I nearly got stabbed by an umbrella at least five times.

We managed to wedge ourselves in a spot in the middle area behind 2-3 rows of other people. What I found most annoying were people who were determined to keep their umbrellas open. Not only does it block the view for EVERYONE, I had to keep a lookout to make sure I didn’t randomly get whacked in the head.

Once the show started, though, most people were nice enough to stow away their umbrellas (it wasn’t that rainy anyways). This only left the jerks who raised their tripods so high, their chunky SLRs kept making cameos in the corner of our own shots.

Other than these minor annoyances, the show was enjoyable.

I think that you may actually prefer seeing some fireworks photos, instead of reading a thousand-word paragraph of me describing them for you. Just a warning that the following is going to be very graphics- and exclamation mark-intensive.

The firecrackers are set off from 3 boats floating in the harbour.

Fish!

Tiger faces!

Golden nuggets!

There was background music but it was really tinny from where we were.

Looks like they are floating stars!

Reminds me of aurora borealis.

Flowers!

Sakura!

Lotus flowers!

Firework fountains!

The red part should be Chinese characters but I couldn't make out what they were.

HK Island makes an amazing backdrop.

Smileys!! :)

Retinas burning yet?

Random exclamation marks!!!!!

Pink fluffs!

Wrapping things up... HK style.

In total the show lasted around 20 minutes. The photos don’t do it justice; you’d need to see it live and it will leave you gaping.

Exiting the premises was next to impossible; we tried to go one way, and a security guard informed us it would actually take about an hour for the crowd to clear out. By then we were really cold and hungry, so we turned around and tried to get out from the other side. It wasn’t much better.

Shovefest 2010

At times the crowd was literally at a standstill. It took us a good 15 minutes or so, but we made it out, and headed to Mong Kok for a belated dinner. We ate at this corner restaurant that was known for their fried dumplings/potstickers. I had 2 orders of these, and I could see (taste?) why it’s so popular. But of course, being generous restaurant owners, they welcomed the New Year and patrons by tacking on an extra $2 to every food order.

Eventually we wandered to an arcade underneath a shopping centre, and spent a few hours in there. They didn’t allow photo-taking inside, so I can’t post some of the weird and wonderful stuff it had. I had never seen an arcade so sprawling (2-3 times larger than the one in P-Mall), and it was open 24 hours. Similar to clubs, smoking is prohibited but people do it anyways. So I ended up smelling like cigarettes by the time we left.

Anyways, hope I didn’t kill all of your bandwidth with this post. I would’ve posted a video too but it’s 3AM right now and I’m just lazy. Also, my reading week unofficially begins now, as I will be leaving for Thailand in mere hours. Bedtime!

That-a-way

HOLY CRAP.

Epically battled through the crowd...

... just to arrive at more crowds.

Begin mass tiger merchandise. Most things were being sold by students, many from HKU.

Inside is a McNugget-shaped cushion (you can see part of it at the bottom)

Fake Cadbury and "Coco-Cola"

Fruit kebab dipped in sugar water and frozen. We thought it was strawberries. 'Twas not.

Gigantic Chupa-chups! Good for hammering people.

Tiger Surprise. I think it's a cushion?

Frosted Flakes are called 'Frosties' here, but the dollar-signed eyes kind of sends a bad message to kids.

The tigers ate the koalas.

Making sugar cane drinks. I had one, never tasted anything so fresh!

Of course, there is the ‘flower’ part of ‘Flower Market’. These booths took up about half the venue, and I think were just family-run.

Beautiful orchids

Carnations? Chrysanthemums? Not sure... I shall call them Poofies.

Daffodils cuz it's SPRING!

I don't even know...

Mahjong cushions!

This is so-called 'American-style fried coke'. I'm positive they have this all over America.

Chang fen with peanut sauce and other sauces...YUMMMM

Gigantic bubble-wrap-esque egg waffles!! Notice 'buy 2 get 1 free'. Because two of these gigantic things just ain't enough.

I used to love those tiny cookies with the colourful icing as a kid. Haven't seen them in years.

Coca-Cola people serving street food. Weird.

Next up, CNY Fireworks!