What 's called Chinese New Year in the West is known as Tet Nguyen-Den in Vietnamese, and Spring Festival in China. Dates change annually, falling either in January or February on the lunar calendar. (Next year it's on Valentine's Day!) Confusingly for a mid winter event, it actually celebrates the advent of spring sowing. While not a national holiday in Mekong countries outside of China and Vietnam, the festival reigns supreme throughout the Chinese diaspora.

Morrison and Robert were in China's Yunnan for this year's pre-celebrations, and in Bangkok we spied popular royal princess Sirindhorn opening the festival in Yaowarat, that city's Chinatown district.

This is a time of out-with-the-old and in-with-the-new, and families reunite over food and presents (and for young children, receiving gift envelopes of cash). In Vietnam, it's a time to pay homage to kitchen hearth deity Tao Quan, who yearly presents the family’s “report card” to the heavenly emperor of Jade. Homes are scrubbed clean, then adorned with peach and apricot blossoms representing good fortune and peace. Pairs of watermelons are purchased, with deep red flesh indicating special luck throughout the year. Adults exchange gifts of quality tea leaves, kumquat trees, sugared ginger and sweetened coconut. Banh chung is a sticky or glutinous rice "cake" stuffed with sugary pork and mung beans, tightly wrapped in banana leaves, and boiled for 8 hours. In Vietnam, it's the traditional celebratory food for New Year. Unctuous pork fat surprises westerners tasting this treat for the first time -- an unusual combo of sweet and savory.

New Year's Southeast Asian equivalent is Songkran in Thailand, Pimai in Laos, and Chaul Chnam Thmey in Cambodia. Whatever it’s called, prepare for a soaking. Held mid April (12-15 April), it marks the end of the long six month dry season drought, and the beginning of annual monsoon showers. Families head home to both make merit and to renew allegiances, while empty cities come to a standstill. Because New Year's falls during the hottest month of the year, typical activities include boat races, feasting, and especially water sports. Cups of water are flung at any passerby, whether young or old, local (and especially) foreign. Even motorcycle and flat bed tucks are not spared the water onslaught, but it is all in good fun. That being said, recent antics can get so carried away -- from ice laden storage chests shot from a hose, to colored powder smeared on clothes and face -- that officials in Laos and Cambodia, particularly, have begun to crack down on revelers. In Thailand's North, Songkran water sports carry on even longer. Carry your wallet, camera and passport in sealed plastic bags to prevent water damage!

Truffles save bandicoots from extinction is not quite the spin from this story. But close… First it was pigs, then dogs. Now add Australian bandicoots to the list of keen truffle sniffers. The only problem: these wild marsupials root out the precious fungi for themselves, and not for gourmet tables. Both New Zealand and Australia now market domestic truffles, having developed ways to cultivate the spores. So it was only a matter of time that New World natives likewise discover an appreciation for Old World gourmet delights. So much so, that Australian truffle growers now complain that too many bandicoots and potoroos raid their orchards.

Which has a silver lining. Because of truffles' lure, scientists now have a more accurate count of endangered marsupials. Previously, animals were lured with peanut butter and rolled oats, captured, tagged and numbered. But so few were caught by this method that scientists feared a precipitous drop in population. It seems the bait was faulty. Bandicoots and potoroos prefer truffles -- and with this new enticement, there's now a spike in registered numbers.

Hotel internet is now free in ALL Shangri-La and Traders hotels, worldwide. Their reason: with more tourists traveling with a laptop these days, internet is considered a standard amenity rather than a purchased luxury. More likely: competition from boutique hotels which freely connect. Pricey internet is one of our pet bugaboos (next to expensive hotel ice buckets!) but sales execs retort that business travelers are on expense accounts, so the added charge is no problem. Huh????

We rave about Thailand, pro and con, and especially disturbed by its recent history of airport sit-ins. November's Bangkok blockade was the worst example of several such closures over the past few years. Suvarnabhumi is now manned by special police force to prevent a repeat, and we read that the November closure cost some 540 million baht (US $14 million) at the airport -- not including vastly greater losses to tourism and hotel revenues. We've previously written that the airport's entire retail and restaurant franchise is run by one single company, awarded without competitive bid under a previous government. Now Airports of Thailand proposes to recompense monopolistic King Power for its losses. And who runs King Power? Family of the ousted prime ministers!