Blogs from Asia - page 13082

Nemo found Hey, ho... let's go... I finished the Advanced Open Diver today. I had to choose 5 dives with specific tasks: Peak Performance Buoyancy: I can highly recommend this course, even if one doesn't want to do the complete Advanced set. One really learns to fine-tune buoyancy and to get streamlined. Saves heaps of air and makes diving even more enjoyable. It's also great fun to dive in virtually every possible position. Underwater Navigation (compulsory): Essential for someone like me who gets even lost in Brisbane ;-) (Hello Angel!). One learns the basics to navigate with a compass etc. Search & Recovery: More great fun! One basically navigates and does search-patterns. One task was to look for a clownfish. Hey! I found Nemo :-)))). We also collected some rubbish and brought a weight belt back ... read more

When I logged on to my beloved (if under-appreciated) travel blog today I discovered that I had forgotten to publish a blog that I wrote almost three weeks ago. At least from the beginning I was very clear about my technical inabilities and this, therefore, shouldn't come as a major suprirse. The other good news is that, despite a small fall that I took sometime between the lost entry and now, nothing has changed enough to make the last one irrelevant or out of place. Work continues to roll along--not exactly brilliantly, but not terribly either. Our Vellore routine is pretty much the same, with the major exception that Rajamma was gone for two weeks and thus there were no home-made idlis in the morning. My friends like to point out to me that Vellore is ... read more

From Phuket we took another overnight bus to get to Bangkok. It was probably the best bus trip and best service we have had yet. It was nice big seats that fully reclined and we had our own stewardess delivering wash clothes, snacks and water throughout the trip, we even had a washroom on board...that is very unusual on any of the buses here. We arrived in Bangkok at around 430 am..luckily we have been here soo many times now it feels like home and we always know where we are going and how to get there. Unfortunatly we were half asleep and rushed when we got off the bus though and I left all my sovenirs and gifts for people on the bus. It took me soo long to find good gifts that are not ... read more

Farewell to wet and windy Perth. Our last couple of days has seen a dramatic shift in the weather - frequent heavyish showers with intermittent hot, sunny spells - a pain in the but when selecting what to wear. We spent the last morning in Perth killing time - we had planned to take a walk through their botanic gardens and adjacent parks (overlooking the estuary) but given the unpredicability of the weather decided against it. Our flight was extremely comfortable or as comfortable as being cooked up in a tin can flying through the air can be. Singapore Airlines lived up to expectations, flight staff were friendly, helpful and as pretty as their adverts suggest. Not only that the flight landed some 30 mins early! We had intended to take the shuttle bus or MRT ... read more

Well we are in Ooty now. We are approxmatly 2400 meters above sea level, and boy is the climate different here. The temperature is around 20 C during the day and 10 C at night. I actually need hot water to shower, but this is going to change tomorrow. We are heading back down to the coast in the state of Karla. Cheers John ... read more