Bridge over the river Kwai

My first escape from Hong Kong came at Christmas break when Joelle, Josh and I had planned a fantastic break to Thailand. Little did we expect that in November there would be huge political crisis causing protesters to occupy Suvarnabhumi international airport in Bangkok. Due to the unrest we had lots of concerns over traveling but as things were calm by December Josh and myself decided to risk the trip over, actually hoping that the problems may have caused a better financial situation for tourists. So off we went to Bangkok!

On reflection, what is now considered Nikki and Josh travel style was at the time a mad rush to the airport arriving just an hour before the plane was due to take off. Not our fault as the Airport bus (A11 if you ever need to catch it) was stuck in traffic for nearly 2 hours, could be due to being a public holiday but still not certain.

Upon landing we chose to stay in a hostel away from Khoa San Road as it was cheaper and less noisy. Although beautiful and relaxing it was quite a hassle to get a taxi to take us back every night as it was off the tourist trail, next time I plan to stay in the heart of the action away from rabid dogs and bats.

Highlights of this trip were Chatuchak market where you can literally get lost for hours and never see the same shop twice, amazing goods and excellent traditional Thai food. They even have jeans to fit western bums so two thumbs up in my book. Health Land Spa gives great massages and not a seedy ”happy ending” in sight, one of the best massages I have ever had and it didn’t leave me crippled in pain like some. Thai food is good beyond words and I could (and indeed did try to) live on Glass noodle salad and Thom Kha Gai, it makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Bangkok is famous for it’s nightlife, Wats and lady boys. Certainly in all areas this city didn’t disappoint and lived up to it’s reputation. Walking around the streets you are surrounded by stunning architecture and looking out from the river bank you can see the Wats spread out around the city. Up close these temples are no less stunning, all intricately build some from mosaic tiles some from marble and all with innumerable statues of Buddha. After a while, as I also found in Italian Duomos, you get used to the overwhelming amount of gold and only when you step back do you appreciate how decorative everything is.

Me climbing the Temple of Dawn

A cub out for a stroll

Feeling wat-ed out our next adventure was to the Tiger Temple, famous in Thailand for having tame vegetarian tigers raised by Buddhist monks. I was unsure about this trip as, yes it would be nice to pet a tiger but these are wild animals and should not be made to perform for tourists (as seen in many Thai elephant and snake fighting shows). Taking a tour in Thailand is cray, you are given a sticker to show you are part of a group and then section off into smaller and smaller groups hopping from one small van to another. It is quite amusing until you are left on the side of a road with only a broken English assurance that somebody will pick you up soon. With some organized chaos we managed to visit the bridge over the river Kwai and the accompanying JEATH museum showing the horrors of the building of the railway during WW2. Afterward we went for a dip in a local waterfall and then on to see the tigers.

Buddhist monk, walkie-talkie, tiger and baby bottle

To my dissatisfaction we were only given 1 hour at the temple (which is annoying as we spent so long at the other places which we weren’t interested in seeing) which meant running around the temple search for tigers and mainly coming across wild boars. The tigers indeed were seemingly tame and did not mind wandering around peacefully during their walk, even though some were over zealous with some of the resident deer. As I thought I felt a mixed about the temple, even though the tigers were saved by the monks it doesn’t seem moral treating them as pets and using them to get a quick buck from tourists. At the end of the day these creatures are built to kill and as lovely as it is to see them being bottle fed by monks you secretly wish they would go pouncing off after one of the rotund boar. Maybe that is just my wish.

Can you spot the real girl?

Getting bored of Bangkok we headed to a recommend back area called Pattaya, please never go there it is full of seedy western men with mullets and speedos picking up young Thai girls. It is super creepy and there is literally nowhere to drink without seeing the ”pick ups” going on. Beaches were okay but crowded and nothing compared to Southern Thailand. This was also the place of the never to be mentioned again, beach bungalow which was one of the most uncomfortable nights of my life. I did enjoy riding around on the back of motorcycle taxis and there were some good hotel breakfasts. I am going to use this as a learning curve and next time just pay for flights to Phuket.

There was some elephant riding in there too, inbetween tigers.

Here is one of my favorite photos  from my last day at St. Paul’s, miss all of the wonderful kids there already. More silly pics of my time at the school to follow.

I have neglected this blog since Halloween 2008 and now feel the compulsion to set things to rest. My contract in HK is over and after 2 months of traveling I have returned to old Blighty to see my family and friends (and possibly start my new existence as a human icicle,brr).   The following few posts will be an attempt to catch up on  happenings over the past year and will also provide me with an outlet for reflection and analysis.

Prepare for a whilstle stop tour…

]]> http://lifeinthefragrantharbour.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/backlog-of-posts/feed/ 0 lupa1986 http://lifeinthefragrantharbour.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/halloween/ http://lifeinthefragrantharbour.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/halloween/#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:57:01 +0000 lupa1986 http://lifeinthefragrantharbour.wordpress.com/?p=119 ]]>

Halloween in HK is crazy. Future advice, don’t go to Lan Kwai Fong it is packed to bursting.

I love my costume which I found in a little cosplay shop called Spider in Mongkok. Two very nice ladies called Natalie and Sabrina helped my choose it and made the skirt. I <3 the skirt and the little hat the most. Unfortunately there isn’t much call for little hat or poofy skirt wearing other than Halloween but I will try my best to wear them as must as possible.

We queued up for over 2 hours to get into the street where the bars are. Sadly we never reached a bar and had to leave the line of fancy dressed party goers to quench our dehydrated bodies at a 7/11. Well worth the wait.

SpiderMike I mean Spiderman was the most popular character of the night. It was great hearing lots of babble in chinese and then a shriek of SPIDERMAN!

Having photos taken with people was really fun, everyday should be dressing up day

Josh made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of having a geat constume, bye bye beard.

Francis the Angel and Nikki the Gothic Lolita.

Mid-Autumn Festival is taking place on the 14th August this year. This is a huge Chinese Festival and it is especially nice as we have the Monday off after it whoo!

During Mid-Autumn people here eat lots of moon cakes which are thick, heavy cakes made of red bean paste and filled with either a boiled egg or a salted duck egg. Not too find of them myself but all the chiense people I have met here and at home love them! Hmm I may be converted as they sell icecream mooncakes which sounds a lot more like my kind of thing.

Here is a  Mid-Autumn story about Houyi the archer from Wiki.

Once upon a time, the earth had ten suns. They burned the crops and people suffered of the infertile. Houyi sympathized the humans, so he decided to shoot down the sun but leave one to benefit the humans. After he shot down the suns, he became a hero. He had a beautiful wife name Chang’e and they lived happily together. Houyi had a lot of apprentices; they followed him to learn hunting. One day, on Houyi’s way back home the immortals emperor gave Houyi a pill which granted eternal life as a reward for shooting down the suns. He warned Houyi, “Make no haste to swallow the pill.” But Houyi loved Chang’e very much and did not want to leave her, so he gave the pill to Chang’e and let her store the pill in a safe place. Chang’e put the pill in her jewelry box. But one of Houyi’s prentices Peng discovered this secret. He decided to steal the pill. One day Houyi and other apprentices went to the mountain. Peng pretended he was sick so that he can stay at home. Everyone went to the mountain except Chang’e, who stayed at home. He intruded in Chang’e’s room and forced her to give him the pill. Chang’e knew she cannot fight Peng so she took flight and flew far far away. She did not want to leave her husband, so she stopped at the moon which is closest to Earth. After Houyi knew what happened, he was very angry and heartbroken. He looked up into the night and called Chang’e’s name. He discovered that inside the moon there was a lady’s shadow that look like Chang’e, so he ran and ran and tried to reach the moon. He failed due to the wind.

Interestingly, where as in the west we see a man on the moon the Chinese see the Jade hare. This plucky bunny lives on the moon and grinds medicine for the Gods. I will try and spot him next time there is a full moon. This also explains why there are lots of hares in the lantern displays we saw in Victoria Park.

The most exciting part of the day for me was watching the Fire Dragon Dance in Tai Hang. This was a bit different from the dragon dances I had seen before as the dragon was made from burning incense sticks and was danced up and down, in and out of the winding streets. It was great especially when we turned to escape the crowds and head home and the dragon ran down the street behind us! I swear it was chasing us at that point. The crowds follwing it were huge too such a nice thing to be part of.

Here is the story of the Tai Hang Fire Dragon:

Over a century ago, Tai Hang was a village whose inhabitants lived off of farming and fishing. A few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival a typhoon and then a plague wreaked havoc on the village. While the villagers were repairing the damage, a python entered the village and ate their livestock. According to some villagers, the python was the son of the Dragon King. The only way to stop the havoc which had beset their village was to dance a fire dance for three days and nights during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. The villagers made a big fire dragon of straw and stuck incense into the dragon. They lit firecrackers. They danced for three days and three nights and the plague disappeared.

Firstly here are some photos of my flat or apartment if you are Josh.

The picture above must be forgiven as it is MyFace style and I need my fringe trimming so badly. But the point of it was that the view from my window is nice and my doggy and I are happy.

The flat is nice it is about average for HK. We are paying $HK11,500 a month so it still works out cheaper than living in London. Our kitchen and bathroom are the let downs as they are small and old. Our kitchen doesn’t actually have a hob we have been given an electric heater by the landlord. It is cheap to eat out here around 30 dollars but I think I will miss cooking properly a lot. No oven for lasagne or shepherds pie

Here is a photo of my Thai Green Curry I made, it isn’t very authentic as it contains japanese enoki mushrooms which I don’t think I have ever seen in Thai cooking before. I was really yummy though, very happy with the outcome even though it was hell to cook using an electric hob.

I am still getting used to the children having to bow to us and say good morning and thank you. Here are some pictures of our new school and out amazing english room.

My co-teachers are Ms Ko (Valerie), Ms Ho (Fiona), Ms Alarcon (Giovanna) and Ms Li (Catherine). They have all been very supportive in my first week here.  The staffroom is an office filled with 70 teachers and has it’s own kitchen iwth a squishy sofa area. My desk is inbetween Kim and Dave and Ms Ko sits behind me.

Classes 5A and B are really cute I am looking forward to spending lots fo time with them.  The year 6 class are trouble, they don’t want to work and aren’t enticed by incentives such as stickers and pencils. Will be tough to break into their little world.

I am really looking forward to working here it has lots of promise. I wonder what the next few months will hold.

My sneaky bf, parents and friends kept the fact that instead of not seeing him again until possibly Christmas I was in fact going to see him again only 10 days after I left him standing (in my opinion not too heartbroken, though for obvious reasons now) at Heathrow airport.

On Thu night Joelle (or so I thought) had arranged for a group of us to go for sushi. Sushi is my major weakness so obviously I was very happy to go along even though it had been a hard day at school and I had almost completely lost my voice. I was thinking WOW Joelle is so clever booking a sushi place, I didn’t even know that was possible and it didn’t click that Joelle doesn’t really like sushi and seafood so her being so keen to go to a sushi bar was a little strange. Anywhoo in my naive and possibly half dead from work state I went along with the group to TST for G Sushi.

After stopping for cash at a bank Joelle and I went to join the group. I felt a tap on the shoulder and a man was standing there with a pair of socks and said, ”You left these”. Thinking I had left socks (yes I carry spare clothes in my bag) at a cash point and some nice man was returning them to me I didn’t realise who it actually was stood in front of me. I turned around again and then after a while when he didn’t move I noticed he looked kind of familiar and finally managed to say ”oh you look like my boyfriend”. LOL!

A nice Chinese man bringing me my socks

Susequently my brain died and things didn’t seem real for a long time. I don’t remember reaching the sushi place, I remember asking how he got here and is it really you a lot. So, what could have been a really romantic moment was more a muddled confusion of me thinking a nice Chinese man was returning my socks.

Thank you very much to my mum who sent my doggy over so I can sleep on him and for the nice good luck cards. It was an excellent surprise and I am enjoying John’s company very much, I wish he didn’t have to leave so soon.

I think this story leaves I message for us all, don’t trust your friends or family they are always plotting things behind your back…

On a less sleepy and rather exciting note Joelle, Joshua and I have signed for our flat. Above is a sweet picture of my lovely housemates who are replacing my dear room mate Rachel, who I miss already. Hopefully, she will come and visit and the whole HK Island vs Kowloon side hatred won’t kick in ( BTW Islanders Rule!).

As of 29th August are the official residents of: Wai Oi Mansion, Kai Yuen Street, North Point,HK

 (Please email me for my full postal address as I don’t want to post it in case of stalkers)

The flat is a “bare shell” meaning there is no furniture we have been hunting Asia expat and craig’s list for free furniture rather unsuccessfully. Thankfully, with the help of my chinese mum and her school friends who made very generous donations we have almost fully furnished our flat for free! This was a learning experience in itself having to dismantle furniture on the other side of HK island and transport it in a hired van and then reassemble it (long live Ikea furniture) . Thank God for the lift, I would hate to have to carry things up 8 flights of stairs. We have now moved in and are only waiting on 2 beds which will be delivered Monday and another sofa, fridge and tv which is being delivered from Po FuLam on Wednesday. Pictures of our amazingly nice and well furnished flat (which has windows with natural light in all rooms) and it’s impressive view of the harbour between 2 buildings will be posted shortly.

School training also continued  this week with us giving introductory lessons about ourselves without the use of computers!  I made great use of my limited artistic talent and drew caricatures of my family which the kids loved and then got them to do the same. I will scan them in if I get time.

My first visit to St Paul’s was this Friday, the school is not fully completed after moving to it’s new campus (apparently the government reclaimed the old campus) but it is still very impressive. The teachers are really friendly and enthusiastic about having us work alongside them. The school is more traditional than I am familiar with but their religious standing is similar to my own C of E Primary School which is nice to be able to relate to, I am hoping I can remember all the words to the old hymns.

Real school (or WAR! As the teachers at the school referred to it as) starts on Monday morning at 7.50pm.  Thanks to H&M I am fully prepared with a whole wardrobe of teachery clothes so bring it on!

Typhoon Warning (stolen from Joelle)

Currently, I am sat in my hotel room the Anne Black YWCA in Yau Ma Tei hiding from a level 9 typhoon. Just another exciting day in Hong Kong!

 Primary school training has been cancelled today due to Typhoon Nuri which is visiting HK from the Phillipines after killing 7 people. It is somewhat of a mixed blessing, on the up side we get the day off work and a well deserved lie in but on the down side we are locked in the hotel all day with only a limited amout of chocolate, cheese and beer to sustain us. The wost of the typhoon has yet to hit us but is expected later this afternoon. Describing the view from my window…horizontal rain and gale force winds. A few branches and a yellow sign has flown past recently, we are on the lookout for flying cows as seen in Twister but none so far.

Primary training is going well, we are based in Tai Koo Primary and Chinese Methodist Primary School in Quarry Bay . The schols here are very large and remind me of prisons back home, I was apprehentious on first seeing them. I am glad to say inside it is really different to it’s cold exterior, it is brightly decorated with lots of resources and games. There are 4 classes per year which is bigger then my primary school but is the same to the ones in London. We are teaching classes p1,p3 and p4 who are moving up this year. During training we play warm up games and discuss lesson plans and games to play, plus disciplin techniques and the differences betweeen chinese and western pupils.

Quarry Bay Methodist Primary School

Lesson planning is difficult and I often find myself running out of things to do and reverting to playing games. I think my skills time management will improve with practice. This week we are working in teams of 3 to deliver 45 minute lessons which isn’t too bad. I enjoy playtime the most because the kids let you join in with the games and try to explain them to you which can be a struggle if they don’t know the english. Barbie is my favourite pupil as she is very outgoing and was the first to come over and talk to me about Disney films and which princesses we would be. They really love talking about the olympics and know all the chinese athletes names and how many gold medals they all have. The boys I find as less talkative than the games and when I ask can I play with them they say girl’s can’t play this game lol. I find that if you get them involved with a game the girls are playing or by playing rock, paper, scissors the boys will come over and interact with you. Typical boys!

Flag drawing at Methodist Primary School Quarry Bay

Other than that, the kids here are similar to at home, I think they are a little more immature but the level fo their english as a second language is very impressive. There is a variance between classes and individuals on the level of english. One class didn’t know what a whale was where as in another class a very bright kid started reeling off facts about whales whenever you mentioned the word. He gets easily frustrated and distracted because he knows a lot and the level is very low for him. I am hoping the St Paul’s pupil’s are all at a similar level as designing lessons to cover all abilities is very challenging.

Will update more later if we survive the typhoon  o_O

The past week has been very busy settling down, meeting new people and trying to remember the names of all the CNETs. Our first experience of Chinese food was interesting as we had limited Cantonese so we weren’t exactly sure of what we were ordering. I ended up with some Vietnamese beefy, veggie dish which was nice but slimy, I guess that is all part of the fun.

Meeting the Chatteris staff was nice, allowing me to finally put faces to names. Everybody was really friendly and I am looking forward to working with Sarah, Scarlet and Kristy who lead the Primary CNET team. Our Project Manager Grace Lee was also at hand to make us feel at home, she insists on us calling her Aunty Grace, extending my Chinese family some more.

On Wednesday we set off for Chatteris Summer Camp which was a team building trip to Mui Wo, Lantau.We stayed at dormatory camp site with 20 people to a room.  I shared a bunk bed with Rachel making me feel about 9 again. Yay!

That night there was a talent competition displaying our range of of unique talents. Our red team, consisting of team leader Scarlet, myself, Joshua, Edward, Duncan, Joelle and Rachel, performed the YWCA song with accompanying jugglers.  I think the best was probably the buzzer game hosted by Valerie which got the most laughs at the end of the night. The chatteris BBQ  was fun too, however it took so long to actually cook the food we gave up and headed down to the beach to play in the sea.

On the second day of camp we went up to see a waterfall and spend some time splashing around in the water which was a welcome relief from the sweltering heat. The meal in the chinese food market was really nice I had beef tomato on the first day which was so good and then 3 type of pork fried noodle the second which was very porky!

The Chatteris Olympics pit us all against each other luckily I was on the blue team with lots of strong guys Woot! We easily won the tug of war and also the chop stick relay which was hilarious.  Silvermine beach is very beautiful, mountains by the sea can’t be beaten. I hope to go visit again sometime when I have a day off, I am missing the sea already.

My school I will be working in was also decided on camp.  The school is called St Paul’s and is located near Aberdeen which is famous for Ocean Paek on the south side of the island. How the children will learn anything when they can look out onto a theme park I have no idea. It is apparently a very traditional, religious school, with pupils who already having a very high standard of English. There will be 8 CNETS there working together, I am looking forward to having support and learning from some of the more experienced members of the team. The female teachers  there must wear closed toe shoes and skirts (unless the temp drops to below 12 deg c ) so my wardrobe needs a massive overhaul as I am not a skirty person.  It will be a great experience working in a school so different from my own at home. Hopefully, I will learn a lot from them and also be able to help to develop the school’s English programme. Reading their profile it seems that they don’t like games focused lessons, as I am quite a silly person I am worried about how well I will be able to adapt to this. We will see… I might be able to sneak some in.

I will update more next week when we start Primary training yay!