Balik Kampung

Before I start this longest entry in the world proper, can I just say that I’m utterly horrified that JAMIE LYNN SPEARS aka little 16 year old sister of BRITNEY SPEARS is FREAKING PREGNANT!

SIXTEEN YEARS OLD!

SIXTEEN!

WHAT ON EARTH IS WRONG WITH THIS WORLD!! And she’s KEEPING THE BABY! The father of the baby is like, some dude she met at church! CHURCH!

OH. MY. GOD.

Okay dah. Just very shocking, that’s all. I thought Jamie was the baik one, turns out they’re all setans.

Well anyway! We were actually on Thai International Airways but we couldn’t get confirmed seats on the Singapore-bangkok sector so switched to China Eastern Airlines – SUXXORZXZX.

They just suck soooo bad. The stewardesses can’t speak English, can you freaking believe it! Food was inedible and there’s only ONE radio channel in MANDARIN. In flight movies were those ancient Chinese movies with men in long flowly dresses and long hair.

Lucky its a 4 hour flight la!

Haha jahat sey kita.

Kunming Airport!

What is walnut breast ah I want to know! Dahsyat sey english dia.

Across the road from the airport is this Halal restaurant where we had our breakfast before rushing back to the airport to catch a domestic flight to LiJiang.

Blue tudung woman is Kadijah, our tour guide for Kunming who came to pick us up. Nenek next to my mum is the owner of the restaurant, and she read Surah An-Naba for us.

Well. Kunming-LiJiang is about 30 mins. Also on China Eastern. You know ah. The thing about airplanes that I don’t get is… WHY is it there’s no turbulence when I’m sitting down stoning or when I get up to go to the toilet? The moment I got into the toilet, there was HORRIBLE turbulence! The seat belt sign came on but I reallyyyyy had to pee! And the turbulence was SO bad I had to hold on to the handles in the toilet la because my feet were flailing all over the place! NOT COOL OKAY!

Me: Eh turbulence dia rabak eh!
Sister: Eh best!!

She’s demented, I’ve established that.

LiJiang airport

LiJiang is a really nice place ah. Colder than Kunming because of the higher altitude. Fresher air and all.

Drove to Shangri-La from the airport. About 90 mins?

TOILET!

The thing about toilets in China is that, if you can’t see the sign, you can definitely smell the toilet. Tak bedek. And fussy, prissy people like me will drink minimal water to prevent going to the toilet during the day.

That’s our tour leader, Cik Mariah Mah. If you read the papers regularly, you would know who she is. She’s been actively doing charity work to help the really really poor Muslims in China.

Look ma! No doors!

Totally not kidding, balls!

See why I don’t use the public toilets!

Speaking of gross stuff, we were walking around and saw this.

BLACK PIG! Its gross enough that its a pig on a leash, to make matters worse, its BLACK! EWWWWW. And it was playing with the plastic bag. Haha. Quite funny la actually.

Lunch at a local Muslim kopitiam. I tell you, the tables and the stools are mighty low.

Next stop! The famous Tiger Leaping gorge.

Its like a never ending stairway down. I stopped 3/4 way because I was thinking of the climb up, since I was SO EXTREMELY fit and all.

My dad and my sis, however, went all the way.

From the gorge to the homestay, was about 3h drive up the mountain. It was uneven bumpy roads ah and the roads were so narrow that the van was precariously driving at the edge of the cliff. The kind that if you opened your door, you’d fall 23423764786m down.

The kampung was about 3000m above ground. It’s actually our driver, Hassan’s (who is also the village chief) house.

his daughter in law and grandson, Sadik VERY CUTE CAN

He totally likes me, I swear! He keeps walking and standing between my legs la!

With Khairun(nisa) and her sister, Hanisah. Khairun’s from TKGS-TJC and like, we’re the same age, so needless to say she pretty much knew all the people I knew. First question after finding out each other’s school and major was “Eh, so you know Nat la!?” Haha! She’s NTU ChemEng, btw.

The mighty low tables and stools I was talking about. Hassan’s family was sooooo nice and hospitable, they cooked dinner for us which was sedap and healthy ie organic food that they planted.

We are tak senonoh. Actually they treated us like VVIPs la. After eating, just leave everything there and they’ll clear it for us. Tak senonoh kan. They invited us to their living room where we lepakked for a while and retired to our rooms.

Hassan’s daughter, Zainab

She’s 21 la! So small right! But she’s so pretty and friendly!

It being a kampung and all, there was NO heater of any sort, yes that includes WATER HEATER.

OMG HOW TO BATHE! My sister and I, being the demented ones, bathed in the 1-5 deg C water and almost froze our bits off. Serious sey, we were trembling so badly after that, kelakar ah actually.

Hassan’s family, being the hospitable people that they were, brought us extra blankets and hot water, which my adik and I used to defrost.

I was totally fascinated by their rubber septum.

Totally lab!

Next morning, we had to take wudhu’ to pray subuh right. ZOMGZ. The water was freezing cold, colder than last night!

Fresh eggs and pancake like thingums for breakfast! Fresh milk too!

our rooms in the background

Isn’t it nice! Like if you stay here, you open your doors and breathe in fresh mountain air, with clear view of the mountains in the distance.

yaks!!!!!

But veryy smelly lo.

We left Hassan’s house for the orphanage nearby which Cik Mariah has been funding. Its such a run down place, wobbly stairs and cannot make it toilets. Really pity the kids. I totally bertaubat after I saw the place.

CMI toilets

Mosque

We drove back to LiJiang, which was a 5 HOUR (!!) drive and went for dinner. Man, I can’t imagine how Hassan had to leave his home in Shangri-La 5 Hours before our arrival to fetch us at the airport, only to drive us back to his home and drive us back to LiJiang. Wah.

GROSS!!!!! Century Egg!!

Say what?

Next day! Walked about LiJiang old town.

Khairun’s atok, who is like, the cutest atok on earth.

Domestic flight back to Kunming to join the rest of the group!

Stone forest! Its something to do with the earth’s plates and how the ocean water dried up leaving behind the corals, which is what you see la. My geek of a sister explained it to me, but I kinda forgot/wasn’t paying attention to her. Actually more of I wasn’t paying any attention to her.

Yup, I told you. Totally editorial. I could see it gracing the covers of Vogue.

Oh yah! The toilets ah! Got TV! Quite maju!

For what I also don’t know!

Well we all had to do Zohor/Asar so had to take wudhu and we prayed on some grassy patch.

The ginormous stones in the background are the corals-sort-of I was talking about earlier.

Totally MY editorial shot laaa!

Coached to TaoYuan, a largely Muslim area, checked in hotel and prepared for Hari Raya Haji.

Qurban, solat raya photos coming up next!

Ohhh plus I met a really cute imam who sounds totally yummy when he speaks Arab!!!!!! AHHHH -dies-

However, upon much snooping, we found out that he’s married.

With a kid.

:’(

Click here for Qurban post. (as in the ones with the kambings and kerbaus.)