Mom's Birthday Party - Fun in Ipoh

Ah, the party...

Yes, after Tina and some of the Sisters got their hair all prettied up, and Allen, the boys, and I caught up on season one of The Apprentice, it was time to get ready to head out and meet the rest of the family for the big birthday party.
This is a rough shot of the room from the table that Tina and I were at, there were at least six tables full of family and friends, each table holding at least 10 people. A good turn out, and Tina and I were introduced to almost everyone. Tina to more of them, as she could manage out a few lines of Chinese which everyone really seemed to enjoy.
As we've seen in every Chinese party that we've been to, there is a lot of 'cheers' at every table, with everyone getting involved and just having a great time. We both took our turns going from table to table and having drinks with the other guests. This adds up to a lot of drinking quickly, so usually you just take a quick sip and then move on, but as the night progresses you get the cheers of 'gam bei' which basically means 'finish what you've get left'. That's why most glasses only have a small amount of alcohol in them...This is the mom, one of the two birthdays that they were celebrating at this party, the second being the eldest daughter, SiewMin, who aslo has a July birthday.
After dinner, which was an almost nonstop parade of delicious local and Chinese dishes, the cakes came out. One of Siew Ying's daughters played Happy Birthday on the violin (the first video below) and then everyone joined in to sing several rounds of Happy Birthday, both in English and in Chinese (second video).

It was a lot of fun, and we really enjoyed ourselves, although we were quite stuffed from all of the food and then the cake. They had some local tiger prawns in a soup that were unbelievable, well that and the duck, and the pig.

Tina with all of the sisters - in order they are Siew Yih, Siew Ying, Siew Min, Tina, and Siew Hong. Somewhere in the evening Tina was renamed to Siew Teen so that she would fit in better with all of the sisters....and with that there was much rejoicing.

When the party finally wound down we all headed back home, where Siew Teen and I had thoughts of sleep. The rest of the family had thoughts of going to KTV for some good old karaoke singing. You'll have to let us know if you'd like to see a video of that too....

Day 1, Ipoh

It's been a few days since we were able to write a post, so we will be playing catch up for the next couple of days.

As Mark mentioned on Friday, we were off to see the family in Ipoh, Malaysia. Six of us met at Xiamen airport including the cousin, Chong Hua, and her daughter. We had a four hour flight, followed by a 3 hour bus ride to Ipoh. We arrived around 11pm.

Some of the family were already in bed, and we quickly met the rest that were still up. When Siew first mentioned that her family had a big house and that it wasn't a problem for us to visit, she wasn't kidding. The living room was at least 70 feet long with a nice baby grand at the end. There were two kitchens, a formal dining room, two t.v rooms, a study, along with assorted bathrooms, and bedrooms.

Mark and I had expected to have a very low key weekend, according to Siew Yih, except for Mom's birthday party that was held on Saturday night. Also, per Siew Yih, there's nothing to do in Ipoh, so we should be able to catch up on sleep. So you can imagine when we sat down catching up Siew, enjoying a glass of wine, when this itinerary landed on our laps. Prepared by Alex, one of the brothers, who, just also happened to be our tour guide during our stay in Ipoh.


Mark and I looked at each other, thinking what happened to catching up on our zzz's? After a glass of wine, we went to bed, so we could wake up early to be punctual. After all, we had to make a good impression on the family.

Our room was large and quiet with our own bathroom. It would have been nice to sleep in and enjoy the solitude, but alas, that was not to be. Realizing we would not be catching up on our sleep, we were quite excited to be touring around Ipoh. This is not necessarily on the top 10 list of places to visit in Asia, unless you know someone, so we were quite excited about seeing something other than Kuala Lumpur and Penang.


After the first initial meeting of the family members who were still awake the previous night, we met the rest and reviewed the names again. There were the parents, brothers, sisters, in-law's, nephews and nieces, gardener, a few maids, the driver, and four dogs. Allen, Siew Yih's husband told us it took him about 3 times before he remembered everyone's names. The sister's all have the name Siew, so the eldest is Siew Min, Siew Ying, Siew Hong, and Siew Yih. So calling someone by the name of Siew in this family, will result in four heads turning towards you.

We started off at Ipoh Garden, to have breakfast with most of the crew, though the children pretty much stayed behind, except for Daniel and Ben. The White Coffee, which is the speciality in Ipoh was very good. Apparently, people from Kuala Lumpur drive up here to have it along with a noodle dish. The name escapes me, but it was also very good. Again, for those back home, many Asian countries, the breakfast is pretty much the same as lunch and dinner. Noodles, or dim sum etc. There are places that will serve you eggs, french toast etc., but it's not the norm in Asia.

A little about Ipoh. It was the second city during the British rule. It sits in a valley and is surrounded by limestone mountains. It's quite picturesque and you can tell the city is rather old. There are approximately 2.5 million residents, and like most of Malaysia, it comprises of the three main ethnicity's. Malay's, Indian's and Chinese. This area is known for their cuisine.

Our first stop after breakfast, was at the Gua tempurung (The Wondrous Cave). There were two tours, the wet tour or the dry tour. We opted for the dry tour as Chong Hua was wearing heels. This particular cave was larger than the the cave we saw in Halong Bay, Vietnam. The tour was over an hour and was quite spectacular. We tried to capture the magnitude of this cave, but it was rather dark so we have only a handful of decent pictures.

Alex, the tour guide in front

After lunch, the sisters, including yours truly, had to go to the hairdresser to have our hair washed and blow dried for the evening event. I tried to explain that I can wash my own hair, but they weren't having anything to do with that. So, off we go while Mark got to stay behind and watch t.v. Mmm, pays to be a man sometimes.

This is the first time since being over here in Asia, that I stepped into a hair salon. The salons work a little differently in Malaysia, than back home. Back home, they will take you to the back where the wash basins are, tilt your head, and start washing your hair, first wetting, then applying shampoo, and then conditioner, before rinsing your hair again. Here, they plop you in the chair, as if you were getting a hair cut, place towels and plastic wrap around your neck, then add the shampoo to your head, and massaging the shampoo into your hair. They also give you a mini back massage without ever getting your clothes wet. Never did figure out how they did that, but I digress. The hairdresser, continually adds shampoo to your dry hair massaging the shampoo creating lots and lots of suds. After awhile, the remove the suds from your hair and place in the basin.

Okay, so my question is, why wouldn't you just have us sit by the basin, so, a) I could be more comfortable, and b) you could save time walking back and forth and saving yourself from making a mess in the shop? This process takes approximately 45 minutes. They finish with rinsing your hair by the basin, followed by a blow dry. Approximately 90 minutes you are finished.

We came back to the house, where we primped before the party. Afterall, that's why we flew to Malaysia.

Tomorrow, Mom's birthday bash.

Trip to Mayalsia

So, today we are off to meet Tina's new adopted mother. As she has mentioned before, Siew and Siewyih have taken quite a liking to Tina and are now referring to her as their new sister. So, being part of a new family and all, we now are heading to Ipoh, Malaysia for mom's birthday party.

Siew left for home on Tuesday with her kids, Ben and Daniel, and we are flying down this evening with Siewyih and her husband, Allen. We realized today, whilst packing, that this is almost like the first time you meet your girlfriends parents, as we kind of feel that we need to make a good first impression. Actually, I think that Tina worries more since it's her new mother and she want's to make sure that she makes a good enough impression to get into the will, but the biggest problem is in packing clothes. Tina and I usually travel light, a few shirts, some shorts, and a pair of pants, on most of our trips we repeat clothes becasue we know nobody will see us again and we don't want to lug a lot of luggage around. This time around we aren't even sure what to bring, Tina's new sisters are almost always dressed up and from the sounds of it moms party requires something just short of formal wear. That, and Siewyih is also using us as a mule and has stuffed four bottles of wine into our luggage....

Ah well, all will be good and fun and if we don't get a chance to update while were are there, you'll be hearing from us when we return on Tuesday.

下课

Ah, it's that time again, when the semester is almost finished at Xia Da. We have exams next week and like the last semester, we have additional classes thereafter. Why they choose to do this? Well, no one knows, but we figure we paid for the semester, let's try to learn a chapter or two while we can. Who knows? Maybe, I will finally understand when to use 过 ,and 了 though I wouldn't hold much hope for that.

It was a beautiful day to take pictures around the university.

It's becoming a ghost town around the university. We had taken some photos yesterday, as our classes are getting smaller each day with many students travelling back home for the holidays. Some will be leaving China shortly to continue their studies abroad, others will not be returning, while a few of us would like to continue our studies next semester.



So to all my 同学，here's to you! With hopes that when you do speak Chinese, you may finally be understood in the middle Kingdom!

All in the name of progress..

It's been almost one year since Mark and I came to China and we have noticed many changes to the skyline in the span of a very short time. One area is close to the university, affectionately called Xia Da.

When I first started at Xia Da, the main street going to the university, was lined with all sorts of stores. There were restaurants, markets, clothing shops, and a few bars. The area was full of life, students stopping for coffee at Mc Donald's, people haggling at the market, beggars looking for money, tourists going to Nanputo Temple, and a street with various vendors looking for people to buy their wares. At times it could be difficult navigating your way through the streets due to the number of students and tourists, especially during lunch time. KFC was a big hit.

A much needed break!

So, it was a surprise, when I found out that the shops near the university were closing. Yes, I heard this awhile back about the changes taking place, but to see the shops empty and partially torn down, is rather sad. I took my very first guest, Emily, here to Cafe Relax. From the top floor, we could sit out on the balcony and watch the vendors on the street trying to sell their goods, while others were sleeping, waiting for someone to buy something. We also saw many rats, but I digress. The once filled streets and shops are now empty. Only a few stores are open trying to sell the last of their merchandise.

At one time, this street was lined with vendors!

Even KFC is now gone!

I'm not sure what will take the place of these shops, though rumours are spreading that it's going to be a park or more shops but whatever it will be, I will miss the little restaurant where my new classmates, and I had our first lunch together after enrolling into Xia Da.