Asia - Chinese New Year - SIN or Malaysia

I will be flying to SIN on 2 FEB. The plan is to spend some initial days in SIN, to go to Malaysia for about a week and then return to SIN for my flight on 17 FEB. Given that Chinese NY is on 7 FEB, I do not know whether to avoid or stay in SIN for the days around CNY. My primary concerns are hotel rates and availability in SIN - will rates go up as hotels become sold out during CNY? Will SIN be crowded with (Asian) tourists? If I decide to be in Malaysia for CNY, are there any CNY actions in Malaysia? Where? For how many days will SIN (and Malaysia) be affected by CNY?

Thanks.

I will be flying to SIN on 2 FEB. The plan is to spend some initial days in SIN, to go to Malaysia for about a week and then return to SIN for my flight on 17 FEB. Given that Chinese NY is on 7 FEB, I do not know whether to avoid or stay in SIN for the days around CNY. My primary concerns are hotel rates and availability in SIN - will rates go up as hotels become sold out during CNY? Will SIN be crowded with (Asian) tourists? If I decide to be in Malaysia for CNY, are there any CNY actions in Malaysia? Where? For how many days will SIN (and Malaysia) be affected by CNY?

Thanks.

Hello there.

Chinese New Year 2008 will fall on Feb7th and 8th Thurs and Fri, so it will definitely be a super long weekend for Singaporeans and Malaysians alike.
4 days of break for most Singaporeans and Malaysians.

Hotel rates in SIN are already at an all time high, and I would think during the period the hotels on both side of the Causeway will definitely be charging high rates during this time and the likelihood of rooms being full are there seeing it is a long weekend and we may see visitors from both sides taking advantage of the long break for a quick getaway on either sides.

Tourist arrivals will definitely be there as China usually have a long break for CNY and I recalled seeing hordes of PRC tourists arriving into the airport.Highlights of this would be the eve of CNY at Chinatown where it will be crowded with shoppers looking for bargains, revellers counting down the New Year.

I am going to predict that Malaysia will be swamped with tourist arrivals.
Singaporeans tend to travel out of SIN during CNY so Malaysia will definitely be see a lot of Singaporeans headed there.
But I don't think I can ever say you should avoid going here or there cos' it will be interesting to soak up the festive mood. Crowds will be there no matter how hard you try to avoid it.
Although on the 1st day of CNY you will see Orchard Road in SIN and Chow Kit in KUL will be very very deserted. ( For a few hours at least )

I recommend surfing to:
www.visitsingapore.com/cny
www.tourism.gov.my/

to see what events are in store during the period.

Also bear in mind there are also island resorts you can visit like Bintan Island off Singapore, Langkawi and Tioman off Malaysia.

Hope this helps.
Cheers and happy holiday.

Malaysia is a Muslim country so in theory Lunar New year festivities pretty dull. Most local chinese return home or leave town, offices officially closed for only 2 days but I know most of my office will be gone for a full week.

They tell me KL is usually a ghost town...

Malaysia is a Muslim country

How would you define a "Muslim country" ;)

Almost half the population are non-Muslims ......

As correctly pointed out by Mario, non-Muslims make up quite a large number of the population.
Penang has quite a large Chinese community there, so I would think there would be a some interesting aspects of the celebration which you can capture there, any Malaysians or residents here can attest to that?

How would you define a "Muslim country" ;)

Almost half the population are non-Muslims ......


Wikipedia: The population of Malaysia is approximately 27 million. The Malay forms the majority of the population while there are sizable Chinese and Indian communities. Islam is the largest as well as the official religion of the federation. The Malay language is the official language.

Preferential treatment of "bumiputra" - that's how the economics and the culture is managed - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumiputra.

Back to OP's original question. Penang is the exception as it is predominantly a Chinese enclave, much like Bali is a Hindu enclave for Muslim Indonesia. Since you actually live in KL, and I presume ethnic Chinese, please share with us how you will celebrate?

If you want to see Lunar New Year celebrated, go to Singapore.
If you want a more quiet setting during the same time frame, head to KL.


PS - Gung Hay Fat Choy to all my friends in Malaysia :)

My best Chinese New Year experience was not in Kuala Lumpur nor Singapore, but in ............. New York City's Chinatown :confused:

Expect both cities (KL and S'pore) to be relatively quiet except perhaps for Chingay in S'pore (and in Penang, though I thought I read a news article saying that it wont go on this year due to some disputes). And personally I would avoid Penang like the plague not only during CNY but whenever there is a major public holiday; its the most popular destination for locals and the island is jammed pack.

Another note about Penang is that although it has a very large chinese population, it is by no means the "Bali" of Malaysia. It is culturally no different from KL (except perhaps the hokkien dialect is more popular here but then this is not exclusive to Penang). Similarly just because LA has a large hispanic population or DC a large black population, do not make these cities the "Bali" of America :rolleyes:

I will be flying to SIN on 2 FEB. The plan is to spend some initial days in SIN, to go to Malaysia for about a week and then return to SIN for my flight on 17 FEB. Given that Chinese NY is on 7 FEB, I do not know whether to avoid or stay in SIN for the days around CNY. My primary concerns are hotel rates and availability in SIN - will rates go up as hotels become sold out during CNY? Will SIN be crowded with (Asian) tourists? If I decide to be in Malaysia for CNY, are there any CNY actions in Malaysia? Where? For how many days will SIN (and Malaysia) be affected by CNY?

Thanks.
I suggest you try celebrate your CNY holiday in KL Malaysia, At that time hotel much cheaper plus breakfast. As dtsm said "They tell me KL is usually a ghost town..." most of them goes to Langkawi, Penang, Tioman Island or Pangkor Island. Beside that normally Malaysia Tourism do for "CNY Open House". please check it ..http://travel.tourism.gov.my/consumer/events/default.asp or http://www.tourism.gov.my/