The celebration of the Chinese New Year is this week in China. Monday and Tuesday are considered public holidays but most companies have the entire week off work and nearly everyone travels to their hometown to visit family, similar to Christmas in the U.S.
This celebration largely focuses around the all-night non-stop lighting of fireworks. They are extremely cheap here so no sparklers or bottle rockets, we're talking $50 for a box of fireworks that shoots off star shapes. The real deal. Although this sounds wonderful it's an around the clock affair and many warned us, including Chinese natives, that we didn't want to be in China during the New Year if we could help it. So we decided to take a trip to the next best place, a warm destination in the land of amazingness called Singapore.
We've heard several people say Singapore is like Asia for beginners and after being here I respectfully have to disagree. It's not like Asia at all, well at least the Asia I've seen. Let's be honest, it's the U.S version of Miami weather meets Las Vegas glam. Singapore was occupied by the British until sometime in the 1960's so literally everyone speaks fluent, native, English and you can find anything and everything you can in the U.S. here, including restaurants like Outback, Wendy's, Long John Silvers, Chili's, TGI Friday's, and even California Pizza Kitchen. I'm in heaven. No more guessing what sea creature might be mixed in my soup or having to gulp down an unknown meat mixed in my noodles, I'm living on hamburgers and salads my friends and there is nothing sweeter.
As for Mavis she's in heaven too. She stands by the door in our hotel room the entire time we are in there, just waiting to escape. No having to worry about mom yelling at her to not touch anything when we're outside because everything's covered in smog dust and I don't want her to get filthy on the way to go eat lunch. And no more having to worry about getting run over by a car on the sidewalk, she can run as free as a bird. I think we might just both stay. Sorry Steve, this might just be one of the perks of not having a job :-)
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A dragon dance as part of a New Years celebration. Notice the oranges on the floor. The dragons "eat" these and then throw the peeled slices out to the children. Someone should tell China that kids, I mean parents, prefer candy. |
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View of the new year's fireworks at midnight from our hotel room, thanks to a pricey upgrade we indulged in after
finding out that the babysitting services weren't available thanks to the Chinese New Year holiday.
Someone should tell Singapore they aren't located in China. |
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| At the zoo. Notice there are no fences, it's just you and the animals! I understand now how kids in other countries end up on the news for falling into the lion den or getting into the bear cave. |
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| Singapore is not a cheap place. Welcome to the land of $8 glasses of apple juice, $7 cans of Coke, and a $26 Singapore Sling. |
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| At the Botanical Gardens. Notice the hideous clogs, you can blame her style-deprived father for those. |
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| We spent an hour walking back to the Children's Park within the Botanical Gardens only for Mavis to fall asleep within a few steps of the front door. This happened twice during our trip. Grr. |
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| Water fountains are even more fun when you are not supposed to be in them! |
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| M's first steps in the ocean. |
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| Taking the cable car from Sentosa back to Singapore. |
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| Enjoying a nice cool beverage. We discovered how much fun straws are on this trip! |
