We arrive at the airport on our empty plane 20 min earlier than we are supposed to. Besides having to pay for our snacks, this was one of the best flights ever. We fight our way through customs. I'm still feeling on edge from being sick, although the fever is gone, I still have some headaches and a cough. We get our bags and go to leave and they ask us for our medical declaration form. What the hell is that I'm thinking, but I find one and it's to make sure we don't have SARS. I think I've had every symptom on the list within the last two days, so I gave them a perfectly healthy form and walked through. Skot walked into the airport as we walk out, and we walk directly into the car. We get taken to Macau, the main of the three islands that the territory of Macau consist of(the airports on Taipa). We drive past all the casinos right into the heart of downtown, and get dropped off in the middle of a little alley somewhere. Home sweet home. Somehow Skot has arranged an entire apartment for the three of us. We got it all. Hot water for a shower that you have to heat up and wait twenty minutes to get a three minute shower. We got a bed that barely fits two of us, a couch, a table, a tv with built in games to play during commercials.

We get settled in and head to find something to eat. It's Chinese New Years Eve, but there aren't too many people out. I've been told they came around and cleaned up all the street hookers, except the russian ones, just for the new year. Normally when coming to a new city I can get acclimated pretty quick to directions and where we are, but here I just got lost instantly. Everything is windy curvy back alley's, and nothing is a straight shot. We find our food, then head on to see the studio. Randomly walking down the street you can start hearing the crack, crack, crackety cr cr crcrcr crcrcrcrcrcrcrcrcrackkk of the fireworks being let off, and in some intersections there will be men running through with dragons. We sit at a park for a little while before heading to the studio. The studio is a really nice space on the 17th floor, and we hang out playing some ping pong before we have to be at the club. Another snack and we walk to the club. It's an upscale bar, pretty full of people that costs about 100 HKD to get in ($13 US) We have a table waiting for us and some of Skot's friends are waiting for him there. The band shows up and we all sit around drinking for a while. The band goes on, Skot playing bass, two twins on guitar and vocals and a drummer. The party cracks off for a while, and after the band plays I met a break dancer named Rock-Lee who is fuckin awesome. We talked for a while, danced for a while, and everything was great till a fight broke out by the bar and shit started getting wild. The fights kept going on and off for about 5 or 10 minutes, and we quickly bounced not wanting to be involved or held by the cops. The rumor is its an underworld fight, but it was probably just a couple of kids fuckin drunk. There's no alcohol laws here, and clubs are open all night. We find an expensive fruit stand close to the house and buy some fruit before going to bed.

The second day in Macau is the official start of the chinese new years, and after waking up mid afternoon, we immediately try to find some food, realizing that everything in the city closes for the new years. We finally find some food, and just hang out till later, when we head back to Bex, the same bar as last night. Tonight the band isn't playing and it's free to get in, but it's crackin and full of people.

The next night we end up at Tan's house, a friend of Skot's and his house is this amazing three story house on the water on the south side of Macau. From his house we could hear the fireworks going off and looking out the window, we could see the area where you are allowed to shoot off fireworks. We try to hurry up and get over there thinking we were going to miss the show. Little did any of us know what it's really like. They have a huge section of the water front walled off with big 12 ft tall wooden walls and at one end a rows of about 20 fireworks stands. We venture inside. There is a walk way by the wall, and metal blocks separating the crowd from the area where you shoot off the fireworks. We didn't get any fireworks cause we were too cheap, but just standing there is intense. For several hundred feet, it's one solid row of people shooting off all variety of fireworks. One of the loudest things you could imagine.

Apparently this is the last year Macau is allowing fireworks to be shot off during chinese new year, so people are getting a little crazy. I think we skipped the fireworks the third night, but on the fourth night we went back and there were probably twice as many people there. The fireworks area was packed. People were being extremely smart doing things like taking the big boxes that shoot way up in the air the explode, and stacking them on top of boxes that have already been lit off. Of course after the first one goes in the air, the box falls over on it's side and starts shooting into the crowd. Brilliant. There were many times when you are just standing around and one of those flying spinning bees would fly right at you, or one of those big ones would explode in the crowd next to you, throwing colored fireballs straight out in every direction. It's too loud even with earplugs and you usually get tired within an hour, so we would always go and then leave and head to the bar for some drinks. Every night we would go with a different group of people, and everyone reacted differently. Some people (like us) loved it, and some were so scared by the time they got in there, they just left instantly.

Standing around inside the fireworks area itself is an adrenaline rush. Every few minutes you hear and explosion (one of 10 million) then screams and you see people running away from a firework that exploded in the crowd. There is so much smoke from all the fireworks being set off, it's cloudy to say the least, a little hard to breath and stinks. Your always on your toes cause you never know whats going to happen, and sometime debris falls on you from fireworks overhead. One of the nights we were there, we wanted to buy fireworks and having lots of fun trying to ask for cheap fireworks, Skot asks for one so big he can bomb Taiwan(where he used to live).

The last night of fireworks for the chinese new years, we go and the wind is blowing on-shore really strong. Most of the fireworks that were being set off over the water, were being blown back over or into the crowd, and they had to close the street off behind the fireworks area cause it was too dangerous. The fireworks stands were getting rid of all there fireworks for dirt cheap and we got a huge box of random fireworks for 200 Patacas ($26). We walk into the insanity, and it felt just like a war zone in a movie. People running around screaming, trying to avoid the fireworks blowing back into the crowd, every firework going off above you instead of in front of you, wind blowing at an incredible pace, and basically just insanity. We post up for a while before lighting off a couple fireworks. We all end up regrouping at one point, and standing around watching the fireworks and enjoying the adrenaline rush, I see a lit firework flying right towards me. I go to turn my head away and duck, and luckily the firework went out before hitting me, cause I closed my eyes and it hit me right in the eyelid. I dropped the rocket I was holding, and holding my eye walked directly out of the fireworks area. Somehow from miraculous timing, Skot was filming with his digital camera and just happened to be looking at me when I got hit, so I have it on video.

All in all, Chinese New Years is about the loudest thing I can imagine, dangerous as hell, but 10 days of fuckin FUN. It's customary that if you are married, you have to give red pockets full of money to all your single friends. You can be guaranteed those chinese strings of black cat like fireworks will be set off all day and night everywhere, most people will be drinking heavily, you'll have hella fun, and safety gear my be required.