Lunar New Year Celebrations around Asia

This is the time of the year where most of Asia celebrates the Lunar New Year holidays. Officially, Lunar New Year begins on 18th February and that's the 1st day of the Year of the Pig. My good friend, Phill likes to call it the Year of the Boar, this is his special year too. Those born in the year of the Pig are highly regarded for their chilvary and pureness of heart, and often make friends for life.

The Lunar New Year is the most significant festival for ethnic Chinese around the world, wherever they come from. It is a very jubilant occasion mainly because it is the time when people take a break from work to get together with family and friends.

Chinese New Year is also the time of the the largest human migration, when overseas Chinese all around the world travel home to have reunion dinners with their families on Chinese New Year's eve. Well, for me it is a 45-minutes drive to my parents house around the East Coast of Singapore. In Chinese tradition, sons will return home together with their families to have reunion with the parents.

In Singapore, we celebrate the Chinese New Year and two websites that might be of interest to you - Visit Singapore and Chingay 2007.

This year the Lunar New Year starts on 18th February. A statutory holiday is added on the following work day when the New Year falls on a weekend.Countries with sizeable chinese population celebrate as a public holiday:

China - the 1st seven days

Taiwan - the 1st five days

Hong Kong - the 1st three days

Macau - the 1st three days
Singapore - the 1st 2 days

Malaysia - the 1st 2 days

Indonesia - the 1st day

Brunei - the 1st day

Other countries:
The Vietnamese, Koreans and Mongolians also celebrate their Lunar New Year on the same day as the Chinese calendar.

The Vietnamese New Year is called Tết, and is a three-days holiday.
Korea celebrates the 1st 3 days of the Lunar New Year (called Seol-nal).
Mongolia also celebrates the 1st three days of the Lunar New Year (called Tsagaan Sar).

Celebrating Valentine's Day around Asia

14th February is Valentine's Day. It is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other; sending Valentine's cards, candy, or donations to charities, often anonymously. It is very common to present flowers on Valentine's Day. This westerned celebration of love is now very common around Asia.

Every February across the country, candy, flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is this mysterious saint and why do we celebrate this particular day?

The history of Valentine's Day and its patron saint is shouded in mystery. But we do know that February has long since been a month of romance. St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains both christian and ancient Roman tradition.

IN SINGAPORE - Making Dollars and Sense on Valentine's Day

Singapore is known for its love for the Valentine's Day celebrations because for the hospitality business there are lots of money to be made on this day. Heavy advertising and aggressive promotions are seen on newspapers, televisions and radio. And this starts weeks before Valentine's Day for Singaporeans eager not to miss a booking at hotels and restaurants.

Valentine's Day is a big event in Singapore and you can expect shows, musical carnivals, performances that are held throughout the city in bars, clubs and hotels. Also, Valentine's day is probably the most popular day for young couples to get married. Hotels and restaurants are fully book on Valentine's Day - prices on Valentine's day are more expensive. But competition amongst them is still very keen and so themed evenings are getting increasingly popular. While Valentine's Day may be one of the busiest days in the calendar for restaurants, the rush tends to come at the last minute.

More Valentine's news from Singapore:
Dating bootcamp gears Singaporean men up for Valentine's Day


IN JAPAN - A Chocolate Valentine

Japanese women who crave chocolate but not its calories are discovering they don't have to put it in their mouths – this Valentine's Day, they can slather it on their bodies or wear it instead.

Women in Japan are expected to give chocolate to boyfriends and husbands for Valentine's Day, with the men reciprocating a month later, but this year it seems that some Japanese women are ditching tradition and pampering themselves.

At the upscale Tokyo Prince Hotel, women are being offered an overnight package that includes a 75-minute chocolate massage costing up to 50,000 yen, at Japan 's growing ranks of single and financially secure women. The hotel is promoting cocoa as good for the skin, hoping to soothe fears that a love of chocolate leads to an expanding waistline by using it in less conventional ways. Apart from experiencing chocolate on the skin, women can also show their chocolate mania as an original fashion statement. And though the hotel isn't exactly spelling it out, chocolate's link with romance can be traced back a few thousand years to when the ancient Aztecs associated it with their goddess of fertility.

Chocolate contains a variety of substances, some of which, like caffeine, are addictive and others that have positive health benefits such as reducing coughing. The presence in chocolate of the feel-good chemicals serotonin and phenethylamine, mild sexual stimulants, have led to the romantic lore that chocolate is an aphrodisiac and so giving and receiving chocolate has become an inextricable part of the modern courtship ritual.

In a country where plastic replicas of food displayed outside restaurants have become an art form, department store Takashimaya is offering a limited number of tiaras with diamond-shaped figures made to resemble chocolate. Unfortunately, the tiara cannot be eaten as the chocolate figures include plastic. And the price – at 71,400 yen (590 dollars) – may be equally difficult to digest.

More Valentine's news from Japan

Valentine's day....Japanese Way

IN KOREA - A Candy Valentine

The traditional gift of candy takes place in Korea on February 14, but only from females to males. There is another special day for males to give gifts to females and this is celebrated on March 14. March 14 in Korea is known as "White Day." On "White Day," many young men confess their love for the first time to their sweethearts.

For those young people who have no particular romantic partners, the Koreans have set aside yet another date...April 14, also known as "Black Day." On that date, such individuals get together and partake of Ja Jang Myun noodles, which are black in color, hence the name of the day.

REST OF ASIA - Valentine's day is taking a back seat....

Because of the proximity of this year Valentine's day to Lunar New Year, many people are snubbing this Western romantic day to prepare for the Lunar New Year, which is just 4 days away.

More Valentine's news around Asia

China's rich spend big to celebrate Valentine's day

Straight from the Heart - Malaysia

More Filipinas say it’s okay to text ‘I love you’

Porky pig and Makgeolli - 24 Jan 2007

Pig Trotters
This was served to the table a dish ladden with pig trotters and a dish of pig sausages - I was not used to the taste of the sausages.

Porky pig...to be precise I had pork trotters - deliciously cook around the Mapo-gu area. It was my first time to this dinning area of many small restaurants all selling different types of pork dishes.

Side dishes include 2 different dishes of kimchi, kimchi soup and fresh white cabbage (to be dipped into chilli bean paste). My observation is that Koreans eat lots of vegetables at every meal - this is excellent for dietary and health reasons.

These small eating houses had rows and rows of cooked pig trotters displayed like above. For payment, these small family restaurant takes credit card - it's so convenient in Seoul - credit card payment is accepted almost everywhere.
Drinking Etiquette
Visitors to Korea for the first time need to understand some drinking etiquette and this involves Koreans offer glasses of liquor to each other as a gesture of camaraderie. When someone offers you an empty liquor glass, you are expected to hold it out and receive a fill-up, drink it empty, and in likewise fashion return it to the person who offered it to you. This drinking tradition helps promote close ties around the drinking table.

Business in Korea begins after office hours and that is the time when you get to know your Korean partners and make friends. This is how I made great friends with Koreans.

Liquor - Makegeolli

It was my first time having a different type of Korean liquor called 막걸리Makgeolli. It is an acquired taste with it's milky colour but with low alcohol content around 6%. My understanding is that this drink is a traditional commoner's beverage and enjoyed by farmers and laborers, but by business people as well.

They are served at drinking houses around universities, at festivals, picnic areas, or anywhere people might enjoy a mild drink with a fermented flavor. It taste better mixed with a bottle of soda like 7Up.

Hurry, hurry in Seoul - 22 Jan 2007

This visit will be my 50th trip to Seoul since 1993 - one of my most visited countries in Asia Pacific.

10 minutes into SQ (short for Singapore Airlines) plane touching the Inchon International Airport (Seoul) tarmac, many Koreans will be unbuckling their seat belts, standing up and taking their hand luggage. I am not surprise as this happens everytime I arrive into Seoul.

I would not do it as it is dangerous since the plane is still moving. The heavy overhead hand luaggages could fall and hurt them or worse hurt someone badly.

But I just love the Koreans and the reason my close Korean friend tells me is a Korean word "palli palli" which can be translated as: "Hurry," or "Hurry up!". This very popular phrase seems to originate from when Korea was trying to catch up with more economically-developed nations. Even though Korea has now become the twelfth-largest economy in the world, the habit of being in a perpetual hurry has remained. Even foreigners can get caught up in the frenetic pace of life here.

Singaporeans and Koreans have some affinity in this hurry world. Singaporeans call it KIASU(kee-ah-soo) Hokkien adjective literally meaning, "afraid of losing".

A highly pejorative description beloved of Singaporeans. Possibly our defining national characteristic. We love to make fun of ourselves and have a comic character "Mr. Kiasu" created by Johnny Lau.

Feelling cold in Tokyo - 16 Jan 2007

On 16 Jan 2007, I arrive Tokyo from Singapore and it was freezing. On top of that, I was not feeling too well - coughing and a cold. A good friend, Phill was waiting for me at Narita Airport - we both took the Limousine bus to the hotel because we have big luggages. Otherwise, take the Narita Express (train) direct to Tokyo, from there it is easy to get to your hotel.

As always the Limousine bus arrives on time, our bags are taken and put into the under carriage of the bus. The bus driver will rattle someting in Japanese and bow to all the passengers - that is really cool. It just shows that Japanese takes their job with pride.

My 1st trip to Japan was to Osaka on business in Oct 1999.

Hotel Review:
Hotel: Hotel East 21
Pros: Price is reasonable @ Yen 18,000 includes breakfast and broadband internet access
Cons: about 45 minutes via subway to Shinjuku and not much buzz around the hotel
Recommendation: I would recommend this hotel if you are looking at a reasonably priced hotel

SURGICAL MASK

The next day, I was feeling much worse and was advise to use the "surgical face mask", which I had it in my luggage everytime since the SARS. I took it out and it was great - the mask traps the mositure and it gives relief to the nassal passage.

I first saw the use of surgical face mask in public was in Tokyo. I think the reason is hygiene and also stop the spread of contagious cold and flu from one person to another. People who are not feeling well and have to travel on buses and train will put on surgical mask.

It is a good practice to have a surgical mask handy - you will not know when you will need it. Other ways to protect yourself from germs: Practice good hygiene. Scrub your hands often with soap and water or with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer such as Purell.

Traverse around Asia Pacific

Wish to talk something about my travel around Asia Pacific which I have been doing since 1993 mostly for business. I live in Singapore and it is a hub for many MNC (short for Multi-National Corporations). Singapore is so strategically located within Asia plus it's excellent infrastructure that makes her an ideal HQ (headquarters) for many companies.

The strangest thing is that one day my son asked me would it be cool to visit one country every month - and it did not occur to him that I did exactly that 2006 - Australia, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, USA, Philippines and India.

I love to travel and that makes a great difference in being a successful regional person. Meeting old friends and sharing cultural antedotes just helps close the cultural differences. People need to learn to live with one another - beneath the colour of the skin - blood is all the same.