The bus trip from Hong Kong to Shan Tou (China) was long and bumpy. After arriving in Shan Tou, my dad, cousin James and I were greeted by my Aunt (dad's eldest sister) and all the males in the household (my cousins and their sons). I felt a bit uncomfortable being the only female apart from my Aunt. Bus-lagged from the 5 hour ride, we hopped into the 2 mini vans and went for another hour's drive before arriving at my Aunts's house in Zhao An.
We got to stay at my cousin's place which was a new, huge three storey house. Needless to say, James and I were quite impressed.
The next few days were spent driving around the place, food, chat and countless repeats of the process except that my problem was not being able to understand the dialect being spoken. So James was my translator for those few days in China. We had a blast since nobody understood the Aussie (fast speed) English we spoke. So we were seen as the aliens of the town who laughed at the most stupidist things but nobody knew what we were laughing at. Felt like I was in Japan with Jo and Tina...
