New Year Festivities

This week, I've enjoyed being a tourist again and going to all the different Chinese New Year festivities. This is the first time I've ever experienced a Chinese New Year in Hong Kong so it's been interesting...

On one night, I went to the Lunar New Year Fair in Victoria Park where the crowd was so insanely huge that I felt more like a cow than a person, being herded and forced to walk in one direction. I've never been in such close proximities to other strangers haha... I didn't even need to walk with my own feet since the people behind and in front of me were propelling me forward on their own. My verdict? I think the Hong Kong Government should take advantage of this event and apply for the Guinness World Record of "Largest Asian Sandwich".

The next day, I went to a tiny, rural village in Lam Tsuen where they had another festival going on. 

 Of course, they had the standard red and gold lanterns hanging from the rafters...

 ... and these tiny orange bushes, which seem to be everywhere in Hong Kong during New Years...

 There was a wishing pond where people could send off their aspirations into the blue...

 ...and the highlight of the festival was the wishing tree where you buy an orange with a blessing tied to it and if you can throw it up into the tree, your wish will supposedly come true. The tree and the oranges were fake by the way, because I think when they used to use real trees, the oranges got too heavy and the branches started breaking.

In theory, throwing the fake orange into the tree seems easy enough, but in reality, it was way too hilarious to witness. There was one woman who kept on trying to throw the orange up... let's just say that if she was playing basketball, it took about 15 airballs before she even got anywhere close to the rim. Oh man... I actually have a 5 minute video of her sad attempts but it's way too cruel to post. So for now, this poor woman is saved from viral video shame.

 During New Years, I also had the chance to go to Cheung Chow (Long Island) to eat a fresh seafood meal outdoors at the pier. I got to eat something called PEEING SHRIMP which totally reminded me of the gigantic ALIEN PRAWNS from District 9. Yup... these aliens were delicious.

Lastly, here is something that isn't at all related to Chinese New Year, but is pretty cool all the same. This is a machine that sells FROZEN COKE. I didn't know these existed until my friend pointed it out. Apparently this product is exclusive to Hong Kong (don't know why... maybe Hong Kong people are Coca Cola's guinea pigs...)... dun dun dunnnnn...

The machine had instructions on how to drink the coke properly. Apparently, you have to take a quaff.

Here's a video of my first frozen coke experience.

 It was a super icy/windy night... perfect for a freezing cold beverage. haha.

=)