Singapore, we think that we have healthy lifestyle but actually we are not. After that, all of us went to Tom house the salon and make our hair which in total cost RMB250, thanks the auntie there waiting for us till 10pm then commences. Yeah! Is left with 3 days to Singapore, we must jia you Sasi few more days.