Hanging in Hong Kong

After three weeks of recovery, we booked a short week trip to Hong Kong. Hong Kong has a reputation as being the big competing brother to Singapore so we thought we better go and check it out. Plus it is only a short and cheap 3 hour flight from Singapore on Jet Star.

As usual we scored a good last minute accommodation deal on http://www.wotif.com/ in a nice part of town. We stayed in Hong Kong Island in a area called Wen Chai. About two MTR stops from Central Hong Kong and the business district.

The first few days were a struggle with torrential monsoon rain, we didn't do much exploring. We did find a nice mall with a series of great restaurants which kept us occupied for the first few nights. We didn't manage to eat much local fare, but did try a ribs place, gastro pub and trendy Vietnamese place.

We did a few touristy things including Ocean Park and a trip on the Cable Car up to Victoria Peak. Ocean Park is a local version of Disneyland, but with a wildlife slant. We saw a few pandas inside big enclosures, a big aquarium with a good array of tropical fish and then rode on some of the rides. The park is perched on the end of a mountain, which juts out into the ocean. The rollercoasts are perched on the edge of the cliff which makes both of them a little more exciting.


The view from the Hong Kong waterfront is one of the most amazing urban vistas in the world. We are lucky to get two clear nights. On the Wednesday night we rode to the top of Victoria Peak, along with a few thousand Chinese tourists from the mainland. On Thursday night we caught a cab across the harbour to Kowloon and the tourist mecca. After a nice dinner in some burger place we caught the night light show spectacular.

View from Kowloon across the harbour to the Hong Kong skyline.

View from Victoria Peak down and across Hong Kong, towards mainland China.

Overall Hong Kong was a chaotic, steroid pumped version of Singapore. The main difference is that is feels like a city of the edge of booming China, with lots of wealth and luxury cars. The shops and transport all seemed pretty similar but the city is crammed onto the coast of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island and it feels dominated by the skyscapers. Singapore has a nice and accessible waterfront which Hong Kong is currently building in the midst of a new reclamation project.

Hanging in Vietnam

We are on school holidays at the moment so enjoyed a quick trip to Vietnam last week. We found cheap air tickets with Tiger Air a few months ago so headed away with four other friends. We began with a few days immersed in the chaos of Ho Chi Minh City, whilst staying in a small guest house in the centre of town. Ho Chi Minh is a bustling place with around 7 million Vietnamese people and about the same number of scooters. With recommendations from our work colleagues, we found a few excellent places to eat. A French/Moroccan place, an alfresco barbecue restaurant and a one very vietnamese place with authentic local cuisine. The tourism side of the city was a bit disappointing, we visited the historic centre of town where a tank busted through the gates of the palace to reunite North and South Vietnam in the late 1970's. On the last morning we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels to the north which was a little dull.


We then moved on to a quaint place called Hoi An in central Vietnam, via a flight to Denang and then a 30 minute taxi ride south. The coastline from Denang to Hoi An is a long line of newly built resorts, Greg Norman golf courses and other foreign owned investments. It is a unique juxtaposition to see the poverty and traditional long houses on the opposite side of the road to the glam and manicured lawns of the resorts. Nevertheless we dived off the main road to the ancient town of Hoi An, which was once a trading village with French, Japanese and Chinese influences. The town is now a protected UNESCO site with little traffic and renovated buildings. We enjoyed lots of great food in different styles alongside the river (Cargo, Mango Mango), plenty of art galleries and the ubiquitous tailors.



We spent plenty of money on tailored clothes at about $20 a piece and struggled to bring it all back to Singapore. It was good to spend a substantial amount of time in one place. We managed to spend 6 days in Hoi An with friends which was a nice contrast to travelling every day from place to place. Will definitely be back to Vietnam at some time and try to do some of the northern parts, Halong Bay, Sapa and Hanoi.


The rest of our photos are here... http://picasaweb.google.com/ajmccarthynz/Vietnam2010

A preview of our wedding photos

After a long time searching...

After a long time searching we located the piece of art that was the one! This is it’s story:

Andrew saw a picture he liked in Greytown only a few days after the wedding. He apparently showed me it but I didn’t remember a thing, I was still stuck up on cloud nine also know as wedded bliss. When I had finally come back down to earth Andrew and I started our serious hunt for the right piece of New Zealand art. We both knew this was going to be a challenge, as it had to comply with a list of criteria. A= has to the work of a New Zealand Artist. B=It has to be an original C=It really should show a landscape or something New Zealandish. And finally for the hardest criteria of all. D= we both have to like it!

So the hunt began, Andrew searched the internet and I, well….. I went shopping with mum to Queensgate. However, I did suggest that we go the Gallery over in Eastbourne at Days bay on our way to visit some friends. The Van Halen Gallery always has a variety of artwork on display. And there it was…….I saw the picture that I knew we had to have. The only bugger was that it was a print. With all of the generous contributions from friends and family we could hardly buy just a print. Or could we? I called Andrew over to show him, fingers crossed that he also liked it. That is it! Yelled Andrew. I know it’s perfect isn’t it! I am so glad that you like it.

So to cut a long story short. The Gallery rang the artist Debbie Hoare, an Eastbourne local and asked if she still had the original for sale. She said yes but it is in a gallery over in Greytown. So it turns out that Andrew had seen the original over in Greytown. They arranged to sent the painting over to Eastbourne and we managed to take it with us to Singapore all with a day to spare.

Today this wonderful scene of Wellington looking from Eastbourne hangs proudly in our home in Singapore. It reminds us of home and all of our friends and family that shared the best day of our lives with us. Thank you all so very much. xxx

The Singapore Zoo

We have just enjoyed a long weekend so decided to head to the zoo. Rach was keen to see the animals and I was keen to try out my new birthday present camera.

The Zoo is a very polished tourist experience and rather humane for a Zoo. Lots of the animals are wandering or climbing around without fences. The monkeys were all free to roam around, with I guess some well thought out strategies to keep them from straying too far. The orang-utans where handing out on this island where you could walk through on board walk.

Its taken us nearly a year and think we have finally done most of the local attractions. We need some more long weekends to explore a little further towards Indonesia or Malaysia. Lots of friends headed off to resorts over the weekend, and to nice beaches a couple of hours north in Malaysia.

It is now exactly a year since we moved out of our place in Claremont Grove and began our shift. How a year flies by.

Teaching with laptops

Since moving to Singapore, Rach and I have both been teaching in a full laptop environment. Each kid in our Grade 9 and Grade 11 classes have laptops which are linked to the wireless network. The laptops have sure altered the way we both teach. Rachel is now a convert to you tube and enjoys finding geeky videos for Geography. I now use a variety of blogs and school ICT stuff to make the learning a bit more interesting.

For both of us it has been an excellent opportunity for developing our craft as teachers and will be a nice string to our CV's when we eventually move on. I have recently presented a bit of research on the effectiveness of laptops. The conference was for all of the Singapore schools and it was a great chance to network, and to also begin the path towards maybe beginning my masters.

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Laptops In The Classroom

View more presentations from Andrew McCarthy.

Cross Country racing

I took my gaggle of cross country runners to the Singapore International Champs this week. It was held at the American School of Singapore which was a bit too urban for a cross country race. Nevertheless heaps of kids from the other schools competed. The race was dominated by the kids from the American School. The school has about 3,000 students and a very modern and bling campus. Wouldn't mind having a full athletics track, Olympic size pool and artificial turf at our school. We didn't have many kids running. Our school has about 550 students, which is tiny compared to the seven big schools here with between 2000 and 3500 students.

Our Under 14 girls team with their 3rd place medals (plus random Curtis sneaking into the pic)