The Wet Market

I took a walk through the wet market today. This is where you can find fresh produce, meat and other food. I tried to wait around in certain places and watch for a few minutes before I took any pictures. I wanted to show some of the transactions and some of the workers etc...

Here a lady is working at her little nook of a shop. I think I actually bought some lettuce from her earlier in the week.

Here is a larger shop. Prices are a bit cheaper than supermarkets and the average quantity they give you is a lot more.

These stalls are probably all family run.

BBQ duck anyone?

Dried squid and eggs.

The butcher is always a sight to see with all of the meat hanging exposed like that. I don't think I would ever get my meat from a place like this. We get ours from the supermarket, packaged like you would find in Canada. Most of the time our meat comes from Australia, New Zealand or even Canada or USA.
I also question where the fish comes from at the markets. The harbor is pretty filthy.

This guy was chopping up fish heads for people. Probably a base for soup.

Wet markets are very common in most of Asia. In Korea Jill and I would usually stop off at ours on the way back from school. We would go to the same vendors and they would recognize us. Dealing with them is more friendly than at the supermarket.

A Walk To The Mall

Today when I was walking through the mall I saw they were setting up a stage and had Lion and Dragon costumes. It seemed like a spontaneous performance and I was glad I was able to see it.

The performers started out with this dragon. They were running around chasing the orb on a stick. It was much like the show we got at the New Year Parade.

The Lion Dance was better though. Two people in one suit were dancing and jumping from pillar to pillar. It looked like the person controlling the head was jumping 5 or 6 feet in the air. I think the person controlling the tail was throwing him up.

Another Lion climbed a tall pole and was performing up there.

Here is a close up of the two Lion's heads.

Here is a short clip of the ending.

Vacation

Finally a day without rain. We realized that this Chinese New Year holiday was the time that we should have traveled some place nice and warm. Our last day of work was 27 and sunny. The next 9 days dropped to about 10 degrees and rained almost every single day.

We decided to take advantage of today and go hiking in the mountains behind our school and behind our apartment. It was a bit cloudy and hazy when we were hiking but around 2pm when we were walking home the sun actually came out and the sky turned blue. We were so happy to finally see the sun. Unfortunately after walking up and down the mountains for 3 hours we were way too tired to go outside and enjoy it after we got back.

We went up to where I paraglide and walked on the ridge from peak to peak. It was really nice but would have been even nicer if there were blue skies then.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our day out:

Our apartment is somewhere on the other side of this mountain.


We started about 30 minutes before that first peak on the right.

Chinese New Year Parade

With Chinese New Year being the biggest holiday here in Hong Kong, we thought we should participate in a few of the festivities. Tonight was the New Year Parade. At first we were wondering if it would be worth it. The crowds of people, getting home when it was finished, the weather, etc... it was!

After a nice dinner out we went to the parade route (2 hours early) and got a great spot right in front of one of the performance areas where the tv cameras were and the emcees. The parade lasted 1 and a half hours and was really fun. There were floats and performances from around the world.

Here Jill is with her tiger paws (this is the year of the Tiger).



There were Lion Dances


Dragon Dances

And no parade would be complete without the San Diego Chargers Cheer Leading Squad. Highlight of the parade for me........just joking.

There was so much diversity. It was really great. I'm glad it didn't rain and we got home really quickly after it was over. We were near the start of it so we could leave as soon as the last act went by.

Here is a little video of the dragon performance

Here are some more random photos

School Chinese New Year Party

Yay, holiday!!!! It's now the start of our Chinese New Year holiday. The official days are Sat, Sun, Mon and Tue but we have off until the following Tuesday, 12 days of bliss. It's nice to have this one so close to our Christmas holiday and so close to our upcoming Easter Holiday. Unfortunately we're not doing anything special this week but for Easter we've booked a flight and a week at a hotel in Bali, Indonesia. I spent 3 weeks there in 2004 but Jill's never been there. It's a beautiful island with a very interesting and unique culture. We'll be there for 10 days and hopefully we'll have plenty of R&R. We're heading to a quiet side of the island that just happens to have a great paragliding site for me and some of the best scuba diving in the area for us. I'm sure with beaches and shopping, Jill will be occupied too.

Today we celebrated the New Year at school. Everyone (but me) wore a traditional Chinese outfit. Jill borrowed one from my co-teacher Ms. Lau (on the right)Almost all of the children were dressed up and we had a big lunch and lot's of Chinese snacks.

Posing in front of the blossom tree.

Jill with one of her favorite and cutest students. Her outfit was pretty cute too.

My class was responsible for the Lion Dance during the party. It was a small lion so only one student in the head and one in the tail. The rest of my students were banging drums and cymbals and following the lion.

There wasn't much room for them to move around so I think it was better when we were practicing in our classroom, but the other students seemed to like it and it was funny.

We might head down this weekend to see some of the city's celebrations but it will be so busy. We'll see. Any way "kung hei fat choy" every body! (it means happy new year in cantonese)

Neighbours

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=30&art_id=94375&sid=27014155&con_type=1

This happened in the building next to ours. Brian saw the commotion when he was out jogging last night. Freaky ways to die.