Something To Declare: Destination of the week - Australia via Indochina

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Destination of the week: Australia via Indochina

Here's a new one: Vietnam and Cambodia are being offered as cheap add-ons on flights to Australia. Through discount agents, Singapore Airlines is offering the chance to take a side trip to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), Phnom Penh or Siem Reap (for Angkor Wat). You fly from Heathrow or Manchester to Singapore, and transfer to an Indochina-bound flight. You can return from the same destination, or one of the others; an "open jaw" arrangement is particularly suited for Vietnam. The side-trip is sold to agents for a basic £50; most of them are adding a £5 margin, plus the taxes of around £17. This needs to be added to the basic UK-Australia fare. From January to March next year, this will cost around £750 to Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney, and about £55 less to Perth.

Warning of the week: the Stansted Express has just got even worse

Passengers using the rail link between London Liverpool Street and Britain's fastest-growing airport are getting used to the fact that there are no trains on any Sunday until spring 2004.

The Stansted Express, which normally runs up to four times an hour, is being replaced by a fleet of buses. These do not run to a timetable, but depart "every five or 10 minutes". The full fare of £23 return is charged – but you can ask for a form that will earn you a voucher for £5 off a future journey. The company says you should allow 90 minutes for the trip, but extensive road works mean that some evening journeys have been taking more than two hours.

Weekday services have now been hit by the introduction of a special "leaves on the line" timetable, which means some trains before 9am are leaving up to five minutes earlier than the usual schedule. Call 08457 48 49 50 to check departure times.

Bargain of the week: Iceland

Icelandair finds it tough to fill its evening flight between Heathrow and Reykjavik, and the afternoon departure from Iceland to London. This is an even trickier task in winter, which is why the Icelandic airline has introduced a £133 return fare on those services between now and the end of March. You must book online at www.icelandair.co.uk, at least three weeks in advance, and stay over a Saturday night.

Before you book, consider whether you might want to go further: Icelandair has been selling tickets to US destinations, including Baltimore, Boston and Minneapolis, for as little as £180.