Chinese New Year 2008 - Chu Yi

To begin with, I'd never thought of "jamming" with the festive crowd in a sardine-like environment. In fact, our family merely wanted to drive by the River Hongbao festivities at the Esplanade park and drive right home. But plans change, and because we were about an hour away from when the fireworks were to be lit at 9.30pm, my dad said we should just park and take a look "since we're already here".

So, from the cheapest parking lots at Marina Square, we walked over to the Esplanade to find the crowd staking out their favourite spots by the waterfront already (see right picture). With another 30 minutes before the fireworks would go off, we thought of checking out the River Hongbao opposite the padang, but when we walked under the Esplanade Drive bridge towards the Esplanade Park, we realised the police weren't letting people through in the opposite way. Being the pragmatics and not wanting to get caught in the mad crowd, we turned back. And waited. Just like everybody else.

What we got was merely a 5-minute spectacle that started with a bang, literally, catching most people by surprise (despite people already anticipating the 9.30pm lit-up). However, due to the small-scale event and proximity of the crowd (to the Esplanade Drive bridge), these low-level fireworks weren't as impressive as I had wished for. Nonetheless, the last 50-odd seconds you see in my video below were way faster and more furious that the first 150-seconds I captured.

Needless to say, post-fireworks was a nightmare, with the crowd inching their way out of whatever breathing space they had (bottom right picture). I think I'll stick to the great view of the NDP fireworks from the TV next time.