River Hongbao 2014

Every year with the boyfriend of 3 years brings me a new kind of cultural experience. This year I went to the River Hongbao for the first time! Hahaha. You can say I'm kind of a "culturally deprived" English-speaking Singaporean. I've never really been made to speak mandarin (except to some of my relatives, and even so, they're pretty bilingual), or made to do any distinctively Chinese things (My family did sao mu on Good Friday, but not particularly during the annual sao mu festival), and well, I'm one of those kids that was banded into the worst class for Chinese. 

I'd proudly add that despite many attempts of my secondary school Chinese teacher to force me into Syllabus B Chinese, I very strongly refused, much to her horror (I guess she had some KPI/department goals to meet). When I got a B4 for "O" Level Chinese, she was so shocked and I was really pleased to rub it around in her face. Haha. I mean, sure I'm weak at Chinese, and my parents suck at it too, but I was pretty sure I wasn't THAT bad to be placed in Syllabus B man. 

My parents belonged to the generation that took some Malay first, then switched over to Mandarin Chinese or something like that, so they had pretty half past six Chinese since they lacked the foundation and they had some difficulty in the accurate tone. Everyone knows that in Chinese, every thing is about the right "tone" (I'm referring to the 4 different Chinese tones). 

So anyway I've been trying really hard to improve my mandarin over the past 3 years. I'm not proud to be weak at it, nor do I blame my parents for it (though my upbringing is a contributing factor), and if you're good at it, good for you. Really, I salute you. One thing I do hate is when people with bad English tease me for it... 

English is still the main language you're educated in school/University with, and no, Chinese isn't tested in University. So whatever man, really, I still write better reports than you, so go reflect on yourself. Haha! Grammar and poor expression are the worst things to be marked down for, because it's not about a lack of skill or knowledge in a module, but an inability to communicate an idea effectively. 

Anyway, I digress... always! 

Pretty hard to photograph anything without getting blocked by inconsiderate folks, or being pushed. But hey this is Singapore. We get used to it (and start pushing too muahaha... I'm kidding). The energy and the crowd was exhilarating and fun! It was amusing to hear really cheena songs blared at top volume, but I love all cultural things despite my lack of Chinese language ability.

Thought this was nice. Called the 许愿池 (I'll loosely translate it to "Wishing Pond/Wishing Well"), people gather to throw coins at any one of the 6 bells for good luck. We gave it a shot as well, and unfortunately both of us did not manage to hit any bells. We were so close, but no. 

Everyone loves a 360-degree rotating horse. This horse must be damn giddy. 

This picture is fail. I was so pleased I got an unblocked photo of this particularly pretty horse lantern that had more colour contrast than the white one which did not photograph as well, but I realised much later that I actually took the photo from the back, and that the boy standing on the horse is facing the other direction. -_- This is one of those moments where I am not pleased to say I am passionate about photography, haha.

Hey, and that's me!

And hey, that's him! I might add this is a body-less snake, since there was nothing slithery or long about this snake zodiac lantern. I don't get it. The main characteristic of a snake was totally missed out...

Massive palace lantern set-up. Really quite epic in size and colours, along with creepy moving "ancient human" lanterns swaying from side to side.

My favourite of all the lanterns on display! This flower wall of sorts features a moving flower in the middle that opens and closes. Just too pretty not to snap a photo.

Chinese riddles tent, I think. Win a prize for guessing the riddles correctly? Haha erm, no thanks!

Panoramic view of the 人山人海 crowd at the River Hongbao.
 

Taking in these pretty lanterns. Really beautiful against the Singapore skyline.

And that's the end of my cultural immersion session. :)

The River Hongbao 2014 runs from 29 Jan 2014 to 8 Feb 2014 at The Float at Marina Bay. 5 more days and soon it'll be gone! If you haven't visited it before in your life, and are as "culturally deprived" as I am (haha), drag your other half to go down with you!

It's almost romantic.