Sun-Ling and John have been traveling the earth since 2008 while blogging, eating vegetarian and vegan, and riding public transportation. We love uphill day hikes, 20th-century architecture, Roman ruins, all bodies of water, local markets, shopping for groceries, aqueducts, miradors, trip planning, blablacar, and more.
A "must do" in Penang over Chinese New Year is seeing the lights at Kek Lok Si Buddhist temple. So on the 2nd day of the New Year, we took a bus out to Kek Lok Si.
The temple is spread over the side of a hill and features a pagoda with 192 steps, and a statue of Kuan Yin reached by mini-funicular.
Unfortunately, on-foot arrivals get to walk up to the base of the temple through a noisy, smokey, tacky souvenir gauntlet. Luckily we spotted a shortcut on the way up; then avoided it all together on the way down.
The guide books call the lights "fairy tale" but "kitsch" was the first word out of Sun-Ling's mouth. ;-)
Well the wait was worth it. The lights came on about 7:15 pm and we enjoyed them from on top of the pagoda. Not only were the lights pretty cool, but the view back to George Town was pretty good as well. I'll agree the the Kek Lok Si lights are a "must see" for CNY in Penang.
But before we head out to the temple, some veggie eats at Lily's Vegetarian Restoran.
The temple seems a work in progress; ever expanding.
Souvenir gauntlet.
A view back to George Town.
Pagoda.
Having some fun at the top of the pagoda while waiting for the lights to come on.
Traveling during Chinese New Year in Asia is always problematic. A lot of people from China travel abroad as the national holiday period is six to seven days long. Not to mention here in Malaysia it is a two-day national holiday making it a four-day weekend. I was paralyzed by the prospects. At John's prompting, we had to make some commitments, back in KL. We decided to skip beaches in the south of Thailand and train directly to Bangkok. The earliest train we could get was Tuesday 2/24. That put us in Penang for CNY, not the best place, but not bad. Since all hotels raise rates, and some double, we prepaid for four nights of hotel sight unseen. Thank goodness of online ratings. I find them particularly helpful. We have pretty much ditched guidebooks when it comes to hotel recommendations.
Hotels are tight in Penang over CNY, just because of people have off from work, not because it is a particularly good time to visit. 90% of businesses are closed for an indeterminate number of days, though eating has not been a problem for us. In fact, if they were all open, there are so many vegetarian places, we wouldn't know where or what to eat. Almost all the celebration takes place privately. There are public celebrations in the streets scheduled for next weekend, which would be a better time to visit. The same is true for Singapore. I had puzzled over their calendar when we were there. Now it finally made sense.
While there were the familiar sights of families gathered for New Year's Eve dinner, fireworks and firecrackers, incense burning at temples, I saw CNY lion dancing for the first time. Since it is not a tradition in Shanghai, I had only heard about it. The idea is for teams to go around to businesses to perform and well-wish and get red packets ????? in return. We saw the lions spitting out oranges for the audience instead.
On the other hand, we were very disturbed by a scene that we witnessed at the Kuan Yin temple, the oldest and most popular temple in town. As we approached the temple, I was immediately puzzled by the number of Indians (non-Chinese) people in the courtyard. Before I could think, a scene broke out. A man was handing out a dozen red packets. People started to swarm around him. An Indian man began shouting "Paidui" (means queue-up in Chinese). Not to mention organizational reps from various charities were also standing around for alms. There were so many issues distilled in that one tableau. I couldn't take it and walked away quickly.
What a mixed bag of a CNY!
Let's go right to the Lion Dancing video (about 45 seconds long).
And the link to the video is here if the embedded does not display or play.
A benefit of being in Asia for CNY, one can watch the New Year's Eve fireworks while lying in bed; just remember to keep the window curtain open.
Chinese temples were busy on CNY day with literally tons of incense and candles burned. There were also AM church services at one Chinese Methodist church near our hotel.
The beggar's camp at the Kuan Yin Temple.
The beggar's queue...Note the guy at left standing behind a stack of bird cages. One can pay to "set free" a pair of birds which is both and act of kindness and a way to gain merit.
Many Asians follow the tradition to eat vegetarian on Chinese New Year, thus the vegetarian restaurants were busy to over flowing like this self-service place near our hotel where we ate in peace and quiet the night before.
After a smooth trip back from Taipei to Shanghai, a good night's rest, and a vegetarian hot pot New Year's Eve dinner with Sun-Ling's parents, we hopped on the metro and headed over to Sun-Ling's sister's 25th floor apartment in Pudong to watch the fireworks. We were not disappointed.
As we arrived at the complex entrance around 9:30PM, we paused for several minutes to watch some fireworks being shot off the gate - no fireworks allowed inside the complex. From the 25th floor we had great views both north and south. Although we could not see the official display in People's Park, we could see hundreds of "personal pyrotechnics" which increased in number and volume as midnight approached.
The show at midnight was awesome. One neighbor, just outside our window, to the south set off a 25 minute long display that easily equaled what most cities in the US do for July 4th. Wow!
The next morning we caught the metro back to Sun-Ling's parent's apartment, arriving just in time for a family lunch - two big tables - at a local restaurant. Everyone was in a good mood with a sunny although cold day for the holiday. After lunch we had Sun-Ling-made tiramisu for her mother's birthday, and took the remainder next door to her Great Aunt's place for more visiting. It was great to visit with relatives we had not seen in the lat four years.
Happy Year of the Dragon to all our families, friends, and readers!!
A short unedited video of the fireworks looking to the northeast.
Knowing that Chinese New Year would be a busy season for Chinese to
travel, we stayed in Shanghai for the past two CNY's, and enjoyed the
tranquility during the exodus. It did not occur to us that CNY travel
woes would catch us in the back waters of northern Laos. We spent the
first five days of the New Year in Vang Vieng which was once a small
farming village. It seemed like Kao San Road in the mountains by the
river. We met a guy there who got a week off for CNY from his
English-teaching job in Malaysia! Not to mention all the people who
have driven in cars from China! We arrived in Luang Prabang on the
12th and that found rooms are tight and prices high.
Here in Vientiane, the local Chinese are marking the new year with offerings to the ancestors - food, paper money, incense, candles - and Lion Dances to drive away evil spirits. But no fireworks. One family had a whole roasted pig set out on the sidewalk in front of their small store.
Yesterday, we spent an hour at the largest Chinese temple watching the young men and boys practice their lion dancing, martial arts routines, drumming, and flag bearing. This morning, they all piled into three large trucks and are going around to businesses and temples to perform the rituals.
The.local Vietnamese are also celebrating Tet, their Lunar New Year.
