|
Asher spent the 2006-07 school-year based in Singapore. He started to
collect countries and world heritage sites in earnest.
One of his first visits was to the Jurong
Bird
Park,
where his mother
got to hold a pair of Malaysian fish-eagles; he held a
hornbill and fed a lorry. Another was to Sebana Cove where he relaxed
and goofed
around a
lot before school started (the first day
picture). But he sometimes
still mis-behaves.
There’s plenty to do in Singapore,
at least for a short while. The spectacular Singapore Zoo
remains a
family favorite. Asher also
liked the secret Labrador
tunnels (check
out the classic sign!). He
enjoyed the open-house of the Singapore Air Force which featured Apache and Chinook
helicopters, a Hawkeye,
cool
anti-aircraft systems, and plenty of F-16s.
Here he is in an
improvised outfit along with friends at Finn’s birthday party.
Lots of sports. Asher has tried
soccer in sweaty
Singapore (somewhat
outnumbered). Mini-golf at Lilliput is more his style. Climbing an
air-castle is acceptable; and the luge at Sentosa rocks, as does the
fountain
The first school
day-trip: to the center for a boat-ride. Showing off his
new Mandarin to dad. A fun trip to
the civil
defense museum.
The Sony family;
papa, mama, and baby bears all have VAIO T-series. The Sprog does
exercises and plays games on his computer; most of the time
he prefers Lego. He has continued
his side career as an archeologist.
He’s
also cute at a school assembly (singing about the Durian).
The first school vacation was in October, a fine time to
visit Vietnam
and enjoy the
awesome street scene in Hanoi (often with Flat Max). There was much
playing of frog-juice, here at Highlands coffee. In Hanoi, he
enjoyed the
quiet elegance of the Temple
of Literature,
visiting
communal houses, riding pedi-cabs, the market, the bridge over
to the Ben
Ngo Son temple (good for taking
photographs), Uncle Ho’s museum, the one-pillar
pagoda, lighting
incense at the Quan Su temple, and mostly the
awesome army museum which has tons
of captured
hardware of
all sorts, some
as a big sculpture. Sprog also
visited the
fantastic Hue
citadel and got to tour
the ruins for
a fun afternoon. He spent the following
morning at
the huge and
beautiful tomb of Emperor Tu Duc where he got to
be a piece in
a huge chess set. Hoi Ann offered
“communal
houses,” a covered
Japanese bridge, a beach to show
his mom how to write Chinese characters (and Flat Max),
and a pool to
work beside and jump in
(cute).
Singapore has a good Botanic
Garden which has a great evolutionary garden, a fun Swiss granite
fountain, and an amazing Orchid Garden where Asher took
some pictures himself. Another
favorite activity is to hang out at the beach at Sentosa, close to Fort Silosa. The zoo remained cool
for the
duration. We sometimes went
hiking with friends.
The building continued throughout: here are before and after
pictures of yet another Lego model that Asher earned (this one was 28
points!). He often earned a
point (30 minutes of work beyond homework) before breakfast.
A long weekend in November was spent at Nirwana
Gardens
in Bintan, which had giant chess,
a really great pool for messing around in,
a gorgeous
beach, and
a nice big hammock.
Singapore was
where Asher learned to like ice cream, and appreciate fine
art.
The “Winter” holidays provided the
opportunity to visit Cambodia,
including a floating
village and a
crocodile farm. The highlight
was spending
time in
the awesome ruins
around Siem Reap, highly
recommended. There was much
climbing in the ruins; here are shots of an early climb before, during and after (at Angkor Thom);
one could
relax after. Hide and seek
was also
popular; here’s
a typical room that lead to an early
catch. Bayon:
façade and
imitation;
a nice place
to rest; silliness;
a window seat;
and a family
pose with statue. Preah Neak Pean. Ta Prohm.
Angkor Wat from the wrong
and right
sides of the moat; inside the West
Gate; a
family pose. We also visited the Royal Palace,
art museum
and other (more gruesome) sights in Phnom
Penh, and enjoyed a
trip on the Mekong.
The Winter Music Assembly at OFS
was fun.
The second part of the “Winter” holidays was
spent in Europe, where Asher took lots of pictures of
himself and his
mother in Amsterdam, home of the
famous Nemo museum, a 3-D version of
the Nightwatch (he also saw the real thing),
and the Amsterdam itself. He then took the train to
Brussels, where he went to the
awesome Technopolis, saw the Manneken Pis, the Atomium, the military museum,
and learned to
appreciate fresh
gaufres, and Neuhaus. Another
high-point was Scientastic where he got trapped in a box. The
children’s museum in Ixelles offered a cooking class. He also took a side-trip
to lovely
Ghent, home of Gravensteen castle.
Asher visited India for the first time in late January,
and saw the Rajpath, the Red Fort
, the Friday
Mosque, the awesome Humayun’s tomb complex, Qutb Minar, and Purana Qila; he got to stay
(and work) at the Imperial. An even more spectacular hotel was the truly
unbelievable,
scenic, romantic, old, Neemrana fort palace hotel (a great place to take pictures),
where he
visited a school and a stepwell, and made new friends (here he is at
lunch with Marty Feldstein, Bruce Meyer, and Anne Krueger).
Chinese New Year’s provided the opportunity to
witness a fun
dragon-dance at OFS, then visit Laos
with his parents and grandparents. He enjoyed
imitating Buddha
poses at Wat Phra Kaeo,
and checked
out Wat Sisaket and That Luang. A
little watted out in Vientane,
he moved on to Luang Prabang
to see (more wattage) Wat Mai and Wat Xieng Thong before
climbing Mount
Phousi for great views of the Mekong
to release a
bird (Tailow). More exciting
was a (very) early
morning
donation to
the local monks (cute); another morning
was spent at the market. Paper-making did
not excite the Sprog; a ride down the
Mekong (with
supporting cast) to the Pak Ou caves was more exciting. The waterfalls
at Tad Kwang Si were fun. Best of all was a fun ride on an
elephant’s neck (cute; the elephant was
rewarded afterwards).
Aunt Char and cousin Ella were the next in town, to experience
the Lego as well as more banal sites like Jurong Bird Park where he almost got locked up and showed off the
waterfall. He also went back to Bali to see Ulu Watu temple, wear a skirt,
and see the
view, all at one place; the pool was also
nice.
A long weekend in March provided the opportunity to
visit Kuala Lumpur,
and see the Masjid Negara, the awesome Museum of
Islamic Arts, the Chan See Shu Yuen Temple, and the fine Taman Burung.
The last week of
school vacation of the year was spent in Myanmar, where the Sprog
saw the Shwedagon Pagoda a couple
of times. Pagoda visits usually involved ringing bells,
though birds
were also freed (here at a marble
Buddha) and thirsty
Buddhas were wettened. Some pagodas had
been hit by earthquakes; there were also many reclining Buddhas (here’s Chaukhtagyi Paya). Yangon offered
Lake Kandawygi, but Bagan
had Anando Pahto and much
else (it
wasn’t always sufficient).
The
temples of
Bagan were truly outstanding and provided lots (and lots) of good climbing opps; the views were also terrific, though not always enjoyed
by Asher. He also got to
drive a horse-cart, play with our
guide Ni at a fishing village (we
recommend her services enthusiastically!), and hang with a monk.
The February challenge (2000 pages of reading in one
month) got Sprog a complex Lego tow-truck which took six weeks to assemble,
here shown
with a few other Technics. Lego was
definitely the toy of choice in
Singapore (cute).
The OFS global picnic (truly
international) had fun trishaw rides.
May Day provided the opportunity to visit Yogyakarta to visit the
Sultan’s Palace, the ruins of the
Water Castle (complete with
“bagel” in background), and the bird market. The real reason
was to
visit and climb on Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple
in the world with (too?) many
carvings and
Buddhas.
Prambanan (Hindu) was also a terrific
sight (though
damaged by the recent earthquake).
Asher made many
new friends in Singapore; here he is with Martin (and the Petronas towers).
He also
learned how to shave (his dad).
The sprog enjoyed Shanghai for a
long weekend, and especially liked the Shanghai
Municipal History Museum (the Shanghai
museum was better for the daily hour). He spent lots of
time on
the Bund (great!)
and hanging
out in PuDong.
The last long weekend of the school year provided a chance to visit
Bangkok and
see the summer palace (cool!), the national
museum, Siam
square, and the
many beautiful
buildings and
statues of the
spectacular grand palace, home of the
emerald Buddha (and the king,
who has to be
protected). Mostly though it
was a grand
opportunity to
see the amazing and truly spectacular
ruins of
the ancient Thai capital of Ayutthaya; it was hot and
sweaty (even
in the shade) but great fun.
The final day of
school; sigh! The family
celebrated with a great hike to the MacRitchie Reservoir which features
a great tree-top walk as well
as a fine
boardwalk through
the rain forest. Another last day:
this time, Sunday School, followed by a luge ride with Martin and Caroline at Sentosa.
The final trip; Southern
Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh city
offered Notre
Dame, fast
food, the opportunity
to hide (cute!) in the Cu Chin tunnels
(and their
detritus) and the hardware at the War Remnants museum. Phan Thiet offered the beach,
a Cham temple, and a fantastic walk up the fairy river to see some quicksand.
|
