HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR ........ KUNG HEI FAT CHOY

The festivities for Chinese New Year started on Friday. We went out to Cabramatta which is a suburb of Sydney known as Little Vietnam.  80% of the people there are first or second generation Vietnamese. The streets were thronged with people all dressed in their best clothes or 'ao dai' which is Vietnamese National Costume for ladies and it was just like being in Asia. Even the smells and the sounds were totally different to a few miles up the road. We watched Dragon Dancers going into the St George's bank (to bring them prosperity for the year ahead) but we couldn't watch all of the proceedings because there was much banging of drums and clashing of cymbals. Daisy didn't like the noise and when they started letting off fire crackers she was terrified.  So we bought some Asian buns for lunch and that kept her quiet.  On Saturday, we went to the Korean quarter in the heart of Sydney and watched performers, again in national costume - 'hanbok'  this time. The Korean Sword Dancers were totally different to the Scottish variety! We also had a performance of K Pop, Korean Pop Music, which  is very big right across the whole of Asia.  Bobby would have loved the street dancers. We sampled some steam dumplings with Kimchi which is Korea's spicy fermented cabbage - a national dish. I have to say it tastes much better than it sounds.    hěnhǎo chī (Chinese for delicious) The feasting will go on into next week. There are events on tomorrow - a parade, the dragon ball and various activities all over Sydney culminating in the Dragon Boat Race next week in Darling Harbour.   Unfortunately I will miss all of that I am off to pack my bags.  Home tomorrow!

Pat has files to share with you on SkyDrive. To view them, click the links below.