Kung Hei Fat Choi...

which loosely translates to "Congratulations and be prosperous"...it is what is said here to acknowledge the Chinese (or Lunar) New Year and 2007 is the year of the Pig.

We are going to go to a wet/dry market specifically set up for the new year that is in Victoria Park. You can buy flowers, new panties, and all other new year traditions. We will be cautious to avoid any taboo signs of bad luck, like speaking of the dead, buying new shoes or pants, buying books, getting a haircut, and sweeping the floor.

It is good luck to wear new clothes and have fresh flowers/plants in your home. I am sure there is MUCH more, but that is all I can think of right now.

I will post pictures and an update as the four day (in HK) holiday progresses over the weekend...

UPDATE:

We went to Victoria Park to the market, which was really more like a fair. There were balloons and stuffed animals and cotton candy. It was SO crowded that all I could see was heads on all sides of me and balloons in the air (it sucks being short sometimes). I had to ask Cybr to tell me if he saw anything worth taking a closer look at.

I did get shoved around a lot. The whole crowd seemed to move as one in many areas and people completely ignored the "One Way" signs for crowd control.

At one point, the crowd seemed to disperse some and I saw some interesting merchandise to look at. There is probably three feet of open space around me, yet one crazy woman is still shoving me from behind. Seriously, I am NOT moving. GO AROUND!!! I was beginning to get a little wild-eyed when I turned around and told her "I am NOT moving." She got it.

I did buy some beautiful orange flowers that B Doo has been terrorizing since they first came through the door. Clearly, I chose the wrong flower to be in our home. I need one that is cat proof...like a plastic flower might survive!

Considering how insanely crowded the market was, we opted not to go to the parade. We really wanted to see the dragon and all the other cool stuff they do but after seeing the market and heeding the advise of Cybr's co-worker's...yeah, we wouldn't have seen a damn thing. So, we chilled out on Sunday and watched Fantastic Four. Not very festive, but we had fun anyway.

We tried to catch the local Discovery Bay festivities on Monday, but we were too late for that. So, we watched Robots and went out for dinner. Good thing for us they are featuring good movies on cable TV this month!

All in all, it was a pretty uneventful holiday for us. Although, we both had stomach issues that were unspeakable at different times over the holiday...staying home is recommended here in case of toilet emergencies, as finding a toilet can be very difficult out in public here.

Oh, by the way, for anyone who may have read Cybr's blog entry regarding this holiday (see his link below)...He says "Gung Hei Fat Choi" on his post and mine says "Kung Hei Fat Choi". These are both correct. His is in Cantonese and mine is in Mandarin.

Okay...here are some of the things I saw at the market. Keep in mind that I couldn't see much!

In order from top left to bottom right...entrance to fair, flower market area, funny year of the pig display, crazy piggie, "uh...what the hell does this mean?!?" sign, yin-yang piggie balloons, caged zebra balloon, free range giraffe balloon, and the always cool SUPER MUSHROOM!!