The Hospital for the Dying, in the Kalighat area of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India, is where I spent three memorable mornings as a volunteer. The hospital, established by Mother Teresa in 1950, is run by the Missionaries of Charity with the help of volunteers. Working there made me realize 1) how fortunate we Americans are and 2) how overregulated we are here in the U.S. or, perhaps, how underregulated they are in India.

In September ’06 I walked into the hospital, which was very...

I read about biking down the Danube in the March ’04 issue, phoned the writers for more info and began a 2-year planning effort. A friend asked to join me, and the two of us ended up having a very pleasant time for 2½ weeks in September ’06 biking along the Danube River from Passau, Germany, through Austria and into Hungary as far as Budapest.

Neither of us were bicyclers, so we had to get into shape. By the time we left the U.S. in late August, I could pedal steadily for two...

I read with interest the letter titled “Missed Cruise Due to Visa Snafu” (June ’07, pg. 32), about passengers not having enough blank pages left in their passports for stamping.

When I made my last visit to Tibet, in 2005, it was no longer possible to send a passport directly to the Chinese Embassy service in San Francisco. When I went to a visa service in Seattle, I was told that my passport was “no good” as it didn’t have two “real pages” left for Immigration to stamp.

I...