Holidays

So the holidays are coming to an end. We have to be back at school on Thursday. I guess it's not so bad as the kids don't start until the 12th. We have 5 or 6 days at school to get prepared which is good. Especially as they're broken up with a weekend and a couple of public holidays. Not everyone agrees, but I don't mind spending a few days getting organised. It means I can not worry about school for most of the holidays which is what I did. I'm quite looking forward to the new school year. Last year was pretty tough with a lot of ups and downs. I think we'll be better prepared this year and as the second half of the year was generally positive, hopefully we can maintain that positivity.

Our holiday has been good. We spent time in Vietnam and Thailand. Vietnam is a really interesting place. It was funny to walk around and hear Vietnamese people saying "g'day mate" in fake Aussie accents. Equally funny were the people who would say "oh c'mon mate" when you said "no" to whatever it was that they were selling. 

After a couple of days in Saigon, we spent five days in Hoi An on the central coast. Hoi An is an old port town that has a world heritage listing. It was an important port until the 18th century when the river it sits on changed course and the port was silted up. The central part of the town has been preserved in a sense, though once the world heritage listing was granted a lot of locals sold their properties and moved out. The shophouses are now mostly bars, cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops, with the odd museum thrown in.

 

Old shophouse in the old town of Hoi An

 Looking out the window at Green Mango in Hoi An.

Boats on the the Thu Bon River. The eyes are supposed to help the boats see danger:)

Cultural Festival on the banks of Thu Bon River.

We enjoyed Hoi An. We found a good tailor and had some copies of clothes made. The lady in the shop was totally besotted with Tilda. She has two boys already and is desperate to have a girl. When we picked up our clothes she was so stoked to get a cuddle from Tilda that she gave her a wee dress, which was really nice of her. And of course Tilda loved the dress because it was mostly pink.

After leaving Hoi An, we flew back to Saigon from Da Nang. Tilda missed out on her sleep so she was a bit grumpy on the plane and didn't settle for a while when we put her to bed at the hotel in Saigon. We flew back to Singapore the next day and she missed her sleep again. So she was pretty worked up when we got on the plane. She was so tired that she fell asleep as we taxied on the runway and slept for a third of the trip. She woke up suddenly and was upset again but some snakes helped settle her and she was good for the rest of the way home. It was really interesting to see Tilda's reaction when we got back home. She so happy to see her bed and toys again. We got her bed early (not long after 6pm) and she didn't make a peep until about 8 the next morning. 

About 10 day later we were off again, this time to Thailand. We went to Khao Lak, a place we'd been before so it was really nice to go back again. We didn't do much except swim and sleep. It was awesome for the first 5 days or so. Then Tilda picked up some kind of tummy bug and was really sick. The poor wee thing couldn't hold much down, so we took her to see a doctor in Khao Lak village. After three tries we finally found a doctor that was open. She gave us some medicine to stop the vomiting, which help a bit. Unfortunately that evening Mel got sick too. I suspect it was because she was holding Tilda when she threw up a couple of times. Needless to say, the last full day we had there was pretty quiet. Such a shitty way to finish our holiday. Oh well, our trip trip to Vietnam went really smoothly. And in all the travelling that Mel and I have done over the last 12 or 13 years we haven't had too much go wrong besides the odd cancelled/delayed flight and lost luggage.

Since we got back from Thailand, we've mostly just been hanging out. We've visited some of the museums in Singapore. Perhaps more of that soon:)

That's it for a bit.

Ciao

Tone

Some photographs from Saigon

                                         

                                                  Saigon Post Office with Uncle Ho

                                        

                                                                  Mel & Matilda

                                            

                        Giant map of southern Vietnam and Cambodia 1930's telegraph network

                                        

                                            Late 1890's or early 1900's map of Saigon

       

        

                                               Saigon town hall & statue of Ho Chi Minh

A Trip to Vietnam - Part 1

We decided to chill out for a few days after school before we headed off to Vietnam. Our plan was to spend two nights in Saigon before heading up to Hoi An via Da Nang. It was exciting to go back to Vietnam after three and a half years. Mel and Tilda hadn't been before so it was exciting for them too.

The flight to Saigon is only an hour and a half which is cool. It was good to get out of Singapore for a bit because the smog was getting worse each day. The smog was being caused by bush fires in Sumatra and unfortunately the wind direction meant that the smoke was being blown directly over southern Malaysia and Singapore. I felt for those who were stuck there because it got really bad while we were away. We were keeping an eye on the situation online and the pictures we saw were pretty bad. According to the National Environment Agency the PSI reading was over 400 which meant it was hazardous to health.

The other thing about clear air was it made for good photography. I love photography and I love taking photos from planes because it gives you a perspective you don't usually get to see. I guess it looks like a really big map, which feeds my other passion, geography. Although it was a little cloudy but I managed to get a couple of good, geogeeky shots:)

Smog at Changi as we taxi to the runway

New motorway being built through rice padis

Confluence & meander in the Mekong Delta

I was going to write more and put in some more photos but I can't do what I want and I'm getting pissed off so I'm going to leave it there for the moment. I will try to add more tomorrow.

Later

Tone

It's the end of the year!

I can't believe that the school year is done, but I'm glad it is. Term Four was a bit of an epic at 11 weeks long. It was quite different to last term in NZ. In NZ, once the senior kids had left everything wound down nicely until the last day which was the highlight of the year. It was always a teacher only day. BBQ bacon & eggs for brekky, washed down with a cold ale or 10. Faculties put on skits to mock each other and senior management, which was always fun. Here, things actually seemed to ramp up as we moved through May into June. I'm not used to writing reports in Term Four! I'm fairly sure that I have never been this tired before. We finished the year with a free-flow beer & wine/bbq buffet night at the Hyatt. Funny night. Some people were feeling seedier than others in the morning:) I should point out that it wasn't me as I had to take Tilda to gymnastics in the morning.

Mel, Nat & me at the Hyatt. Good night!

The year has been pretty hard in lots of ways. I guess moving your family from one country to another is always going to be challenging. However, I've really enjoyed it. School here is easier in most ways compared with Fraser. I loved working at Fraser but the challenging kids there were on a whole other level compared to the kids I work with now. And I just saw a good example of this on Facebook. A colleague at Fraser posted that he had confiscated a ladder off a kid at school today! Made me giggle:)

Even though the holidays have just started, I'm actually excited for the next academic year. I really think we're on the verge of something very good and this coming year will make or break us. A little daunting to be sure, but I'm looking forward to it. I'll be teaching all the Geography classes which is cool.

But back to the holidays! We are heading off to Vietnam tomorrow afternoon which is exciting for Mel as she's not been before. We're looking forward to some time by the beach and checking out the old town of Hoi An.

Hopefully I will have more to say when we get back.

Tone