March 2010

My wife, Joy, and I had a great experience in Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia with Wildlife & Nature Travel Club (East Lansing, MI; 517/303-5394).

We took the 12-night “Land of the Orangutan, Borneo & Brunei Wildlife Expedition,” Sept. 16-28, 2009. It began in Kuching, Malaysia, and ended in Kota Kinabalu and took in the states Sarawak and Sabah as well as the country Brunei. That was followed by the five-night “Komodo Islands Extension,” Sept. 28-Oct. 3, ending in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.

My wife and I took our first river cruise, the 17-day “China’s Cultural Delights,” Oct. 9-25, 2009 (excluding Japan stopover), with Viking River Cruises (Woodland Hills, CA; 800/304-9616). Although I abhor tours, this seemed like the way to go in China and I was correct.

ITN was mailed a copy of the following letter, sent by a subscriber to Value World Tours.

by Dorothy Aksamit, Sausalito, CA

During a week-long visit to France in early July ’09, I took a day trip to the Paris suburb of Rueil-Malmaison to visit my friend Briony.

Instead of taking optional tours on our China trip with Grand Circle Travel, Nov. 12-Dec. 2, 2009, my wife, Anne, and I used our free time to explore the cities via their subways.

My wife and I took our seventh trip in eight years to Thailand, Dec. 5, 2009-Jan. 13, 2010, and we noticed something new regarding paying for hotel rooms with a credit card.

For my friend Billie Rivers and me, one of the delights of spending time in London is enjoying afternoon tea — the ambience, the slowing down, the cosseting and savoring both food and conversation. On our September ’09 trip we tried several locations.

• Through the website www.restaurantguide.com, we booked tea at 1901 at the Andaz (Andaz Liverpool Street hotel, 40 Liverpool St., London, EC2M 7QN, U.K.; phone +44 [0] 20 7618 7000).

by Marilyn Lutzker, Sunnyside, NY

There are advantages and disadvantages to being older. Neither my friend (at age 81) nor I (77) wanted the responsibility of driving in Italy, but I am old enough to have a son with adult children, himself, who was willing to devote a week to driving his elders around.

From PARIS, France, Jan. 6