June 2006

I have some comments on letters in the April ’06 issue.

Seconding the readers’ recommendation in the March ’06 issue, page 14, I too have had great service with www.mobal.com. The cell phone is cheap, the per-minute rates are reasonable, and there is no monthly charge; only what you use shows up on your credit card.

There are two packages: one for 140 countries (not including the USA, on a different frequency) and one for 160 countries (with USA).

Two weeks before my departure to Málaga, Spain, on Jan. 25, ’06, I reconfirmed my flight on Iberia Airlines and told the representative I would need wheelchair assistance when I arrived at Madrid’s Baraja Airport. I ended up getting all the help I needed, as my connecting flight to Málaga was leaving in just one hour. The young lady who saw that I got to my gate would not accept any tip.

Returning to the U.S. from Portugal, my husband and I flew from Lisbon to London on Oct. 13, ’05. While going through security at the Lisbon airport, I had with me two metal circular knitting needles and a crochet hook, along with part of a baby’s sweater on bamboo circular needles.

The two metal needles and the crochet hook were taken from me. The bamboo ones were almost taken too, but the guard (who was very nice) relented. I think when he saw that there was work on them and that they were wooden and that I was a senior citizen, he let me keep my work.

In the February ’06 “Ask Steve” column, Mr. Venables wrote about beating jet lag. I must take issue with his comment, “… over-the-counter melatonin or prescription drugs… help with the sleeping going over but don’t do much for your inner clock.”

I read Dr. Wagenaar’s excellent summary of medical websites in the February ’06 issue (pg. 93).

In the letter “Ancient Carthage Secret” (April ’06, pg. 39), the assertion that Carthage won the first two Punic Wars is wrong. Rome won all three Punic Wars. Only the second one was a close call, with the Romans suffering years of defeats before winning the battle of Xama over Hannibal and restricting the Carthaginian empire to the city of Carthage.

The writer is correct that the Romans destroyed Carthage after the third Punic War, only to rebuild it some years later as a colony.

HARVEY LAMPERT
North Bethesda, MD

It was a surprise to see the item in the March ’06 issue, page 20, stating that the U.S. government continues to ask U.S. citizens in Kenya to “be aware of the risk of indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets in public places” and that “there are increasing incidents of. . . violent crime.”

We were five days in Berlin in August ’05. On three of those days we were guided privately by Markus Mueller-Tenckhoff (Markgrafenstr. 39, 10117 Berlin, Germany; phone 0049 [0] 160 80 88 011, www.markusmuellertenckhoff.de or www.guidesinberlin.de/markus).

Markus went at a pace that seniors can handle and made sure that we saw all of the sights worth seeing. He was able to tell us a tremendous amount of history and show us East Berlin, North Berlin, Jewish sites, galleries, museums and restaurants. We would never have gotten the flavor of Berlin without him.

During a cruise in November ’05, the ship stopped in Na Trang, Vietnam. As is our custom, rather than sign up for the ship’s structured land tours, my husband and I usually hire a driver and tell him to take us where the tourists don’t go.

A man of about 35 approached us and we hired him and his driver for the day. We paid $70 for four of us as we were traveling with another couple. The guide’s name was Tran Cong Lac, or Loc, for short (29 B Thai Nguyen, Na Trang; mobile phone 0914 166 143 or e-mail conglac@hotmail.com).