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My husband, Foster, and I returned on May 6, ’06, from a 5-night trip with Globotours’ (18725 East Gale Ave., Ste. 209, City of Industry, CA 91748; 800/988-4833 or www.globotours.com) to Singapore and Cambodia (for Angkor Wat), with a 3-day extension to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We also added one extra night in Singapore, bringing the total hotel nights to nine.
My wife, Esta Lee, and I took a Miami-Manaus (Brazil)-Miami sailing aboard the Regatta of Oceania Cruises (Miami, FL; 800/531-5658), Nov. 27-Dec. 22, ’05. For an ocean-view cabin, the cost was roughly $4,000 each. It was our second cruise on the Regatta.
My husband, Stanley, and I traveled with Vantage Deluxe World Travel (90 Canal St., Boston, MA 02114; 888/982-6824) in April and May 2006.
In July ’06 I had the opportunity to try out a relatively new airline called MAXjet (888/435-9629, www.maxjet.com), which started up in November ’05 and currently operates from New York’s JFK Airport and Washington’s Dulles Airport to London’s Stansted Airport, though new destinations are planned.
On Feb. 21, 2006, a companion and I flew on EgyptAir from New York (JFK) to Cairo, Egypt, with Grand Circle Travel. We were on GCT’s “Ancient Egypt and the Nile” tour with a 5-day pretrip extension to Jordan. We upgraded to business class (which we do on long flights).
Upon check-in at JFK we were sent to the Swiss International Air Lines business-class lounge, which was the finest lounge I had experienced. It had a full buffet dinner after 4 p.m. as well as free Internet service, excellent drinks and a beautiful sitting area.
British Airways had an ad in the Oct. 24, 2005, copy of the New York Times heralding its “business class like no other.” Prior to that, on July 22, 2005, I flew business class from Rome to London (Heathrow). My plane was a 767 that was entirely coach configured. The business class was simply partitioned off, but none of the coach seats were changed. The seats, the width, the pitch and the legroom all were coach.
Readers should know that Regent (formerly Radisson) Seven Seas Cruises is no longer planning to dock the Paul Gauguin regularly at Cook’s Bay, Moorea, French Polynesia.
by Judith Anshin, Contributing Editor
Tell ITN about the funniest thing that ever happened to you while traveling in a foreign country. There are no restrictions on length. (ITN prints no info on destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean.) The ITN staff will choose each month’s winner, who will receive a free one-year subscription to ITN. Entries not chosen cannot be acknowledged.
This month’s winner is MURIEL SALOVON of Pepper Pike, OH:
Many German towns have night watchmen. In Dinkelsbühl in June ’05, we joined a group following the costumed Jakob Hamerslag as he made his evening rounds from one restaurant to the next. At each one he tooted his horn, sang his song and was offered a glass of white or red Franconian wine by a smiling waitress.
This nightly medieval ritual was free. And there was a bonus: at later stops, the large wine glass was passed among his followers. One toot of the horn meant he wanted wine; two toots signified apple juice. Fortunately for us, Hamerslag was on a “one-toot” patrol.