Yeah who is not happy if they can reach their wish. or dream come true.
It's been long time, I knew my parents wanted to visit their relative in china especially my father. Yeah our grand (grand grand) father came from China especially in Meizhou county where all the people in the province speaks hakka.
I did researched about how to go to Meizhou. Thanks to Hakka United group in Facebook, from this group i collected information to visit Meizhou. Of course, we wanted to know Hakka Culture deeply by visiting this area.
I knew My parents had a hope to visit this place someday.
In 2010, when i was a jobless. I ever told my parents, that we will visit Meizhou someday. they just smiled.
Then, I got Job in Seoul again. I was thinking that it's gonna be difficult to bring them to meizhou.
After i got my current Job, here in Singapore. I told to my parents again that we will go to Meizhou, but they were not ready yet.
Anyway, after few months, when i was free and still had remaining leaves. I pushed my parents especially my father that we will go to Meizhou. They said that they had no money. I told them that I paid the flight tickets. Then, finally I told them, I will pay everything. I will bear everything (Hotel, Transportation, meals, etc).
Then, who know I got bonus semester. Although the amount was not so big, but it might help me to support our trip.
Then 9 Oct in the morning, we flied to Guangzhou by budget airlines. we didn't use any travel agent or tour guide. we just traveled free & easy since my father can read and speak chinese well. From guangzhou, we took bus to Meizhou. Our trip had no detail plan for everyday activities. Even my father had no phone number and detail address to visit his brother (cousin).
For three nights we stayed in Meizhou in hotel, We chartered taxi to bring us sightseeing in Meizhou and to see hakka tulou in dapu and yongding, because we couldn't find local tour. So we knew the traditional house of our ancestor.
During three days, my father oftenly asked people he met about
"zhong buk ban", the place where my grand father from, and where many zhong families lives there. Nobody know. Even I tried to check internet but useless.
Then we moved to my mom's relatives place. we had their phone number and address, but we never met them. We stayed 2 nights overthere. eventhough we couldn't sleep well but we were happy to meet them. They are too many, cannot remember all.
One of sister, siau ching ( i called her sister), brought us to see around the city. In the bus, again my father asked somebody. But they didn't know the place. Then we had lunch together again with my mom's brothers. Finally my father could remember another information of the place, "sam gak gi" which now is called sam gak zen. The sister asked somebody (driver) who know the place to bring us. And we had to say goodbye to them. Gonna miss them. My mom's brother informed to their uncle in Guangzhou. Then they asked us to visit him in Guangzhou.
In our journey to sam gak zen, the driver oftenly asked somebody who know the place we looked for. He asked to some people. Finally, we saw small town and we stopped beside a man who were standing at the street. This guy know the place. we showed him photo of the people that we were looking for. He suddenly said that the man is his grandfather. wow! We were happy especially my father, tears came out from his eyes.
Finally all big family from my father side met, they are from xinning and shenzhen too. wow, it was very big family. We stayed for 1 night. then we had to move to Guangzhou.
At Guangzhou, my sukkung and his family treated us very well too. Wow, blessing came down on us. We never expected that we received many blessing from all families in china.
And you know, i counted the amount of money we spent, include transportation in sinagpore & Indonesia and visa and all in china include airline ticket. All just nice, about same amount to my bonus. wow, thanks God for everything.
note: there were a lot of lessons and funny things during our trip.
- We had to speak Bahasa Indonesia (not hakka anymore) when we talked something secret. But we oftenly forgot. hope they couldn't understand due to our hakka dialect.
- We enjoyed all the food. And accidentally, i ate dog meat again. waaaa....
- My parents spoke hakka mixed with bahasa, not because they didn't know the word but because it's habit in Indonesia...hahahaha...sometime I reminded them...
- I learnt hakka chinese culture especially tea.
- My parents got a lot of angpao. blesssing...before we thought that we would spend a lot of money to give our relatives angpao.
I am gonna miss this trip moment.
"What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived". The things God has prepared for those who love him." I Cor 2:9
ID.
