Hey everyone, I'm the process of uploading some photos, but not nearly as many as I'd like because it's been very rainy here. Unfortunately the forecast currently call for a week straight of rain and thunderstorms, which should be the theme for my first 2 days here: bad timing.

I got in on the busiest day of the Chinese New Year festivities, and my hostel was right smack in the middle of the Chinatown night market. So when I got off the subway from the airport, it took me 2 hours of wandering up and down the same 4x4 street crosssection to find it. I wish i had taken some photos of how crowded these tiny merchant-stall-lined roads were, but I was a little busy lugging my bags through the crowd trying to find the damned signage. When I did finally find it, I was literally soaked through with sweat and completely exhausted (i slept about 6 hours in the previous 48 or so). So I took a shower and went to bed, didn't even wake up during the fireworks that were apparently going off nearby while I slept. Good job me. Was hoping the next night would be as busy so I could snap some photos, but with the rain it wasn't busy at all.  Disappointing but it was just a market after all.

Here are some random bits:

I went to visit a building yesterday that houses a piece of Buddha's tooth. Supposedly anyway. For those of us that were on the Quebec trip, it reminded me of the cathedral with the Saint's finger. can't remember which saint. Regardless, that place was just jammed packed full of worshipping tourists. Couldn't take any pictures of it because it's forbidden, but I've always wondered why pieces of a religious figure's body are important for those who would otherwise claim that faith doesn't require proof. Strange to me. regardless, that place was a goldmine, the walls were lined with small buddha statues that represented donations from families. All 5 floors were like that, and everythng in the place was coated in gold. I'm gonna start a church.

Asian carnivals are not different from Canadian carnivals, with the exception of the food. Just another part of the Chinese New Year's celebrations.

This city has a wide array of tiles and walking surfaces that are dangerously slippery when wet. For a place that receives as much rain as here, that makes no sense.

Got to see a free outdoor concert along the quays from a band that played a weird blend of traditional sounds with modern beats. Drums, chinese flute, some sort of string instrument that I don't know the name of, and keyboard. Benny, you would have loved it. Dude playing the flute even did a song where he was looping beats and rhythms and imrpoving with it.

That's about it for now, I saw a lot and did a ton of walking yesterday but I don't have the pictures to show you much. Hopefully today will be better for that, though it's about 7:30am here and it's not looking good. Really should have brought rain gear though, all the shops are closed another day or 2 for chinese new year. That being said, walking in the rain here is awesome, even if the locals give you looks like you're out of your mind. I look at them wearing jeans in 30 degree weather and return the look though. To see some of the pictures I took, click on the Flickr link over to the right.

Cheers all.