KaPow

Chinese New Year is next week and is the biggest holiday in China. Last week, along the road that I go on almost everyday, red tents were being set up. I had not seen these before and wondered what they were. I asked our driver and his answer was "kapow" - he doesn't speak much English - along with kapow he used hand gestures to insituate something blowing up. Ahhhh...FIREWORKS. The next day, we drove by the red tents and sure enough, they were filled to overflowing with fireworks being sold to celebrate the festival. We aren't talking small little bundles of fireworks, nope, huge packages of LARGE fireworks. I really have to wonder how many firework injuries there are here in China because I know they aren't exactly safe with them! We've been hearing and seeing fireworks going off every night now and every night, there are more and more. We will be leaving on the 19th to go to Koh Samui, Thailand until the 24th - partly to be spared the noise and celebrations of Chinese New Year. We've been told that it sounds like war zone for days during the festival, from evening until 4 in the morning!