Chinese New Year is a great time to be deaf in Asia.
The Chinese believe that noise will scare away the evil spirits for the upcoming year and they’re intent on making life as loud as possible. Roman Candles constantly explode around you, competing with all manner of drums, bells and cymbals that echo from each city street. Lions parade around restaurants and wag their huge eyelashes into your soup. Gorgeous fireworks randomly explode off of your balcony and crowds of people stop dead in the street to stare at the sky.
It was a pretty wild 15 days.
We started the CNY in Miri.  After a huge family dinner, folks gather in the temple to light incense, watch fireworks and burn fake money.  Burning pillars of incense light the sky and a thick layer of smoke covers everything and everyone in a 4-block radius.
As I rule I think your meant to leave the temple totally stoned.
In Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur we danced and dined with Lions. Â We had the chance to pet their cute little heads and receive a good luck orange.
On the last day of the Chinese New Year we watched as dragons and lions paraded around town, young children performed intricate martial arts dances and everyone threw oranges into the Melaka River.
Hopefully with all this incense burning, lion dancing, and orange eating, we have enough good luck to last until the year Dragon.
