Gong Xi Fa Cai-Happy [Chinese] New Year

I apologize for my lack of blogging but late is better than never, right?

Chinese New Year was about 2 weeks ago and it is now the year of the Rabbit! My whole life I thought I was born in the year of the Pig/Boar only to find out that I was born before the 1983 Chinese New Year (CNY can fall anywhere between mid/late Jan to early/mid Feb-it's based on the moon; CNY is also known as Lunar New Year) so, I was actually born in the year of the Dog (as was Ryan)! The extent of my Chinese Zodiac education was from a place mat at Yen Jing in Greenville, Texas so it's been fun to learn a little bit more about it! (side note: I do miss the sizzling rice soup and wontons from there ;-)

Moving on....Ryan and I both had Thursday and Friday off, which was much needed! Thursday we spent the day BBQ-ing and playing dominoes(Shoot the Moon-if you don't know this game, you should, it's fun) with friends. Friday we went to the horse races. Singapore has a new Turf Club and it's beautiful. We won a little money and lost a little money so I think we came out even for the day!



Chinese New Year actually lasts 15 days so for 2 weeks you can see festivities all over town. Lion and Dragon dances are a huge part of CNY and they were going on all over town! Last Sunday, we were invited by some friends to the American Club to see the Lion and Dragon dance going on there. The Lion performance was amazing!






It was nice to enjoy a little bit of Chinese New Year this year. It was the weekend we moved to Singapore last year so needless to say we were a bit jet lagged and tired from the whirlwind of a month we had. Can you believe we've been in Singapore a year already?!?

2011, already?

Seriously, where did 2010 go? It was this time last year that I(with the help of my wondeful mother and best friend, Courtney) was quickly planning a wedding and getting ready to move 10,000 miles away. But what a fun year 2010 was and I am hoping 2011 is just as exciting! So far, we have planned a trip to Beijing, China where I am signed up to run the Great Wall of China Marathon. Eeee!! This will be my first marathon but what better place to run than on the Great Wall. The scenery alone will be worth all of the hard work! We have several other places on our list to visit (New Zealand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Phillipines). Maybe 2011 will be the year of travel ;-) We'll keep you posted.

From the Mahans to you: Happy New Year! May 2011 be the best one yet!

It's Christmastime In The City....

If you know me, you know I LOVE Christmas lights and luckily, Singapore has no shortage of them! Sunday night, I went down to Orchard (Orchard is the Times Square of Singapore) to take pictures of the extravagant Christmas decorations and lights. Each shopping center has a different theme and each year there is a contest for "Best Decorated". There were also choirs and different performances along the 2 mile stretch of Orchard. Despite the 90 degree weather, it really kind of puts you in the Christmas spirit. Here are a few of my favorite trees and decorations....(click on the picture for a bigger image)

This one is my favorite!

The Tiffany and Co. tree! It's covered with little blue boxes ;-)

The Tree at Ion. It is HUGE and beautiful! You can actually walk inside!

The tree topper!

There was a beautiful Nativity scene but too many people were taking the pictures for me to get a good one. Hopefully, I will get back down to Orchard before they take all of the decorations down and get some more pictures!

Thanksgiving in Sri Lanka

The week of Thanksgiving we headed to Sri Lanka (an island country off the southeast coast of India) for a long week end vacation with our good friend, Brian (B lives in Dubai and Sri Lanka was about halfway). It was the furthest thing from a traditional Thanksgiving but it was great getting to hang out with a good friend. We only had 3 days and tried to get as much in as we could however, there is a lot of Sri Lanka we didn't see! Enjoy the pictures!

Day 1: We rented mopeds and drove to the town of Galle.

Brian thinking real hard about how many rupees are in one US dollar (it's 110 by the way)

Brian and Ryan

Brian is ready to go!

Ryan loves getting his picture taken :-)

The beautiful scenery on our way to Galle.

Yep, cows roam the streets. And, that little green thing in the back is Sri Lanka's form of a taxi. We didn't ride in one but they looked pretty cool!

Old Dutch Fort in Galle, Sri Lanka. The old homes inside have been turned in to shops, restaurants and boutique hotels.

Beautiful view of the Indian Ocean from the wall of the fort.

Lighthouse.

We meet some very friendly locals that introduced us to some sea creatures!

They also showed us the best place to buy beer!

Day 2: We started the day off early by heading to the beach to meet Rosie, the sea turtle. We then went snorkeling.

The water was a little rough for snorkeling so we didn't stay out long. Later that day we went to a moonstone mine. Moonstone is a unique jewel that comes in all colors and once it's polished it's beautiful!

The moonstone mine.

After the moonstone mine, we headed to South Coast to try and catch the stick fisherman. There was only one left but Ryan took some great pictures. I'm told that before the 20004 tsunami, there were hundreds of stick fisherman at one time. So sad that they have since dwindled down but still a sight to see!


Day 3: Our flight out wasn't until the middle of the night so we had all day to stop along the coast on our way to airport. First stop....sea turtle hatchery! The eggs hatch here so they aren't threatened by predators and then released on Day 3 back in to the sea.

These little guys are only 1 day old!

They keep the ones with disabilities or deformities. I'm not sure what was wrong with this turtle (I think he might have been blind) but it was fun to get to hold them. Their necks are really soft.

This was a big-un! After the turtle hatchery we took a boat ride on the lagoon.

Fruit and drink stand.

We stopped on one of the 64 islands in the lagoon to watch the guy cut the bark of a cinnamon tree. 90% of the world's cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka.

He braided this coconut tree leaf in less than 3 minutes. It is what makes up the roof of his little hut; it will last about 3 months.

Floating fish farm.

River meets ocean.

We had a really great time. I hope to get out next week with my camera so you can see how beautifully decorated Singapore is for Christmas! It's like nothing I've ever seen. Check back soon!