CNY Visit

As custom obliges, on CNY we have to pay a visit to older family member. In this case was my Lao Cek (I even don't know how to spell it in Chinese). He is my grandfather's cousin from my mother side, and now residing both in Singapore and Hongkong. For my surprise, my Lao Cek is so cool! He can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Tio Ciu, and flawless Indonesian (the first person that I know able to speak both Mandarin and Cantonese is Jacky Cheung =P)!My mom's family had Singapore as their first foothold outside mainland China. It happened around 1930s when my grandpa's uncle decided to go across the ocean towards SE Asia. At the same time my grandpa's dad stayed and maintain their foothold in mainland China. It was if the trip should be a failed one, the family which went overseas could still come back to China.

Their first entrance to Singapore was by Singapore River, the area what should be Clarke Quay right now. Furthermore their first home was also in the same area. After they arrived, they tried to get permanent living which resulted in a successful one. So afterwards, the whole family moved from China to Singapore.

Found that living cost in Singapore was high at that time, my grandad decided to again try to move to Indonesia. This second trip brought this newly founded family (my grandad was just newly married at that time) to set their foothold in Jambi, with the entrance by Batanghari river.

So being raised in Jambi, my mom met my dad, and I also raised in Jambi for early days of my life, which later on we moved again to Bengkulu. And again to Tangerang until now.

One of the question asked to me was "Do you want to stay in Singapore, have family here?" And my answer was "No".