Blogs from Asia - page 14694

Ok this is ridiculous. I've done the south of Vietnam and loved it. But I've allready been to Hoi An on my first visit to the country. This is where I had my suit tailored. And now I went ahead and got a shirt and a couple pairs of shorts made. It's so cheap you just get sucked right into it. I'm going to breeze north to Hanoi and fly somewhere. It seems I'm getting a bit southeast asia-ed out. It's great but at the same time I'm totally sick of people thinking I'm a walking ATM. You can't go anywhere without saying, "No thank you" a dozen times. It's getting hard to be polite. I yelled at someone for the first time on my travels. I agreed on a price with a driver and then ... read more

HMS Prince of Wales (Battleship, 1941-1941) HMS Prince of Wales, a 35,000-ton King George V class battleship built Birkenhead, England, was completed in March 1941. In late May, while still not fully operational, she was sent into action with the German battleship Bismarck and received significant damage from heavy gunfire. Following repairs, Prince of Wales carried Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic to Newfoundland. There, on 9-12 August, Churchill joined U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the Atlantic Charter conference, the first meeting between the two English-speaking leaders of what was emerging as the "Grand Alliance" against the Axis powers. Following her return to British waters, Prince of Wales went to the Mediterranean, where she successfully engaged Italian planes off Malta in late September. Sent to the Far East with the battle cruiser HMS Repulse ... read more

Dive No. 5 - 17/05/06 - HMS Prince of Wales - Depth 58.8m Time 98-min - The SCS Trip I always intended getting down to this wreck, just to say I’d done it. As it happened it turned out to be the best dive I’ve ever done and also the deepest. Prior to the dive Jack gave us the practical dive planning lecture and we calculated our dive plan. Once again Jack led the dive down the shot line towards the stern or the up turned wreck. The shot line was fastened to inner most propshaft but fixed to the shot line by the wreck was the British Ensign which was tangled around the line. Jack took us around the 3 remaining propellers and ruder then to the area where the 4th propeller had broken its ... read more

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After a complete mission from the Andaman coast to the Gulf of Thailand (via longtail boat, pick-up truck, bus, overnight stay in Surat, pick-up truck, ferry, pick-up truck…) we finally made it out to Koh Tao Island (also known as ‘Turtle Island’). The final few hours in the ferry were a nightmare with HUGE swells sending the boat leaning on some frightening angles. The poor people sitting on the top deck had an even worse trip with people vomiting everywhere! The trip was worth it when we finally climbed off our doomed vessel and stumbled up the dodgy wharf to the village at Koh Tao Island. Koh Tao is very pretty although the main beach is of course crowded with diving resorts and bars. Good to see that the development appears more planned and appealing than ... read more