Justin FoxA while back my Mum asked if I’d like to tag along on a journey to China, to see the area in which my Grandpa was born. Grandpa was an amazing man from what I’ve heard. He created an empire with Imora Motor (Honda dealership in Indonesia), had 2 wives (which has been my goal in life ever since hearing about it when I was a teen), he adopted children into our HUGE family and he was still working the day before he died (that kinda guy!).
Seeing his place of rest in Indo many years ago left a lasting impression on me so I jumped at the opportunity to tag along. I’ll be here until the new years and I have no idea what to expect, but my camera is packed and ready!
DAY #1
7AM brekkie at the Qantas Lounge, Mum travels in style!!!
Goodie Bags.
Massage chair?! Bring it on! In truth I just ended up laying it flat and sleeping most of the way.
Go Perry!
Over Hong Kong somewhere.
Hey the relos are cool kids!!!
A short flight from HK where we met up with family and we’ve just landed in Xiamen and booked into a hotel WAY classier than what I was expecting!!! The Shangri-La.
DAY #2
6.30AM, I’m the first at Buffet Breakfast (as usual!!!).
So much variety. I could eat here all day!
I had a little trouble getting to sleep last night. No weed, and YouTube has been banned on the Hotel WiFi (so too all video streaming services) so I couldn’t use that to help me get to sleep (couldn’t figure the TV out lol!). I ended up having to raid the mini-fridge.
Day 2 started with a glorious Buffet Breakfast. If you’ve followed my blog over the years you’ll know too well that buffet breakfasts are one of my fave things about going overseas/staying in hotels!
Morning view from my room.
That China haze, but at least the sky is blue-ish?!
My Uncle Julius is a big time lawyer in Indo (and he loves his new hat!).
Our first stop was to visit my brother’s HUGE print factory (one of 5 in China!).
At the entrance, this awesome Heidelberg which is pretty much exactly the same one which The Distillery used to print my businsess cards (which cost $4 each to make!!!).
These guys can also do in-house design work.
And some of their clients include: Disney…
… And Aussie clients!
And Home Depot!
And they make packaging for anything, from TV’s to inflatable pools.
One of many huge machines, this one seemed to cut paper into different sizes.
This is their latest machine which cost a cool US $7 million (!!!).
They even have their own Ista certified test lab to test all the boxes (and ensure products inside them are safe).
Laser cut goods.
And here are just some of the goods they’ve made in the past. I’ve now got a great contact at the factory that speaks amazing english! ZEN BOXES TO COME!!!!!!
Yum Cha was amaze. So China, so good!
Indo men, we smoke!
Loved the coffee ashtray touch at this cafe.
This took me by surprise and reminds me of seeing UFO’s in Ancient Egyptian wall art.
We then visited the home that my Grandpa made for his adopted kids 50+ years ago. Check it out, it’s so Architecturally unique, so solid (they sure as hell built houses differently back in the day!). I think it’ll last forever.
The courtyard, I’d so do my Wing Chun here.
Solid granite handrail and staircase all the way to the 3rd floor where the lady of the house took her own life. I was asked if I’d like to check out the 3rd floor but out of respect I decided not to go up.
There are now many buildings across the road from the house but back in the day it was the only house around.
After spending some time at the house, we did a bit of shopping.
Dinner was even more amaze than lunch as I ate and drank a whole lotta stuff I’ve never had before!
We have a B’Day on the trip!
Loved how long the B’Day paused for when asked to make a wish, man it must have been one seriously heavy wish…
DAY #3
We got up earlier yesterday to make the trek out to Grandpa’s village.
The first house we checked out was one which Grandpa made for his younger brother, who sadly 15 years ago was robbed and murdered in this house (and even sadder, people only found his body days later AND the killer has never been found).
Photo of his brother, his house now abandoned and acting as a shrine of sorts.
We then made our way to Grandpa’s house.
There were a fair few villagers there ready for our arrival so the traditional ceremonies kicked off right away with deafening crackers!
We all made a beeline to a wall of photos next to a shrine. This is Grandpa!
Mum cleaning these photos of Grandpa and his parents.
Yeah, cousins know how to dress!
I saw lots of this stuff drying out on slabs of concrete, turns out it’s like some sort of turnip for pig food!
Yeah Indo men, we drink and smoke! We then had a feast, eating all the food that was prepared for Grandpa earlier. The food we were eating was raised in the village too. So rad.
Mum meeting one of her cousins for the very first time. This guy drinks 3 bottles of a red a day, and smokes like a chimney. Happy life!
Cheers! We stayed here a while and I waxed lyrical a bit too (red wine does that to me!). I live for this!
I then got a scooter ride down to visit the last living brother.
On the way we stopped by the house in which Grandpa grew up in until he was 13 (funny that the house number was 13 too), this house was in a pretty bad state now with nothing but chickens living in it.
I was pretty welled up with emotions, as you can see in this photo. Was so hard to contain!
Family after family, house after house.
And another family, the little kid was super naughty, as soon as he saw me he threw stuff in my face!
Tea, we had LOTS of it in each house. Each house owner would pour us tea, shove food in our faces and tell us stories, both happy ones and sad ones. I loved it.
For more, visit my personal blog: http://www.justinfox.com.au/?s=china+trip