I AM SHOPPING in Itaewon, the frantic marketplace in Seoul, Korea, where the locals NEVER shop. Korean girls prefer their designer clothing authentic, are willing to pay full price.

I AM WALKING around Budapest, Hungary, admiring old, beautiful buildings that are crumbling just enough to give the city great charm and character. It is a terrific city for sightseeing on foot. A Hungarian man riding a bicycle is heading in my direction.

I HAVE SIGNED up for spa treatments in a hot spring high in the Andes mountains of Ecuador. The high-pressure jet massage sounds rather interesting, something I have never experienced before.

I AM LIVING in Jerusalem in a tiny flat on the second floor of a building near the King David Hotel. A winding stone staircase leads to apartments on three floors. The neighbor upstairs is a short sturdy blonde woman who keeps trying to set me up with Yaakov, the son of the neighbors who live next door.

I AM EATING lunch in a restaurant in New Delhi, India. The restaurant is beautifully furnished and the food is delicious. The only patrons are foreigners, and tour bus after tour bus pulls up, discharging groups of Europeans.

I AM PANICKING because I have a mosquito bite on the side of my face. I am on vacation in Nepal, heading to India the next day. I chose not to take malaria tablets because the risk is relatively low in the places I am going.

I AM LISTENING intently to a passenger standing in the front galley of my airplane. The service is over, the trash picked up. Passengers are watching movies, listening to music, reading, sleeping, or trying to sleep.

I AM SMOKING a cigar in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, a Montecristo, the cigar of choice of Che Guevara, the revolutionary.

I AM READING the guestbook in F Street Station, a bar in Anchorage, Alaska. It is early January, bitter cold outside, and crewmembers from my airline are the only patrons.

I AM TALKING to a couple in the back galley.  She has a seat in coach and he is sitting in first class, but he has walked back to the aft galley to talk to her. They know each other, are together in some way.