"I have covered a lot of summits," writes Richard Carter, who is currently AFP's news editor in Tokyo. "I have battled sleep deprivation during all-night affairs in stuffy Brussels buildings as EU leaders scrambled to salvage the euro during the Greek debt crisis."

"I have hob-nobbed at swanky gatherings in the snowy mountains of Davos as presidents, prime ministers and business tycoons put the world to rights over champagne and canapes."

"More recently, I watched locals struggle to hold back the tears at a summit between the leaders of North and South Korea and, just a few months after that, the historic moment Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un clasped hands in Singapore."

"But none of this could have prepared me for the absolutely unique experience that was the recent APEC summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea."

"There I was, one of tens of thousands of people, mostly men, trudging barefoot uphill to the Sabarimala temple," writes New Delhi-based correspondent Bhuvan Bagga.

"Monkeys screeched as they swung along the branches above. I silently cursed the bathroom slippers that I had worn for the occasion and prayed that my cover as a tourist would hold."