Sunday, October 08, 2006

Part One

It's been a while since I posted, so this is going to have to be quite a monster blog, a "mlog" if you like. There's quite a lot to report and show so go get a cup of tea.

Line Dancing

The first thing that we noticed since we arrived here was that line-dancing in public seems to have taken off in a big way. We had seen a few small gatherings, but were amazed when we stumbled on a real barn-shaking, rootin' tootin' fest in town one night.


There was actually very little rootin', and only a smattering of tootin', and the night seemed to involve line dancing slowly to Chinese songs for the most part. Nonetheless, the people there (young and old) seemed to enjoy themselves a lot, and there were quite a few people sitting nearby to watch. We did the same, and were pleasantly surprised to find that the beer at the nearby coffee stall was cheap and cold.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Another big event since we got here was the Mid-Autumn Festival. There's an interesting story behind the festival, with one of the upshot being that mooncakes are given a gifts at this time of year. Wandering through China-Town, we came across these guys making moon cakes in a shop by hand.


Just around the corner we saw a store that sells Bak Kwa, a kind of barbequed meat that you buy in small strips. Its difficult to explain, but it has a smoky flavour, and is a great snack. Most of the stores have window through which you can watch the guy make it, which is quite fun.