Chinese New Year

Even though it's been quite a while since CNY, and some of you may have seen these pics already on our photobucket, I thought I'd blog a bit about it here. I've been a neglectful blogger lately, so I'm trying to make up for lost time!

So, what's there to say about Chinese New Year (or CNY as "those in the know" call it)? In many ways it was a bit anticlimatic, things really slow down during CNY and a lot of people leave HK. They say that during CNY, the world's biggest mass migration takes place, because Chinese from all over the world return home to mainland China to be with family. Even still, there were still some interesting things to see.

These are all over the city during CNY. I think there tangerine trees. They line the streets and people purchase them for their homes. I don't exactly know the cultural significance of this, but I think it has to do with showing that you are prosperous. Prosperity is very important to the Chinese. It's also possible that the word for tangerine rhymes with something that is lucky. That's the case with fish, which they eat a lot during CNY. Words that rhyme or sound like good or bad words is very significant to the Chinese. For example the word for "four", which is "sap" rhymes with the word for death. For that reason buildings don't have a 4th floor, 14th floor, 24th floor, etc...


You see a lot of these as well...the tree with red envelopes, not the cute girl in front of it! Red envelopes (with money inside) are given to single people and children from married people as well as from bosses to employees.



Don't have much to say abou this...the stuff is red, which is a common CNY color


Red lanterns, common to see all year, but more so during CNY


During Christmas and CNY many of the buildings aligning both sides of the harbor are decorated with festive lights, much like houses are decorated during Christmas....cool, huh?


Okay...this isn't CNY related, but we did see it during CNY. Every night at 8pm buildings along the harbor on HK island participate in "A Symphony of Lights"
Basically, a laser show, set to music that is piped into various hotel bars, restaurants and even along the waterfront. It doesn't get any cooler than this! This picture doesn't even do it justice...there's a lot more lasers and other light affects that stretch along the harbor.

Diving into it!

Beth and I are going on holiday to Australia next month!  We decided to take advantage of the Easter and Ching Ming Festival holidays running together this year, giving us a 5 day weekend.  IN total our 9 day vacation will only 'cost' us 4 vacation days which is a plus.  Originally we'd thought about heading to Sydney, Hunter Wine Valley and North Queensland, but after going through the options it was clear what we really wanted was more than a few days on the beach.  Even though Sydney is something to see, sometimes time away from the big cities is most preferred.  Specifically, we'll be going to Cairns, the most common jumping off point for the Great Barrier Reef.  I think Beth mentioned in an earlier blog post, how we went snorkeling in Hawaii and had a great time.  We loved the idea of going snorkeling at the reef, as we're told there are lots of unique creatures to see that only live in that area.

In thinking about how visiting the reef may be a once in a lifetime opportunity, we decided to take our experience to the next level and try scuba diving!  In order to be fully prepared and not have to spend any holiday time in a classroom, we took a scuba course this past weekend which involved coursework, tests and scuba dives in a swimming pool only 3 metres deep.

Scuba diving it turns out is much more complex and a bit more stressful than we probably thought, but it is also lots of fun! In the middle of our first dive, I remember wondering whether I was going to be able to handle this for real once in open water.  I had trouble - a few times t ook water into my mouth when removing and reinserting my regulator (breathing device); I had to come up to the top to remove excess water.  However, by the end of the day, I felt like a natural and am looking forward to diving in the open water in Cairns! Hopefully, we'll find a way to get a water proof camera down there to take pictures!

Honestly, scuba diving isn't something I ever thought I would be interested in, but can totally see this being something we get into and look to do when we go on holiday.  Apparently there are lots of good places to dive in Southeast Asia.  One exception to that is Hong Kong -- not too many places with good visibility here due to the pollution, I'm sure.

We'll keep you posted on our adventures!

Is Asia's bad air stirring storms in West?

Sorry about this! For the record, the pollution in Hong Kong mostly comes from mainland Chinese factory...and we're as peeved about it as anyone. Not only does it ruin our great view (#1 skyline in the world!), it keeps us sick! Both Beth and I have had more colds this winter than ever in our lives...one right after the other!

We'll do our best to keep the pollution down!