Wildebeests head home. The Rooster crows. Pigs will fly. Yeoh Siew Hoon shares her Lunar New Year musings.

This is the time of the year which always reminds me of the migration of the wildebeest across the Marai plains in Kenya.

This is because at this time of the year, more than one billion Chinese around the world (900,000 million of them in China alone) make their migratory way home to wherever home is. (I am taking a stab at these numbers because after one million, I tend to lose count.)

In China, they are guessing that about 400 billion trips would have been made by the time the Rooster utters its first crow at the crack of dawn on February 9.

Swathes of Chinese folks, from Hong Kong to Taiwan to Singapore and Malaysia, have also been on the Rooster Run.
Those who are not Chinese meanwhile and living in this past of the world take advantage of the huge exodus to stay put because then they can have whole cities to themselves.

This morning on the flight from Singapore to Penang, I found myself in one of the flocks – or is it herds – heading home.
You can recognize the homecoming species a mile off. He or she has that look of resignation – why must I do this every year – as they fight for space in the overhead bins.

This is the time of the year when airlines – and buses and trains – need bigger overhead compartments to store all the foodstuffs people simply must carry home. This is because they fear that when they get home, they will not have enough food and they will starve over the festive season, which is not a good thing because, according to Chinese custom, you are how you begin.

This is one of the reasons why I will welcome the new A380. Other than the casino I hear some airlines are thinking of building – not before a long should-we-or-shouldn't-we debate though – I hear the overhead bins are going to be HUGE.

Over the years, customs officials have become like hawks. They can spot the homecoming species a mile off. He or she is usually the one with lots of HUGE bags filled with FOOD.

Anyway, just as eating too much is a part of Lunar New Year celebrations is fortune-telling and predictions for the new year.

Let me tell you. This year will not be a pretty year, according to most Chinese soothsayers.

I read one who predicted more floods – at least I think that's what he meant. "… the eclipsed of Mars on the Sun made the evil star of waters stayed back to see floods ravaging more seriously this time."

He also predicts "new virus" which will "infect on humans". Apparently, he's the same man who predicted the bird flu outbreak in the Year of the Monkey last year.

His predictions are however not as gloomy as one being made by a Buddhist monk in Thailand, which is making the rounds among the Thai community.

His list of predictions carries a disaster every month – from earthquakes to terrorist attacks to floods.

If he is correct, then I predict a very tough year ahead for Thaksin Shinawatra who's just made history by winning a second term by a record landslide victory.

Anyway, as far as I am concerned, I am sticking to the one prediction which matters to me – this will be a great year for me,
Apparently, pigs will fly in the year of the rooster.

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The SHY Report
A regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry by one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, Yeoh Siew Hoon.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her company's mission is "Content, Communication, Connection". She is a writer, speaker, facilitator, trainer and events producer. She is also an author, having published "Around Asia In 1 Hr: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries". Her motto is ‘free to do, and be'.
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