Chinese New Year in Sydney

As Chinese New Year comes to a close this weekend marking 15 days of celebrations, I have to remark that Sydney knows how to celebrate! I think mostly due to the fact that weather isn't as much of a factor as it is back home (Vancouver). I think back on the Vancouver Chinese New Year parade where I can estimate say it's cold and miserable 70% of the time meaning people are marching and watching in layers and layers of clothing and ponchos and the lion dancers and performers brave the cold in their costumes.

Interestingly, an art exhibit that started with the Sydney Festival and is running through Chinese New Year was really interesting. This man, Song Dong, has placed all his family's belongings from China out on display. Every piece from their old home. Two things struck me - plastic bags folded into triangles and little scrap pieces of string tied nicely together to be saved. Both are things I and I know many other of my Asian friends do. I just never really thought of it being ingrained in our culture although I certainly know that saving everything because it could be useful one day, is pervasive in the Chinese culture which leads to clutter. The story of this exhibits explains why they collected "clutter" and I can understand. I find it interesting that as we come out of hard times, we still have these habits.

Chinese New Year in Sydney started off with a festival opening and Chinese Market in Belmore Park on the weekend that consisted of New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. It was just a little market with some food stalls, but nothing like what we have home where we have trinkets, As-Seen-On-TV goods, and other knick-nacks and gimmicks for sale. I did miss that, but I figure it probably existed somewhere in the more Chinese suburbs of Sydney. And I missed my one opportunity to get Dragon Beard Candy which for as long as I recall, get every year in Vancouver during Chinese New Year. Also, I was able to hunt down "leen goh" (literally translated as "year cake") and "loh bak goh" (literally translated as radish cake) in Chinatown which made me a very happy camper. However, I really missed Mom's "loh bak goh" as she always gets the taste so spot on and it's loaded with goodies like "lap cheung" (Chinese sausage), "ha mai" (Dried shrimp), and shiitake mushrooms (no translation needed) without too much MSG.



Last weekend (the 2nd weekend) I went with a friend to go see the Chinese New Year parade. The first major difference I pointed out above with the weather. The second is that this one takes place at night and this time, on a Sunday night! Vancouver would never have this! It was fun to see floats all lit up and the route lit up by lights. They also included the Korean community as it's Lunar New Year and both communities celebrate it. You may have guessed already - one of the Korean groups Gangnam Style-ed the whole parade route!

Town Hall all lit up with projections for the New Year.

So there it is - Chinese New Year in a different city. I still have yet to spend on in an actual Chinese city or country and I vow to do it one day! 

Bali Part 1 - Kuta/Seminyak/Kerobokan

In mid-December I took a short 5 day trip to Bali on a shoestring budget. Once piece of advice - Bali is not for people with shoestring budgets who are travelling solo. It was a lot more expensive as I had expected and I suppose if you have time to use local transit and really dig to find cheap places to stay, it's do-able. Anyways...

I arrived near midnight on a Saturday night and the first thing I noticed walking out of the airport was that I wasn’t mobbed by taxi drivers. Although they asked if I needed a taxi, they were not nearly as aggressive as others I have encountered in Asia. I was first offered 120,000 Rupiah (Rp) for the ride to Happy Day Hostel in Kerobokan, I asked for 80,000 (Lonely Planet tells me that Seminyak, just south of Kerobokan costs up to 70,000Rp) and was turned down. So I walked away to go check with the counter and a few steps later the cabbie agrees to 80,000Rp. First negotiation - done.

On the way it was dark, of course, but there were definitely some similarities to Sri Lanka. Motorbikes riding near the shoulder, lines on the road are just suggestions, and little shops and eateries along the way. As we got to Kuta and through Seminyak, things got more touristy and quite a bit nicer. Reminded me of Sri Lanka combined with Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Got to the hostel where the security guy handed me my key and was happy to walk into a 10 bed dorm where 4 UK gals were still up. Quickly got settled and caught some zzzz’s dreaming of surfing the next day.

Pura Petitenget - A temple in Kerobokan near my hostel. Loved that it was very un-touristy and no one was in it.

Bright and early I woke up and met a nice couple from England having breakfast in the common area. We chatted over breakfast then while they figured out what to do for the day I headed down to Kuta to go catch some waves. Catch some waves… well, just a few. I’m not so good plus the guy I rented the board from put me on a 7 footer “beginner” board. To be fair, he did come out into the water and helped me out for awhile which was awesome considering I rented the board from him for 50,000Rp for two hours (I probably could have negotiated for 10,000Rp less, but that was a pretty fair price!). He was a pretty cool dude because when I realised I didn’t have enough money to cab back to the hostel afterwards he offered to take payment the next day. How trusting! I told him I wasn’t sure I’d be back, so I gave him the cash and decided to walk along the beach north back to the hostel.

Local satay vendor.

Walking along the beach was quite enjoyable. Although asked quite constantly if I wanted a sun bed, a gentle “no, thank you” was enough to stop them from asking and often was answered by a “you’re welcome” or “have a nice day”. I really couldn’t get over how nice the Balinese were – a few even engaged in a short conversation with the standard “Where are you from?” and “How long are you here for?” even after saying no to them. So nice.

What I thought were fish tanks were actually display cases of food!

After returning to the hostel I spent the afternoon contemplating whether or not to head to Ulu Watu or wait to do that until the end of the trip. I decided to wait then went back to the beach at late afternoon to try to catch the sunset. To my surprise, the beach was filled with locals with some vendors selling treats in what looked like fish tanks on top of their heads. I stopped by a guy roasting some corn on his trailer and a lady squatting over a small grill making pork satay. I took that back to the beach and enjoyed the setting sun and watching the locals enjoy some family and friends time. A superb way to end the day! 

Happy 2013 from Sydney!

 Happy New Year! Wishing everyone a wonderful and fulfilled year ahead.

This year, I had the pleasure of ringing in the new year in Sydney Harbour. No, I didn't get the view of the bridge I wanted, but did met a lovely gentleman who was there by himself with all a bit of his camera equipment who I chatted with throughout the day and then lent me his tripod and taught me a bit about how to shoot fireworks. :)

For people from Vancouver, the fireworks themselves are beautiful over the harbour, but not as impressive as the Celebration of Light. However, the fireworks off the bridge are a different story. Those, are spectacular - but I only got a glimpse of it in person. I vow to come back one day and pay the $600 or whatever it is to be on a boat (or a bit less to be on an island lol).

Here are a few of my favourite shots! (No filters, no touch-ups and no editing, other than the bottom left hand corner on some of them, I blacked out the LCD screen of another camera that was in my frame)