Author: Galen

Ferdinand Magellan Painting
Philippines

Cebu City and Manila Airport (Philippines Diary #1)

It took 24 hours to take two flights from Vietnam to the island of Cebu in the Philippines. Total flight time: 4 hours. Total time in Manila Airport and a god-awful ‘hotel’ for some rest: 20 hours. This was due to Air Asia cancelling one fight and delaying another.

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View of the Lake in Hanoi
Vietnam

Xin Chào! (Vietnam Travel Diary #1)

Despite winging my travels in many ways, I do like to be prepared. I held out until there were just 2 weeks left to apply for a Vietnam visa, as a big update was coming. It was worth the wait. They opened e-visa applications for all countries! And what a breeze.

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Seychelles Travel Diaries
Seychelles

The Journey There (Seychelles Travel Diary #1)

Getting to the Seychelles began like many solo journeys. A 3 hour flight delay saw me landing at Mahé Airport at midnight. I can never sleep on planes or the night before boarding one, so the first thing my sleep-deprived-self had to deal with was not having a print-out of my return ticket.

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Camden Town Street in London
London

London Diary: Impressions of a First-Timer

Journeying to London involved 3 plane rides with an 8 hour overlay in Paris. I hadn’t thought to pack my toothbrush and some deo into my hand luggage and was sure that the airport staff would have tucked into my secret bag of Doritos.

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Coral Divers Sodwana
Sodwana
South Africa

Coral Divers: Destination Dive Master

I arrived at Coral Divers in Sodwana, South Africa, after a long, hot drive in an old Landrover that I had kindly been given the use of, while playing a mix of cassette tapes. I had signed up to do my Dive Masters, which would take 4 weeks in total.

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Koh Samui Nightlife
Thailand

Koh Samui Nightlife and a Puddle Plunge

Koh Samui has naughty nightlife on par with Phuket and Bangkok. This needed investigating. Chaweng and Lamai are the names.

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Dive Briefings as a DMT
Sodwana
South Africa

Dive Briefings, Sharks, Buoy Lines and Bubbles

I have now given a few dive briefings as an assistant divemaster. Fortunately we had been seeing lots of sharks on the reefs.

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