I arrived in Luisha, Puning in just over four hours - a record time since normally it's about 5 to 6 depending on the traffic and weather. But thanks to New Year, everything is still quiet.
Upon disembarking the bus I immediately flagged down a "bicycle" used as a poor man's taxi. It's effectively a bicycle that has been modified to attach a small coach at the back to allow seating to 2 - 3 people. Asked for the price in the local dialect aware that the chances of the biker understand the dialect being 50/50 - but a great way to tell him that I'm from the area and not to try to ripp me off. We settled on RMB6.00 double of the normal rate since very few bikers are working right now.
I stopped by a hair salon first - my hair while not messy by Capetonian standards has not seen a pair of sicossors in almost 3 months and lacked that neatness that can only come from regular trimming, dryer and comb. So again I paid a higher price than normal for a wash, cut and rinse (RMB30) and walked out feeling confident that this time my grandmother would not complain about my appearances. Long sleaves, black polished leather shoes, neatly trimmed and blow-dried hair, long pants without too much wrinkles.
Upon entering the house I was greated by my grandmother, my uncle and his wife. As social covention would dictate they asked if I had my meal. I said no and told them I would do my normal thing and go find my favourite dish in the whole wide world. A steamed rice sheets with lots of goodies rolled inside. My favourite dish since a kid and about the only thing I look forward to everytime I come to this hole which I once called my home.
The next few hours after my meal was spent talking to my grandmother. She is still incredibly healthy for a woman her age, but since being hit by a car a few years ago her mobility is badly affected. The injury wasn't the main problem, rather the treatment. The doctors there drilled a hole in her leg and tied a string attached to a brick to straighten and realign her bone. When my dad finally got back to visit her in hospital he was appalled and rightly called my distantly related uncles and aunts idiots for letting them do this to her. She was almost immediately taken to a major city where they gave her some proper medical treatment that wasn't obsolete half a century ago.
She would always complain about the one ocassion when I returned without extra cloths and wearing a pair of pants worn at the knees. I guess that occassion was a constant source of shame for her - one which she would never let me forget. She seems to enjoy our conversation and for the most part I return the sentiment. We talked of many things, mostly about my father and how much he is becoming more and more like my grandfather. However, I can't help but suspect that she is already making arrangements for her life in the afterlife with all the talks of offerings to ancestors.
That night I went to my in laws house and waited for my sister to get back from a school reunion dinner. As I walked closer to the stair case I found my nephew and niece playing with their cousins - lighting fireworks and bangers - nostalgic since it was hard to remember New Years without fireworks there.
I spoke a bit with the in-laws and later that night my cousins phoned and we decided for a late night meal - can you guess what I wanted? My three male cousins and their wife and girlfriend went with me and my sister. I was surprised to only find one wive since the third one recently married and fathered a baby girl. He told me that we will met tomorrow morning just before I leave for Hong Kong again.
Morning came and I got up to have my breakfast - you guessed it: rice sheets. My cousin then came to pick me up so I can finally met the wife and daughter. I did so and was surprised at how tall his wife is, just slightly shorter than me. As for the 6 month baby old girl, well I always found infants to look a like a small monkey...and this was no exception.
I met up with one of my "aunts" at the bus stop as she was going with me to Hong Kong to visit my mom. She has never left the province before, completely illiterate and barely speaks even Mandarin. I was really worried about going through customs with her since I has a SA passport and will be in a completely different areas when going through customs.
I slept through the entire bus trip because I barely had 3 hours of sleep the night before. My aunt however didn't do so well. She suffered from motion sickness and kept throwing up the whole way. As swak as this might sound, I'm glad that I was asleep for most of it. The passage from Luohu was quick and painless actually and we soon found ourselves in the train going back to Hong Kong arriving at around 10:30pm.
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