We took an eastern Mediterranean cruise aboard the Azur, Oct. 29-Nov. 8, ’03. It was booked through White Travel Service (127 Park Rd., West Hartford, CT 06119; phone 860/233-2648). The price of $3,006, for my wife and myself, included airfare from New York’s JFK to Venice, Italy, with port charges and taxes added.

Ports of call were Dubrovnik, Katakolon (for Olympia), Alexandria, Limmosol, Antalya, Rhodes and Piraeus (Athens). The shore excursions were optional, and we opted, for the...

For a trip to Kangaroo Island, Australia, in October ’03, I rented a car for three days from Hertz. Booked for pickup on Oct. 4 and dropped off on Oct. 6, it was part of a package deal with Emu Airways (General Aviation Terminal, Kel Barclay Ave., Adelaide Airport, S.A. 5950, Australia; phone 08-8234-3711 or visit www.emuair.com.au).

The total cost of the package I booked with Emu was Aus$976.96 (near US$757), which covered the return airfare from Adelaide to Kingscote, two nights’...

During a trip in Japan, I rode on Haruka train No. 7 from Kyoto to Osaka Kansai Airport on the rainy morning of Oct. 13, ’03. The train stopped at Hinero Station. I saw everyone get off the train and I got off too, however my intended destination was the airport.

Haruka is a special express train going to the airport and there would be many foreign passengers also on board. However, there was not any English translation to explain to foreigners why all passengers had to step out at...