Now I hear you cry but you have no guarentees! If you follow a few simple steps you can have guarentees in writing. We spoke with Peter Hartley Managing Director of Last Minute Villa Holiday who said " Villa Holidays are a boom at moment, people are wanting to go on holiday and have more money to spend when they are on holiday. You can save a lot of money by booking a villa or apartment rather than booking with a travel agent but I would advise on following these simple guidelines to make sure you have guarentees you are looking for. Firstly always speak to villa owner by telephone,it is better than just talking by email, Before you phone make sure you have a list of questions written down that you want answered. If you do not feel comfortable with answers then you do not book villa or apartment. Always make sure you get emailed confirmation of reservation of villa or apartment before you send a deposit or full payment. If you are still feeling unsure about booking with a certain villa owner contact website you found it on and speak to them directly. Our Company LastMinuteVillaHoliday.co.uk always ensure that our customers are happy before they book accommodation. We can put them in touch with villa owner directly or if they would rather deal with a company we would make booking for them. In Summary if they follow these simple rules then they are assured a great holiday."

So is it a Villa Holiday or a Package Holiday this year. I would always go for one that saved me most money and allowed me more money to spend on Holiday.

Our flight consisted of about 100 people. Of these, 90 percent were Russians. Grae and I counted as two and remaining five or so people were religious volunteers going to convert godless masses. They appeared to be having no luck on plane, but Grae and I were able to strike up a few conversations.

I must say that Russians on plane were extremely nice and very honest. While honesty is generally a good thing, their frankness made me a bit uncomfortable. First, there was a clear consensus that we were out of our mind for agreeing to go to Chita. “You are going WHERE?!” was followed by a lot of whispering between Russians and bulging eyes. Since I doubted pilot would be willing to turn plane around, this wasn’t particularly comforting.

Our conversations raised an additional problem regarding definition of “fluent”. In my mind, being fluent in a language meant that one could get directions, tell boring stories, etc., in language in question. It quickly became clear that Grae’s definition of “fluent” was something less. This was verified when he turned to me and said, “Man, I’ve forgotten a lot.”

Great. Khabarovsk was only a few hours a way. But that’s a story to be told in Part 4 of this series…