The Streets of Chinatown on CNY

*This post was originally posted on our main blog on 01/29/2009*

After the Firecracker Ceremony at SRD Park, we headed back to the heart of Chinatown. We were told that there will be more celebrations there but we didn't really know what to expect. As we wandered through the narrow streets, Chinese New Year music and lion dance drum beats filled the air. The closer we got, the louder it became. We could also hear lots of cheers, laughter and children squealing with excitement coming from around the corner. This is what we saw when we made that turn.

It was just crazy!!! The streets were just packed with people and they were shooting confetti cannons into the air! Some were really big and they shot out parachutes with 'lucky sayings' attached to it. It was just a sight to behold. The ground was just covered with confetti!! There was so much confetti that when we got home later on, we still found confetti tucked in our coat pockets and in our hair! :D It seems that it's a Chinatown tradition that they shoot confetti cannons every year, on the 1st day of Chinese New Year. You could buy them from street vendors at $5 a piece for a big cannon and 3 for $10 for the small ones.

This is the aftermath. Empty cannons laying everywhere and confetti just covering every inch of the ground. When I took this photo, they were still shooting the cannons. I bet you can't even see the ground by the end of the day.

Lion dance troupes were just everywhere! They would dance in front of shops and some shop owners would invite them into the shop or restaurant. The troupe would of course receive a hong bao from the shop owner after dancing in the shop. The whole atmosphere was just so festive. There were all kinds of lions, there must be at least 12 different troupes that day. Everything is so colorful and nice. Here, I'll just let the photos do the talking.

We ended the day by going to a Dim Sum restaurant for a late lunch. I will of course blog more about that in the next post. It was certainly as experience to celebrate Chinese New Year in Chinatown this year. Of course nothing beats celebrating Chinese New Year back home in Malaysia but I guess it was as good as it can get when you are so far away from home during this season. I'm also really glad that Kevin took the day off to head down to Chinatown to celebrate Chinese New Year with me. He knows that it can be tough sometimes to be away from the family during the holiday season and I know he did everything he could to make this a great CNY for me. That is why he is the best husband in the world!! :D

CNY Firecracker Ceremony 2009

*This post was originally posted on our main blog on 01/27/2009*

We woke up bright and early on the 1st day of Chinese New Year. Despite the frigid -7C temperature, we were all gung ho about heading to Chinatown to join in the Chinese New Year festivities. We took the PATH to the WTC station and started walking towards Chinatown. We saw online that there will be a Firecracker Ceremony, hosted by the Fukien American Association. There will be lion and dragon dances as well as lighting of firecrackers to usher in the new year.

We know that it's in Chinatown, but where in Chinatown? I looked it up online and found three different locations! Oh well, just head towards Chinatown and we can ask around :D We tried the first location, Chatham Square. It's nearest to the WTC Station and it was the location for last years Firecracker Ceremony. Guess what we saw there?

Nothing! Not a single person in sight.

Maybe the other side of Chatham Square? Nope...I guess it's not here either! We proceeded to ask a cop if he knew where the ceremony was. He said he has no idea, he was also waiting for further instructions! Wow, I think it's going to be a long day :P So, we continued walking towards the heart of Chinatown....

...stopped to take a photo with Confucius and continued walking. We decided to head towards the famous information kiosk under the big dragon to get more details about the location for the ceremony. We found a group of 'lost' people asking the same question and the helpful guy at the counter pointed us to the correct direction. It's at SDR Park, at the corner of Canal and Forsyth St. OK, now we know where to go! Another 6 blocks to go.

By then we were feeling a little hungry and started to look out for roadside food carts. Anywhere else in NYC, when we are hungry...we buy Hot Dogs, Kebabs or Pretzels from the street vendors. In Chinatown, it's Egg Rolls and Fishballs on a Stick!!! Only in Chinatown....

After getting our Egg Rolls, we continued walking and we saw some Lion Dance troupes getting ready to head towards the same direction as us. Woohoo!! We are on the right track!

At last we saw a park with flags waving in the air. Yes! We are at the SDR Park at last! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the firecrackers!! Since the ban of firecrackers in Malaysia, I have not seen many firecrackers around, let alone so many! They must be at least 15ft long..at least. There were not many people there yet, so we managed to get a good spot, right in front.

The crowd soon began to grow and the dragon and lion dance troupes started to arrive. There were reporters and news crews from various news networks too.

I believe 'Choy San' was spotted in the crowd too! ;P

The crowd started to get excited when a large group of important looking Chinese businessmen in long coats and gangster hats walked in with their wives in thick fur coats. They must be some really important people in Chinatown. They were lead to seats specially reserved for them and something tells me the ceremony is about to begin.

It started with the Veterans marching in and both the American and China national anthem being sung by some lady.

With that, the ceremony began! Fireworks started shooting out from behind the firecrackers followed by the firecrackers! Boy, I have forgotten how loud they can be! It just went on and on and on!! I had my fingers plugged in my ears for the entire time. Poor Kevin had to take this video clip, I bet his ears were ringing for a bit after the firecrackers stopped!!

After the firecrackers, the lion and dragon dances began. It was followed by some cultural dances by the ladies of the association.

The 'important' people walked around to greet the crowd for a while and left with their 'bodyguards'. With that, it marks the end of the ceremony. We then headed to the heart of Chinatown to join in more CNY celebrations but I will blog about it more in my next post :D

One Afternoon In Chinatown

*This post was originally posted on our main blog on 01/24/2009*
It was a nice and sunny day today (tad bit chilly though, around -3C), so we decided to head down to Chinatown to get into the Chinese New Year mood. We took the PATH to the city and then the subway to Chinatown. There is no way were we going to drive into Chinatown today, the last weekend before Chinese New Year...that place was packed with people everywhere! We got off at the Canal St station and WHAM! We were greeted with the lovely sights and sounds of Chinatown :P You know you are in Chinatown when....

Yup, even the Burger King and Starbucks have Chinese characters and looks Chinese!!

You can basically get anything you want in Chinatown. From scarfs to pirated DVDs to fake handbags. The fake handbag sellers were extra hardworking today. They were everywhere! At every crossroads, street corners, alleyways..they will whisper "Handbag? cheap handbag..veli nice...Coach, LV, Gucci...?" and show you photo albums of their merchandise.

Chinatown was bustling with activity today. People we busy buying things in preparation for Chinese New Year. The fresh seafood shop was so packed with people, we couldn't even go into the shop to take a look. I had to zoom in from a distance to take this photo.

It must have been one of the busier times of the year for fruits and flowers stalls. Tons of fresh bamboos, peonies, pussy willows...all kinds of Chinese New Year flowers for sale.

There were new stock of flowers constantly coming in. The moment the new stock arrives, it will be bought up by customers within the first 15 minutes or so. People were just buying and buying and buying!

I just love the smells of Chinatown. It's a mixture of freshly made pastries and buns from the Hong Kong style bakeries to freshly roasted duck and pork hanging from the store windows. One whole Peking duck for $25...not too bad at all!

There were also a lot of shops selling all kinds of Chinese New Year decorations. I just love this particular shop, you can see the various types of 'hong bao' for sale! They are just so cute and nice. $1 for a pack! The little girl was staring at that particular hong bao for the longest time. She must be dreaming of all the money she will be collecting, come Monday.

I just love how there is a mixture of everything in Chinatown. This shop sells traditional Chinese winter wear and I love NY t shirts. All on the same rack! :P

There is also an information centre right in the heart of Chinatown. If you are in Chinatown and need to look for something but you don't know where to go, just head to the bright red information centre under the big dragon. It's one of our favorite places in Chinatown. We have asked countless questions like "Where is the nearest Malaysian restaurant? Where can we get good dim sum? Is there a Malaysian grocery store here? How do we get to the nearest PATH station?". If they gave out loyalty cards, I think we would have racked up enough points to do anything we want!

After a long afternoon of walking around Chinatown, just soaking in all the sights, sounds and smells...we headed to Singapore Cafe for dinner. Don't be fooled by the name, it's actually run by Malaysians and it serves Malaysian food. Well, I guess Singapore food is pretty close to Malaysian food. We talked to the owner for a bit and found out that he has been living in the States for about 30 years but he is originally from Penang. The waitress (we think she is his wife) says that she used to stay in SS23! Wow, what a small world! They were pretty excited to learn that I grew up in Penang and my parents live in D'sara Jaya. I will write more about the food in Singapore Cafe in my next post.

I asked the Uncle from Singapore Cafe if there is a Malaysian grocery store nearby and he pointed us two blocks up from his restaurant. I have actually heard about this place but never got around to finding it. Asia Market Corp is relatively small compared to the other asian grocery stores, but you can find all kinds of Malaysian groceries there! It somewhat reminds me of our 'kedai runcit' back home. You can get things like fresh durian fruits to durian ice cream, five different types of kaya to choose from, aik cheong coffee to milo, all kinds of maggi noodles and different types of perencah to make curries....heck, they even have assam laksa noodles and paste! I was so impressed with this little shop. I can go on and on and on about what else they have in that shop..haha. Oh, I even managed to buy tambun biscuits there!!!

Overall, we had a great time in Chinatown today. Yes, it was a bit cold to be walking around in the outdoors but it was worth it. It somehow made spending Chinese New Year away from home a little bit easier. We will be going back to Chinatown on the 1st day of CNY to watch the lion and dragon dance troupes perform as well as the lighting of firecrackers to usher in the Chinese New Year!!

The Medieval Festival - Fort Tyron Park, NY

*This post was originally posted on our main blog on 10/09/2009*

Last Sunday afternoon, Kevin and I took the A Train all the way uptown to 190th St to Fort Tyron Park. Fort Tryon Park is a public park located in the Washington Heights section of the NYC borough of Manhattan. It is situated on a 67 acre ridge, with an awesome view of the Hudson River, the George Washington Bridge, the New Jersey Palisades and the Harlem River. It is is also site of The Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to medieval art and culture. It was the perfect setting for the 2009 Medieval Festival that we were there to check out.

The Medieval Festival at Fort Tyron is an annual event, with this being the 25th year running. Produced by the Washington Heights & Inwood Development Corporation and supported by The City of New York Department of Parks and Recreation, it is one of the largest and most popular event held in all NYC parks. They expect a total of 40,000 visitors this year and guess what? Admission is free!

So, what is the festival all about? Well, the purpose of the festival is an attempt to bring to life the customs and spirit of the Middle Ages. Fort Tryon Park is transformed into a Medieval market town decorated with bright banners and processional flags. Performers, guests and festival goers dress in medieval costumes. Visitors are greeted by authentic medieval music, dance, magic, minstrels, as well as jugglers and jesters.

The moment we stepped out from the subway station, we were greeted by girls dressed in Medieval costumes, dancing to Medieval music. How cool is that? Something tells me it's gonna be one cool festival.

Since admissions to the festival is free, the organizers have set up two wishing wells at the entrance. You can help out with the production cost by donating a couple of dollars to the wishing well. The suggested donation is $2, which I feel is reasonable - given the size and how elaborate the event was.

You can also help yourselves to a free festival program booklet at the entrance. It's loaded with all the information you would need to enjoy the festival - a map of the whole festival grounds, times and locations of events and performances as well as write ups about the events.

Our first stop was The South Lawn Village. Here at the South Lawn Village Square, you can check out and buy all sorts of Medieval weaponry as well as watch various types of combat demonstrations.

There are also all kinds of stalls selling Medieval craft, clothes, jewelry...just about anything you can think of. Heck, you can even get your own pet dragon here! :P

On the other side of South Lawn Village is where you can learn all about Medieval crafts and watch life demos. There were all kinds of demos, from weaving to spooling yarn! Pretty interesting actually.

From the South Lawn Village, we made our way Centercheap Market. This is where all the Artisans gather to sell their wares. Here is one lady making and selling clay mugs.

Here is another crowd favorite. The blacksmith, his wife and a few apprentice were out in full force, making swords, knives and other cool stuff. Business was brisk too...I sometimes wonder what all those people do with the swords and other weaponry they buy from festivals like this? Take it out when their friends come over to play Dungeons and Dragons? :P

You can also see many street performers all over Centercheap Market, be it juggling, playing music or just telling stories from the past.

We managed to catch the Majesta Chanters, performing the Gregorian Chant. Interesting but I guess we sorta lost interest after a while..haha!

We continued walking and ended up at Sir Stan Wichels Tournament Field of Honor. Guess what we saw there? Yup, a princess riding a unicorn!! See, I told you guys that unicorns are real...but noooo, nobody believed me! Who's the loony one now??? :P

We then entered the Tournament Field to grab a seat and waited for the Children's Costume Parade to begin.

Here they are. Look at all the cutie pies marching around the field. Aren't they just adorable? Not much of a parade, they just walked around the field and ended by giving everybody a bow :P However, they were just soooo cute, so who cares if they just walked around the field. They did a good job! :D

After the parade, it was the event everybody was waiting for all day. King Rene's Joust Tournament!! A thrilling joust between four knights on horseback. Very exciting!

Now it's time for some food. Just opposite the Tournament Field is the Triangle Pub. Here you can get all kinds of food like fried dough and turkey legs. Look at all those yummy turkey legs on the grill! You can buy beer in giant Medieval steins or wine in goblets too. We didn't manage to buy anything, cos the line was just too long. Just how long is long? Well, there were at least about 60-80 people in every line. I overheard a lady complaining that she has been in line for almost an hour and it's not even her turn yet!! I think I'll give those turkey legs a pass. I know that the smell of the turkey legs grilling on an open fire was just so good, but no way will I wait in line for an hour just to get some.

Ahhh the famous Cloisters. The Cloisters incorporates several Medieval buildings that were purchased in Europe, brought to the United States, and reassembled, often stone by stone. You could go up there and check out the museum but we didn't really have enough time to fully enjoy it. We will have to return another day, just for The Cloisters.

There was also two childrens section - The Kids Zone and The Little Theatre. In The Kids Zone, there were all kinds of arts and craft like puppet making and costumes. There were storytelling and magic shows by Merlin the Magician in The Little Theatre. Kids also had a chance to meet Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham at The Little Theatre.

Another cool thing about the festival was that there were just musicians and performers everywhere you go. You see them sitting on rocks by the cliff, by the walkways or even on bales of hay :P After spending almost the whole afternoon at the festival, it was time to go home. It was my first Medieval Festival and I really enjoyed it. Everybody was so into it (a lot of visitors were also in costumes), for a brief moment, it felt like I just walked back into time. I will most definitely return next year for the 2010 Medieval Festival (this time, maybe in costume :P)!!

Fort Tyron Park - Washington Heights, NYC
1 Margaret Corbin Dr
New York, NY 10040
Tel: (212)795 1388
Web: http://www.forttryonparktrust.org/