Some Chinese ferries Apart from its people and its carefully preserved historic sites, nearly everything in China seems less than 20 years old nowadays. The tourist ferries are no exception. The historic Hong Kong Star Ferries remain, but of particular interest here are the big new diesel-driven 3,000-5,000 ton Yangtze River ferries and the smaller […]

Manila revisited by Laurie Watson During the 1960s and 1970s many RAN ships visited Manila during SEATO exercises, on R&R from Vietnam, or just on goodwill visits. There are plenty who will remember the hassle of catching liberty boats into the landing near Naval Headquarters on Roxas Boulevard, the long seafront esplanade or, even worse, […]

Iran observations by John Da Costa These observations were compiled after a recent three-week study tour of Iran, conducted by the University of Sydney in conjunction with the Near East Archaeological Foundation. The tour examined the history of Persia through the ages. In recent times, Iran has not had good press and so it was […]