Happy New Year!

新年快樂!
恭喜發財!

I think its officially the year of the Ox now...  We took the day off today.  I went biking yesterday with Marco in Cheung Chau (長洲) and then I went again this afternoon in the NT... I guess that means my new years resolution is to do more exercise. :-P

i'll post up some pics from biking later,  but I wanted to share a few pics I took at the new years Night Market in Victoria Park next to Causeway Bay.  I had heard its pretty cool, but I had always tried to avoid it because of the crazy crowds. 

Winnie Leung asked me to go check it out on Thursday night, so I figured I'd bite the bullet and go see it.  Luckily since it was several days before new years,  it wasn't as crowded as it could have been.  

木曜日夜、ウィンニーちゃんと一緒カウズウェー・ベイのビクトリア公園の正月マーケトへ行った。人一杯が居たよ！したの写真を見てください。

Check it out:

row upon row of aisles full of stands selling various goods.  some were new years related souvenirs and some were just random stuff like toys and clothes and pottery...

there were whole sections devoted to flowers too...


I believe the saying in Chinese is "人山人海"....

This stand had particular colorful snacks:


Actually Winnie had an ulterior motive for bringing me here.  She wanted to show me the booth her friends were operating, selling cow themed hats for Charity:

A portion of the proceeds go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.    You can read Winnie's blog here for more info and some better pics.  I actually have seen a bunch of people walking around town with these hats on over the last few days, so it seems they're selling well!

We also bumped into none other than MC Jin:

He was working the crowd giving out some more of his FREE MC Jin Mixtape CD 2009!
(also available for free with purchase from alivenotdead.com's online store btw!)

I snapped a few more random pics while going with the huge crowds:

Lots of cows imagery every where...

some booths were also selling cow-themed products:

I think these were neck pillows... cow themed.

Also a lot of people were walking around with giant inflatable things... the most common was inflatable cows but there were many other varieties.   i tried to ask my friends if there was some sort of cultural significance, but they said there isn't... its just to give people an excuse to buy something. Case in point:

If you really like those waffles they sell at those sidewalk stands... now get a giant one... it even comes with a paper bag to hold it! :-P

But this was absoltuely the most bizarre:

what are those things?


oh yes... giant inflatable iPhones! 

(the sign said something to the effect of "now you can own an iPhone for only HK$50 (~US$6)).

Happy New Year!