Agatha Christi and Hercule Poirot would be jealous of China’s contemporary and very luxurious version of the Orient Express. Starting in Beijing, the Tangula high-speed train travels more than 2,400 miles north and to increasingly higher terrain to Lhasa in Tibet.

The Tangula consists of 12 sleeping, two dining and tail-end observation cars. Accommodations are for a total of less than 100 passengers in roomy, double-bed suites. Of course, each suite comes with a personal butler, and as the train races upward in the Tibetan mountains, personal oxygen equipment is provided for those who may need it in the rarefied three-mile-high altitude.

Basic rates range upward for a one-way trip from Beijing to Lhasa from $3,300 per person for the four-night trip. There are many extra charges, including wines, interpreters, souvenirs and legal documents. Hercule could never afford it on his detective’s salary.
For more information, check with your favorite hometown or online travel agency, or go to www.mircorp.com/tour_tangula.asp

With all the negativity following the killing of a high school student by a condo guard in Florida, maybe this new Las Vegas attraction may be a bit too much for some people. However, in the spirit of tourist curiosity and fun, Machine Guns Vegas is new in Sin City.

Customers are offered machine guns, rifles and pistols to fire live ammo at targets. Employees called Gun Girls in appropriately short Vegas costumers are there to offer firing instructions and non-alcoholic drinks.

Shooters and other visitors are also guided through historic firearms displays, including those from as far back as Wyatt Earp to World War II to Rambo to the Navy Seal operation that took out the world’s most wanted terrorist. 

Of course, as in every Vegas enterprise, there’s an in-house store that sells replicas of the weapons, decorated t-shirts, fancy holsters and more. For additional info, check the MGV website at machinegunsvegas.com

A Hollywood tour company has created a trip through LaLa Land that appeals to the necrophiliac in all of us. On your two-plus hour $40 ride, you can see all about local murders, overdose deaths and other final moments of the rich and famous.

From the van, you can see where Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, River Phoenix, Janis Joplin, Bela Lugosi and John Belushi breathed their overdosed and/or suicidal last breaths. You may also visit the infamous Charlie Manson murder site. The tour is always adding new macabre locations, and maybe you’ll get to see the window of the room of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel where Whitney Houston died.

Don’t forget to bring your camera to record all your ghoulish fun. For more information and reservations, go to www.dearlydepartedtours.com

Hey, youse guys! When in Sin City, you just gotta go there! Will it make you an offer you can’t refuse? Located in the former Federal Building in downtown Las Vegas, the Mob Museum recently held opening ceremonies in typical Sin City fashion.

Former Las Vegas mayor and Mob attorney Oscar Goodman conducted several quickie weddings and declared the museum ready for visitors. The central section of the building is the old courtroom where anti-Mob hearings were conducted by the Congressional Kefauver Committee in the 1950s. Of course, every mobster who testified was totally innocent and pleaded the Fifth Amendment.

Local mobsters and popular Vegas entertainers of the time there were required to testify about Mob financing of the city’s explosive growth following World War II. After the guys from New York City arrived, the little desert town suddenly grew to become one of the world’s premier gambling and entertainments destinations. 

Among the exhibits are stories and personal items about famed Mob figures, including Al Capone, Bugsy Siegel, John Gotti and many more.

There’s also the infamous Chicago garage wall from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and the barber chair where Mob big shot Albert Anastasia was murdered.

Admission prices are $18 for adults, $12 for children, $14 for seniors, military, teachers and police, and $10 for Nevada residents. For more information, go to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .