Monday, April 13, 2009

The bus stop
The bus station

Ticket counter

Check the price here...

The front of the bus is
filled with dead bugs...YUCKS

Resting station


In the bus
On the ferry to cross Yang Tze River

engines of the ferry


On the bus to Tom's house

This whole building belongs to Tom's parents

Chicks going to chicken

well in Tom's house

Chickens

bedroom of Tom's parents also the
place we spend the two nights
solar panel to heat up the temperature of the
water used for bath


Kitchen
bathroom


water used for flushing the toliet

The toliet

grow by Tom's mom
Cotton that are being sell



Tom's cousin
Wood


wheat












Classroom




Today, Tom came to our service apartment to meet us before we set off towards his house. As there is no train, we have to take the bus. We took a bus at the bus stop opposite to KFC. It was the first station for bus 907 hence we are able to get a seat. It was a journey of around 50minutes before we reach the bus stop opposite to the bus interchange. There were many people standing in front of the bus station trying to sell “Huang Piao”; tickets that were resold. Those people buy the ticket from the bus station and resold them to tourist at a much higher price. We ignore those people and make our way into the bus station to purchase our ticket. We were lucky that we do not need to wait for the bus for an hour as there is a bus leaving very soon. We rush to purchase the tickets and went to berth 18 to get our ticket checked and get ready to board the bus. The bus finally came and we eagerly board the bus. Slowly more people joined us but the bus was left empty before it departs from the bus station. We finally know the reasons why it is empty; the bus would pick up passenger every now and they are charge depending on the bus driver.
The journey was very long and shaky. Half way through the trip, people will alight and board the bus. The bus was a non-smoking one but nevertheless there is one guy who broke the rules and smoke in the bus. As the bus was an air-conditional one, we were force to breathe in all the second hand smoke. Finally, we reached our destination and we went to buy the tickets for the ferry. We board the ferry and see how the people start the ferry moving. We need to take the ferry to cross over the Yang Tze River as it was much cheaper to travel by water then taking Taxi to cross over using the bridge. After the trip by ferry, we took the bus to Tom’s house. The people here are very friendly as when they know that we are from Singapore, we are offer seat straight away. When we reach Tom’s house, his mom offer us seats, mandarin orange and green tea straight away. We put our bag into Tom’s room while his mom when to get hot water to cook tea for us. We sat down to take a rest before going to his father’s cotton factory to take a look. As the season was over, we did not manage to see the process of making cotton but we manage to see the end product and got a rough idea on how the machines works. After touring the factory, we went to look at the field. It was now fill with flowers that could be made into oil. We walked through the field and we were surrounded by flower and vegetable. On the way, we helped one another in looking out for holes and helped each other when anyone of us slip or lose our footing.
We toured Tom’s primary school and took pictures in the classroom. His father asked us to go for dinner at the nearby restaurant. They ordered a wide spread to welcome us and his mom serve us the food. We were being toast by Tom’s father and his two uncles. I tried one mouth of the wine they drink and it taste very good. It leave a very strong fragrant in our mouth after we drink it. Sebastian and Satish drank a few cups of the wine while the rest of us drank pepsi instead of the wine. The adults took turns to toast us and towards the end of the trip, the five of us toast them for the dinner they serve us. Upon reaching Tom’s house, his mom asked us to take a bath. The bathroom in his house is the same us the bathroom you can get in a five star hotel. We bathe and his mom prepared slippers for us to wear after our bath. We were given the master bedroom of his house to sleep in while the guys sleep in the motel opposite his house. Tom’s parents slept in tom’s room downstairs so that they are able to protect us in case anything will happen to us. We were treated like VIP since we reached his house.
Today, I learnt that Chinese living in Chain really welcome guest a lot. They will try to give their guest the best out of the best they can. This really makes us feel very warm and make us feel like home. We were really grateful toward his parents to treat us so well. Being able to come to the country side is very good for me as I am able to feel the nature and experience how it is to be living near the countryside. Singapore is being surrounded by high rise building and it is not easy to find country side areas. This trip will help me have a greater understanding of the life in countryside and bring back something I learn here back with me to Singapore. We will be going on a day tour to the city area tomorrow, hope we will be able to look and learn more new and interesting thing.

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