It was a bit of everything: boring, exciting and unpredictable, this journey on the Trans Siberian railway that cuts through three countries and eight time zones for a distance of 9,288 kilometres, traversing great plains, a barren desert and lush mountain scenery also the Sino-Russian border.
TRAVEL TITBITS
The World Underwater Federation - also known as Confe'de'ration Mondiale des Activite's Subaquatiques (Cmas) - has for the first time chosen Phuket to host its annual summit; it will be held on the resort island next year from April 21 to 25.
STAY
Dusit Thani Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan
FACES & PLACES
The small fire burning on the beach that night on Ko Pithak drew me like a moth to the proverbial flame. When I got closer I saw this muscular, old fisherman stirring something in a large wok which had a big hole in its side. The sight reminded me of chestnut vendors I'd seen in Yaowarat but I couldn't immediately tell what the man was cooking, for all I could see in the skillet was a ball of flames. It turned out that he was roasting cashews in their shells and that the hole in the wok is designed to allow the nuts to catch fire. When he deemed a batch ready he simply tipped them out onto the ground and sprinkled them liberally with sand to extinguish the blaze.
DREAM CHASER
The distance from Muang Phu Khoun to Vang Vieng on Highway 13 was around 120km. Highway 13 was the main route connecting Vientiane to Luang Prabang and a lot of vehicles were travelling in either direction. It wasn't as an enjoyable ride compared to the roads further north.
AT LEISURE
While a familiar concept in Europe and North America, Cirque Du Soleil presentations - a fusion of innovative acrobatics, theatre, dance and musical acts - are not so well known in this part of the world. The Canadian company is soon to set up its first permanent base in the region in the gambling mecca of Macau, where it will be unveiling a production called ZAIA on July 26 at the 1,800-seat theatre within the Venetian Macau Resort-Hotel. And in the former Portuguese colony recently to lay the groundwork was Mario D'Amico, head of marketing for the Quebec-based concern and a man who, in his younger years, once backpacked across South and Southeast Asia.
BEEN THERE, DONE THAT
Built among coconut trees on a lush, 52-rai hillside site, this luxury resort overlooks the so-called Five Islands, rocky islets within Ang Thong Marine National Park where a concession has been granted for the harvesting of valuable cave-swiftlet nests (for bird's nest soup).
VOTE
Send us photographs from your travels in Thailand and each week, out of the selected group, we'll pick one winner. The prize for this week's winning entry is a 20-inch X-Mask travel suitcase by Coggioni which is worth 4,500 baht.
