Dubai reveals plans for amazing underwater hotel

Dubai shipbuilder Drydocks World has inked a deal with Swiss-based BIG InvestConsult, on behalf of partner Deep Ocean Technology (DOT) to create Water Discus Hotel - a leisure facility with a structure that is partly above water and the rest underneath.

Water Discus Underwater Hotel will comprise two discs - an underwater and above-water one. This combination will allow guests to admire the depths of the ocean while making the most of the warm climate.

 

The two parts of the structure are connected by three solid legs and a vertical shaft containing a lift and stairway. The size of each disc has been adjusted to local conditions.

The Water Discus complex was designed to ensure safety at all times, even in the most adverse weather conditions. The structure sits up on three sturdy legs fixed to the seabed, and the upper disc is suspended above the water surface. These two technical solutions will ensure that Water Discus remains safe even in the event of a fairly high tsunami, which can normally flood the nearest coastal areas

 

The complex is surrounded by a beautifully vibrant coral reef. This unique location will allow visitors to enjoy the tropical weather and the colourful underwater world. The disc, located up to 10 metres beneath the surface of the sea, is composed of 21 hotel rooms adjacent to the underwater dive centre and a bar. Each room is integrated with the underwater world as closely as possible, offering a surprisingly direct, yet safe contact with the local flora and fauna.

The disc and its adjacent satellites located 5 - 7 metres above the water surface comprise a restaurant, a spa and a special recreation area.

A multifunctional lobby built inside an enormous swimming pool shows the centre of the disc. The area around the underwater part of the complex and diving activities may be watched as they happen on the screens hanging on the lobby walls. This part of the complex is connected to the satellites with glass-walled tunnels cutting through a training pool for divers.

Dubai shipbuilder Drydocks World has inked a deal with Swiss-based BIG InvestConsult, on behalf of partner Deep Ocean Technology DOT) for creation of the hotel.

Rosewood to Open its First Hotel in China in 2013

The very first Rosewood hotel in China is scheduled to open next year.

The 279-room Rosewood Beijing, designed by Melbourne-based Bar Studio, will be located in the central business Chaoyang District, opposite the iconic CCTV Tower.

The hotel will offer a lot of landscaped outdoor spaces, with terraces, gardens and balconies integrated into the design of many of the restaurants, spa, recreational facilities, meeting and function areas. Bangkok-based P Landscape, acclaimed for its resort landscaping, is in charge of this aspect of the hotel.

With their residential-style layouts and floorplans, guestrooms are designed to evoke sensations of luxury apartment living and, at 538 square feet (50 square meters), they will be amongst the largest in the city. The wide proportion of the rooms will allow maximum window aspect, enhanced by window seats. Natural finishes and textural overlays, spacious bathrooms and walk-in closets, and non-traditional, residential components and accessories with subtle Oriental overtones, will complete the sophisticated, homelike surroundings. 

Seven restaurants and lounges will serve international cuisines. The Chinese restaurant will feature a casual and contemporary lower floor restaurant as well as nine private dining suites on the floor above. The spacious dining suites - up to 1,200 square feet (110 square meters) in size – will be designed for exclusivity and luxury, including dining area, separate lounge, cloak room, and outdoor terrace.

The Rosewood Sense spa brand, featuring treatments reflecting the location’s cultural and natural environment, will make its first appearance in Asia and be accompanied by another Rosewood first: five spa suites designed for overnight stays.

Complementary recreational facilities will include an indoor swimming pool, gym and yoga studio.

An exclusive access lounge will be a spacious venue with an open kitchen, free-standing bar, Internet corner, boardroom and outdoor terrace.

Meeting and function space will total almost 33,000 square feet (3,048 square meters.) This will include a pillar-less ballroom of 8,252 square feet (767 square meters) featuring an adjacent outdoor garden for weddings and other special occasions.

The Pavilion – residential-style meeting and function space – will be a first for the group and debut a signature of all future Asia Rosewood properties. Occupying the Rosewood Beijing annex, The Pavilion will include two combinable areas for memorable events, with dining spaces, bar, lounges and show kitchens, all finished and accessorized as in an elegant private home.

Mr. Marc Brugger has been appointed managing director of Rosewood Beijing.

The Rosewood Beijing is the precursor to fast-paced Asia growth targeted to add 10 properties in operation or in the pipeline in the region to Rosewood’s portfolio within five years.

After plane loses wheel, woman pilot makes emergency landing in Guwahati

Fifty-three people aboard a Guwahati-bound aircraft had a miraculous escape on Sunday when the woman pilot averted a tragedy by her deft handling of an emergency landing.The aircraft had lost one of its nose wheels during takeoff from the Kumbhirgram airport in Silchar.

The ATR aircraft had 48 passengers. Its five-member crew comprised threewomen, including the pilot.

Captain Urmila Yadav circled Air India flight AI-9760 over the Lokapriya Gopinath Bardoloi International (LGBI) airport for about one hour and asked the crew to shift some goods from the cockpit to the rear to reduce the load to facilitate safe landing.

The passengers thanked the pilot for saving them.

Gogoi's pat for pilot

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi congratulated Captain Urmila and co-pilot Yashu for saving the passengers' lives. “Hats off to you and your co-pilot for your daring and courageous act which saved the precious lives of passengers,” he told her over the phone, an official release said.

Narrating his experience, noted Assamese linguist and a senior official of the Assam Agricultural University Sumanta Chaliha told The Hindu the passengers got wind of the emergency situation when the crew gave flight safety demonstration for the second time after flying for about 30 minutes.

He said:

“When we asked the crew if anything had gone wrong, we were told that there was a minor technical snag and it was being taken care of. However, after some time they made a formal announcement of an emergency landing. We came to know that the aircraft lost one of its nose wheels. A lady passenger seated in front of me fainted and several passengers started crying. I kept calm and composed, leaving everything to God.

“We came to know that aircraft flew extra time to burn fuel midair and as soon as the aircraft landed the engine was switched off and it came to halt quickly. While getting down I noticed that one of the nose wheels was missing.”

It was the Air Traffic Control (ATC) of the Indian Air Force at Kumbhirgram which noticed that something had fallen off the aircraft after it took off. They then alerted the LGBI ATC.

“We knew that the aircraft was coming with a wheel of nose assembly missing. The pilot was informed and asked if she would land and fly off. When she said she would land, she was asked to do a mandatory low pass so that the ground staff could inspect the nose assembly. We requested her to hold over Guwahati for sometime till we cleared the runway. A Kolkata-bound Spicejet flight was allowed to take off and an in-coming Air India flight from Delhi allowed to land. After the runway was cleared, the aircraft was allowed to land. The pilot really did a skilful landing and did very good handling of the entire situation. If the aircraft had made a normal landing without knowing that one of its nose wheels is missing then anything could have happened,” said an ATC official.

The scheduled departure of the flight from Silchar was 7.20 a.m. but was delayed due to inclement weather and the flight took off at 9 a.m.

Kotagiri – Where the Blue Mountains turn green

About Kotagiri Tourism   Kotagiri, located at an elevation of 1793 metres above sea level in the state of Tamil Nadu, is an old hill station well known for its green spaces and a number of trekking opportunities. History of Kotagiri The name Kotagiri literally means ‘the home of the Kota’ and refers to the Kota tribe who lived here in the past.  Today, the Kota tribe has been reduced to a few thousand and is on the brink of extinction. There is no written record of the ancient history of Kotagiri. All that is present is the history of Kotagiri from the British era to the present. This hill station was the preferred location for the British who looked to escape the heat and the humidity of the plains. In fact, Kotagiri was the summer home of the British in Southern India. Kotagiri is not as well known as some of the other hill stations in South India like Ooty, but it is still a significant one. This small hill station in the Nilgiri Hills was the first one to be discovered by the British. However, when an alternate path was built to Ooty, other than the Horse Trail which passed through Kotagiri, the popularity of Kotagiri started waning until it fell into obscurity. However, of late, tourism has picked up due to various awareness drives undertaken by the government. Kotagiri was originally a coffee plantation. The first coffee plantation was planted in 1843 here which was followed by many more plantations. However, following the first tea plantation in the late 19th century by the daughter of MD Cockburn, tea slowly started taking over coffee until it completely spanned the city. Today, the tea plantations in Kotagiri cover a total area of 30,000 acres. Things to do in Kotagiri The trekking trails in this region go through picturesque tea-estates and lush greenery, meadows and rivers. The most popular trail of the region is the Kotagiri-Kodanad Trail. Kotagiri has many places of tourist interest apart from its trekking and mountaineering opportunities. Some of the tourist attractions here are the Kodanad View Point, Catherine Falls and Longwood Shola. Food & Shopping in Kotagiri Famous for its tea gardens, tourists visiting Kotagiri must try some freshly brewed tea here. It is available in a range of flavours right from ginger to chocolate. Food in Kotagiri is limited to regular snacks and Indian food, which is served at the restaurants in the town. Travelling to Kotagiri Tourists can reach Kotagiri by air as the nearest airport to the destination is in Coimbatore at a distance of about 105 km. Kotagiri is well connected to major cities in Tamil Nadu by road with regular bus plying from Mettupalayam, Coimbatore, Trichy, Thirupur and Erode. The nearest railhead to Kotagiri is Coonoor at 21 km.

Thailand and India to Play Single-Match Rugby World Cup 2015 Qualifier

Thailand held on in a tight wire match against Malaysia in the HSBC Asian 5 Nations (HSBC A5N) Division II final in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, winning 22-19.

China was relegated to Division III for 2013 after a 52-3 loss to Iran in the Division II 3rd/4th place play-off.

Despite having a man advantage for most of the second half after a Malaysian red card, the Thais were unable to close out the game against a gritty Malaysian team that pushed the visitors to the limit until the final whistle.

 Saturday’s HSBC A5N Division II final was a tight encounter throughout with neither team able to enjoy a comfortable lead. Malaysia was the first team on the scoreboard today with a penalty in the 5th minute from fullback Zulkifli Azmi.

Thailand replied in the 11th minute with a penalty from star fullback Walongkorn Khamkoet to level the scores. Four minutes later Khamkoet put Thailand further out at 6-3. Shortly thereafter, Malaysian winger Dinesvaran Krisnan was sin-binned, giving Khamkoet the opportunity to slot his third penalty as Thailand took a 9-3 lead.

The kicking battle continued as Zulkifli converted his second penalty attempt to edge Malaysia close at 9-6. A Thai sin-bin soon leveled the numbers on both sides, but it was Thailand that scored next through Khamkoet’s fourth and final penalty of the half, taking the score to 12-6 at the break.

Unfortunately for Malaysia, flanker Kini Rasolosolo had a moment of insanity as he lost his cool and punched his opponent, earning a red card and leaving his side to play a man down for the entire second half. The sending off may well have lost Malaysia the match as the hosts at full strength would likely have been too much for the visitors to handle.

Even with the numbers disadvantage, Malaysia came back from halftime firing on all cylinders. The hosts got a break shortly after the start of the second half as Thai hooker Jayasevi was sin-binned, leveling the sides for ten minutes. Malaysian flyhalf Timoci Nocakula immediately punished the Thais for the sin-bin as he scored from a tap and run penalty to pull his team into the lead 13-12 after Zulkifli’s conversion.

Malaysia coach Boon Hoon Chee’s strategic adjustments at halftime seemed to be paying dividends as Malaysia focussed on maximizing their size advantage by keeping the ball in close to their forward pack, frustrating the Thais who were intent on stretching the undermanned Malay defence.

Malaysia’s forward pressure soon told as Thailand conceded a sitter penalty on their 22, which Zulkifli slotted to push Malaysia out at 16-12 after 48 minutes. But Malaysia then conceded a penalty that was nailed by Khamkoet from 35 metres to bring them nearly level at 16-15, with 20 minutes remaining.

The final quarter of the HSBC A5N Division II final was a tense and exciting affair. At one point, Thai indiscipline saw a difficult penalty kick advanced ten metres into kickable territory after the Thais were penalized for backchat. Zulkifli converted the shorter kick as Malaysia took a 19-15 lead.

With ten minutes remaining, all Malaysia had to do was to control the ball and maintain calm under pressure but the Thais had other plans. A well-weighted kick ahead from a Thai offensive move put Malaysia’s cover defence under real pressure. A hasty clearance kick was beautifully charged down by Thai winger Wongsalankarn, who followed through on his solo effort to touch down before the ball crossed the dead ball line for Thailand’s first try of the match. Khamkoet slotted the conversion to put Thailand ahead 22-19 with less than ten minutes remaining.

The Malaysians lifted themselves again, working the ball into Thai territory and forcing what seemed like a sitter penalty just outside the 22-metre line. But Zulkifli’s boot deserted him at the worst possible moment and he shanked a kick that would have drawn his team level and forced extra-time.

The desperate Malaysians again put forward a heroic effort, eventually winning a scrum on Thailand’s five-metre line. The Malaysians rolled off the back using their bigger backline to try for a pushover try from close range, but the ball was held up. Another penalty conceded by Thailand on the last play of the match saw Malaysia go for the tap and run but they knocked on over the line. The resulting scrum saw Malaysia concede a penalty, which the Thais kicked into touch to close out a thrilling encounter.

 “We were concerned because we were playing Malaysia at home and they always have strong support. They are bigger than us and we knew that we would have to play smarter today, especially after playing another big team in Iran in the semi final,” said Thai captain, Tanyavit Kuasint. “Khamkoet came up huge again and the whole team was very cool under pressure. At halftime with the man advantage we knew we would have to stay calm and just take what was in front of us. Malaysia is a great team and they have many skillful players but in the end we came here to win a chance to qualify for the Rugby World Cup and I knew that even though we were giving up a lot of size that our heart is bigger than the other teams and that if we play as a team we can beat anyone.”

As this week’s HSBC A5N Division II and III are doubling as Asian qualifiers for Rugby World Cup 2015, Thailand will now progress to a one-off match against Division III champions India later this summer in Thailand. The winner will be promoted to Division I next season and continue their march along the road to Rugby World Cup 2015. Next year’s Asian qualifiers for RWC 2015 will be the Division I and Top 5 competitions of the HSBC A5N.

Looking ahead to the Division I / Rugby World Cup 2015 play-off, Kuasint said, “If we can make it to Division I it will be the first time for us since 2009 and it will be a great experience for Thailand, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We will host the play-off and I think our support will be a key to helping us win and continue our Rugby World Cup qualification.”

In the 3rd/4th place play-off a disappointed Iran team made up for an earlier loss this week against Thailand with a convincing 52-3 win over China. The result was never in doubt as Iran took China’s first scrum against the head in the opening moments and continued to exert their dominance throughout the match.

Iran’s first try came in the 12th minute after a long period of sustained pressure as prop Anoghin Rozbeh drove the ball from the back of the maul over the line. The try was converted by flyhalf Amin Hosseinzadeh to set Iran off to the races.

Iran’s second try came through the loosehead prop Hassan Nowzad in the 28th minute with a second conversion from Hosseinzadeh. Iran truly began hitting their straps then, taking the ball straight from the re-start through the middle of China’s defence for a third try in the first half, this one finished off nicely by centre Naser Eslamimanesh.

Moments later, the Iran front row completed a hat trick of sorts as hooker Asmer Rasoul scored, giving each of the front row a try in the first half – a great effort from the heroes of the coalface. A third conversion from Hosseinzadeh saw the score reach 28-0 at halftime.

Iran ran in four more tries after the break while China could only muster a single penalty from scrumhalf Zhan Xi Chun to bring the final score to 52-3 Iran. It is the second year that Iran have managed to remain in Division II rugby, while China will be relegated back to Division III (which they won last year in Jakarta) for next season.

Indian Army Woman Scales Everest

Discovery Channel will air a programme on the Indian Army's women scaling Mount Everest.

This is the first time an army women's contingent has scaled the Everest summit from the South Ridge route. The route was used by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

The Indian Army has appreciated the efforts of Discovery Channel to undertake the coverage of such an expedition for the first time. "Such coverage ... will provide a platform for future joint ventures with the Discovery Channel on issues related to sports and adventure in the Indian Army," Lt. Gen. S.P. Tanwar, director general of military training, said in a statement.

The collaboration with the Indian army was also a first for Discovery.

The production team of the channel went with the expedition to capture the grueling attempt on the summit by a group of seven Indian Army women officers.

The first army women's team to scale Everest in 2005 had approached from the North route via Tibet.

"Discovery Channel is delighted to cover this unique and distinguished expedition by Indian Army's women officers. We are committed to present stories of success and achievement from India to audiences around the world," said Rahul Johri, senior vice president and general manager - South Asia, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific.

The army team was led by Col. Ajay Kothiyal and included seven Indian Army women officers: Capt. Deepika Rathore (Rajasthan), Capt. Namrata Rathore (Uttarakhand), Capt. Prachi R. Gole (Maharastra), Maj. N. Linyu (Nagaland), Maj. Neha Bhatnagar (Rajasthan), Capt. Poonam Sangwan (Haryana) and Capt. Smitha (Karnataka).

The programme is expected to be aired later this year.