Xiamen Trip

Trip to Xiamen 25~29 August 2009

Off we went... our trip started with beautiful sunrise above the cloud.

It was like I could touch the cotton-like cloud.

John fell asleep soon after the flight took off, it was 6.40am!

It was our first trip to China. T was very excited about the trip before departure but he complained boring. Why? We went to PuTian, a small town in Xiamen, where there was not any shopping squares but mountains and rivers.

Everything was new to me there. We stayed at Fang's house for the first night, the interior design of her house is quite unique. It looks like traditional big old house outside but modern design inside. The house was surrounded by longan trees, we could pick the longan from the window and balcony. Glad that we had a chance to experience local life style even just for a night. We ate lots of fresh longan there, also tasted frozen lyche... so sweet and juicy.

Living expenses in Xiamen is pretty high, for example: a set of KFC meal costs RMB20+. However, it will be a heaven for beer lovers and smokers. Must have good bargain skill when shop at small shops on the street, prices can be slashed by almost half. I didn't buy anything, T bought tea leaf and a tea set on the last day of our stay there.

Many tourist attractions there imposed entrance fee, it was like being robbed when I heard it costs RMB50 per person just to enter the island. And, we still need to pay for entrance fee for places on the island such as RMB20 per person for the beach!

As for food, T kept telling me he missed nasi lemak and char kuey tiao. Food (typical Chinese food) there not bad actually, but lack of kicks like curry or other spices. People there don't take chilli I guess, there was not chilli sauce in KFC. Also, no chopped chilli or garlic in the fine Chinese Restaurant. It was hard to find coffee there, even breakfast provided by hotel does not serve coffee. We brought our own instant coffee there, and made in the small tea pot meant for Chinese tea. First time we had 3-in-1 coffee that way.

One thing we all could not stand.... the traffic in Putian. People there like to sound the horn, to let other users they are coming. They don't follow traffic rules at all, no one will stop for pedestrians at zebra crossing, make it worse motorists use zebra crossing too and they sound the horn to signal pedestrians to give way! 24 hours tiii.... tiii.... tiii...tiii.... really cannot tahan! We were relived when we arrived in Xiamen city, traffic there was much better.

We visited 湄洲岛，青云山，鼓浪岛 and some other places. Walked a lot this trip, luckly my family members helped in taking care of John. Seems that T didn't enjoy this trip, he is a shopping center type of guy. Mountains and seas were way too much for him... hot, boring and nothing to see. To me, I will definitely enjoy more if I am not pregnant.

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湄洲岛 is basically a place for praying, with many old and newly built temples. The main statute (god) was 妈祖, lady god that look after the sea. Lets photos do the talking...

John was very excited when we left him walk by himself , he headed to the stairs straight away!

These are some photos I took with my camera, more photos with T's camera and will post it up if I have time.