Chinese New Year in Binondo

Still a Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone! I'd like to share this moment while it's still fresh. I really had a blast on Chinese New Year, spending 9 full hours in Binondo's famous streets, worship temples/churches, shops and food spots. It was my first time to experience "Chinese Style" new year in this place. It was quite a sight at every corner.

I've only seen these in movies and photos my whole life, now I got to see them live with my own two eyes with firecrackers here and there.

For the second time, here's my adventurous, sassy and beautiful travel buddy, Cey. You'll be seeing more of her plus a handful of talented, crazy people in my next trips, treks, sojourns, wandering, soul searching, whatever you'd like to call it. Bottom line, living our lives to the fullest! :)

Okay, so here goes: What to see and expect on a Binondo Chinese New Year. Prepare yourself to rub elbows with strangers the whole day, you may even be stepped on or step on something, see yourself photobombing other people's selfies or group pictures :p

Air-filled welcome arches adorned with lanterns. 
Of course, they'll be in red, gold/yellow following the traditional lucky colors of Chinese.

The festive streets
Streets continuously adorned with simple but decorative Chinese lanterns. People filling up the main street, shops and sidewalks.

dragon dancers come in groups and alone.

Groovy, Funky and Loud Street entertainers
- You don't have to find them, they find you. Even hand out envelopes as they entertain you. Some might be rented by the Chinese community but I doubt others were invited. They were entertaining for sure, a little annoying with the envelopes too.

Anyways, I tried to add effects with these photos, I found them more as I tried to view them with filters :)

What you'd buy...probably

Lucky Pineapple with red and gold ribbon: 
bringing wealth luck for the whole year

lucky horse decorations with lucky charms

Root crops or Taro? haha your guess is as good as mine..I dunno

wind chimes you can buy whole year round :p

The paparazzi!

Media: newscasters, photographers, videographers, amateurs, enthusiasts, instagramers, twitter peeps, facebook updaters, bloggers, curious freaks and every bomber you can imagine. Yes, such a festival should be covered :)

And of course, the highlights!

Those moments that give you bliss, melt your heart and bring smiles to people's faces.

lucky twins? lol! They didn't mind us taking their photos

they just enjoyed their toys in their cute littel costumes.

And...more of us hehe

It was frustrating to take good shots with the dragons the whole time. Everyone's excited for their turn, us included :)

From left: Angelica, Cey, blue dragon, Elaine, yours truly, blue dragon again and Ms. Bomber! peace!

Just when we thought all hope was gone, we turned to an uncrowded corner and found little kids performing dragon dance from store to store. We stopped them for a while and borrowed awesome dragon heads! Our very own moment at last! woohoo!

Watch out for my next post as I feature interesting shots taken by expert photographers who were with us that day. View Chinese New Year at a higher level. Trust me, they're awesomely cool!