HAPPY NEW YEAR~!

It's been 2012 for 2 hours already in Hong Kong and the festivities are dying down.

So what do people do for the solar new year here? Well, there are parties in Lan Kwai Fong (aka the expat district) and a countdown at Times Square and then as always, an occasion for people to take pictures of stuff aka a fireworks display at Victoria Harbour.

Let me tell you now - watching these fireworks may seem like a tame activity but it is not something for the faint of heart. First of all, there are massive crowds. The main thoroughfare in Kowloon, Nathan Road, was pretty much pedestrianized and shut off from normal traffic. Then there was the harbour. The Avenue of Stars was PACKED. Did I also mention that we were there starting at 9PM? (The first little display - a star on the ifc and a little firework shooting from the roof - was at 11PM...) Here is a picture of all the people standing directly behind me.


And when I mean packed like sardines, I mean, there were awkward moments when the lady beside us was shimmying up and down in front of her man friend. I dunno what they were doing but the awkward turtle was definitely swimming about. My friend also got an elbow in her ribs for prolonged periods of time.

My friend and I couldn't get a viewing spot by the Avenue of Stars and had to settle for a spot near the Ocean Terminal shopping mall. Or near the ostentatious ad for Toy Storyland to be precise. We couldn't see the fireworks that were blowing up from the buildings left of the ifc but at least we got a clear view of the ifc. It was a grueling wait. We literally stood in our spots packed like little sardines for 3 HOURS. (Yes, we're crazy, I know.) Starting at 11PM, the ifc would have a little star on it and a little firework would go off. This happened every 15 minutes and each of the stars were different colours to symbolize different things. I only bothered to take a picture of the red star, which is supposed to symbolize love.


And finally, in the last minute (literally), there was a countdown (the crowd around me was counting down in Cantonese) and fireworks! Cool! Though it should've been way cooler with all that waiting we did. (I didn't take a picture of the fireworks because I figured I should fully enjoy the spectacle after waiting for so long.)


My friend and I lingered for a bit before heading back but in the end, we still had to face... THE CROWDS. You seriously don't understand unless you've been there. Crowds and crowds of people filling the sidewalk and the road on Nathan Road. Police blocking certain streets for crowd control. Crowd control was pretty well done though I'll have to wait for tomorrow's news to see if anything horrible happened. (Can you spot the foreigner in my picture of a crowd?)

Foreigners tend to stick out literally because of their height. LOLs.

Anyways, whatever you did, I hope everyone has a great 2012~!

I thought I was in Florida for a moment...

I was at the Gold Coast beach the other day and ate dinner to this glorious sunset. The bus ride there was long but absolutely gorgeous. The Gold Coast doesn't have that many high-rise apartment buildings but there are a lot of palm trees. If I ignored the few apartment buildings in the area... and the mountains, I would've thought that I was in Florida.

Christmas in Hong Kong

So Christmas has passed but Hong Kong is still in Christmas mode. For a region that's not particularly Christian but very consumerist, let's just say that Christmas is just another excuse to shop and take pictures with cool stuff. There's no snow in Hong Kong but there's a ton of "Christmas" decorations. Well... ostentatious sparkly stuff that's somewhat related to Christmas.

Exhibit A:


The Christmas Tree at the New Town Plaza in Shatin.

Then there are Christmas trees that are blatant displays of the commercial side of the holidays.

A tree made of fake Ferrero Rochers in Tsim Sha Tsui.


A Toy Story-related Christmas tree in Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui. A huge ad for HK Disneyland's new Toy Storyland was outside.

Some Christmas decorations were kind of simple, classy and pretty, like these twinkle lights, at Lane Crawford in TST.


Other times, it was kind of random...


Times Square in Causeway Bay.

And then sometimes, you had no clue what the hell is going on...


Megabox in Kowloon Bay.

Sometimes you had some decorations that were really gorgeous...


This is right under the super long escalator at Langham Place.

... Only to have it marred by some random Hello Kitty stuff that's somehow related to Christmas.


(I didn't take either of the Hello Kitty pictures, they were taken from the internet.)

Sigh. I'm literally dreaming of my white Christmases, though there wasn't one this year in Toronto.

Well, on a brighter note, at least the only Hannukah display I could find was not a moment of sensory overload!


At the statue garden in Central.

Happy holidays, everyone and happy new year!!!

TOY STORY LAND

Disney recently opened Toy Story Land and as a result, the people of Hong Kong are bombarded with images of Buzz, Woody and the rest of the crew on T-shirts, mugs and all sorts of paraphernalia in all sorts of shops. But of course, that's not enough. Disneyland also had to put a gigantic ostentatious Toy Story installation in TST. Admittedly, I enjoyed it quite a bit even though there were a ton of people.





I think I'll post some pictures of Christmas around HK soon.

An army of Barbies...

I was at Causeway Bay a few weeks ago and these were on display at Times Square. I don't know if I'm fascinated by the fashion aspect or slightly terrified at the sheer number of blonde plastic dolls staring at me.

Bauhinias in bloom...

I know the bauhinia flower is a symbol of Hong Kong but I never knew that it would bloom in November. Then again, anything blooming in November is a bit strange to me seeing that I come from Canada. So far, I've seen dark pink bauhinias and light pink ones. They smell sort of like hyacinths but less bold. Here are a few pictures:






Enjoy!

Rainbow coloured skies...

I always thought that rainbow coloured skies could only be seen in wide expanses land. The first time I saw a rainbow-coloured sky was at my friend's sister-in-law's farm in the country where there was only farmland and greenery as far as the eye could see. There were no tall buildings for miles and the sky was clear and dotted with brightly shining stars when the rainbow coloured sky was gone.

The second time I saw the rainbow coloured sky was when I looked at the skyline when I was walking alongside the park on my way home. It was the first time in my life that I realized that the rainbow-coloured sky appeared in the city as well. But my hometown isn't a small town and there were a few skyscrapers in the distance but in front of me was a big park. I guess this is why I've always associated these rainbow-coloured skies with wide spaces and trees and fresh air.

The other day, I was walking and saw the sun setting. But then, behind it, I noticed that even in this concrete jungle, the rainbow-coloured sky will still appear. Beautiful. Too bad I had to take this picture hastily because I was crossing the road.

Halloween in LKF

No, I was too tired and too sick to actually be frolicking around Lan Kwai Fong where there's a huge Halloween celebration but I did drop by a week before the Halloween bash and got these shots. Enjoy!

Breaking News: Occupy Hong Kong takes to the streets for Halloween

I was doing some errands when I suddenly heard a whole lot of shouting. Upon further investigation, I found out that the heavier than normal police presence on Nathan Road today was caused by a protest staged by Occupy Hong Kong. (See my last post when I visited about two weeks ago here.) I joined the protesters for a bit as they were walking down the street.

Coincidentally, I was at the HSBC building yesterday, waiting for a friend who was going to the Michaelmas fair at St. John's church (I'll post something about this soon). I was surprised that two weeks after Occupy Hong Kong started, there were more or bigger tents, a common area with couches and bookshelves, a cooking area and a bulletin board with a schedule of activities and events. (Sadly, I couldn't decipher all the characters. If I did, I think the writing in black for the 30th of October is about the protest today.) Also coincidentally, the friend who was with me had mentioned that media interest was waning though I guess that statement will be thrown out the window in light of today's protests as there were many reporters, photographers and cameras running around.

Here are some pictures from yesterday:







Pictures from the protest today:

I think the people on that sign are candidates for Chief Executive in the upcoming elections.



This guy was "eating" the hand. I couldn't help but think of Lu Xun's "A Madman's Diary" (you can click the title to read the story).


I'm not exactly sure why there are pictures of people dressed as buildings but an educated guess would be because Hong Kong has a huge housing issue and it also happens to have the highest real estate prices for housing, especially when one considers low-income housing in cage houses.


V for Vendetta masks are a part of Occupy Hong Kong as well. There are other pictures of the mask wearers but I find this one poetic for some reason.


More V for Vendetta masks.


The mask wearers at the front of the protest were throwing spirit money that's burned for dead people.


At this point, a girl at the front was shouting about how they're young people who decided to do this because it's Halloween and they can take this time to dress up and show everyone the horrors that are happening in Hong Kong society today. Protesters were distributing these pamphlets and stickers. I wish I was more apt to read it.


The media was there as well. At one point, a chunk of protestors behind the white ifc thing stopped en route because they were being interviewed by reporters. There were also journalists walking with the protesters, tablets and recorders on hand. I couldn't quite get pictures of this while in the fray but I got this:


I wonder if this will come up on the news tonight. The protest was too late to be broadcast on the evening news.