Lecture: ENHG Trans-Siberian Railway Adventure of July 2016 by Denis Cheng

TIME: Refreshments from 7pm, lecture from 7.30pm

VENUE: Salon 1, Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

LECTURE TITLE:  ENHG Trans-Siberian Railway Adventure of July 2016 by Denis Cheng

LECTURE SUMMARY: In this talk Denis will be sharing personal comments, anecdotes and photos of the ENHG field trip he took along with Valerie Lindsay (a member of the Dubai chapter) in July 2016. A journey on the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway that traverses the immense vastness from Moscow in European Russia to Vladivostok 10,000 km away on the eastern coast of Siberia has always been the stuff of dreams of many an extreme traveler and adventure seeker. Indeed, this train ride is also a trip through 1,100 years of anthropology, archeology, momentous political, and spectacular natural, history.

As one of the Field Trip Coordinators of the Abu Dhabi chapter of the ENHG, Denis decided to realize his extreme traveler’s dream, and give the chance to many others to do the same, by organizing a trip on this iconic railway as an ENHG field trip in July of 2015. However, due to a “perfect storm” of unfortunate occurrences, he was not actually able to join in with the group of five ENHG members from various chapters who had answered his call. Upon hearing their accounts of how truly amazing and memorable the trip did indeed turn out to be, Denis determined to organize another such field trip for the ENHG this summer. For both participants the excursion on the world’s longest railway line, lived up to its billing as a “trip-of-a-lifetime” .

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:  Denis is a senior lecturer of English at Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research. He is one of the Field Trip Coordinators, and a former Deputy Chair, of the Abu Dhabi Chapter of the Emirates Natural History Group. He has M.A.s in English and Applied Linguistics and Instructional Technologies and, as an undergraduate, studied geology, paleontology, anthropology and archeology. He is an avid scuba diver, backpacker and amateur astronomer.