Travellers' checks

Although toiletries/towels and bathrobes are the most common things to be purloined from hotel rooms (37 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively), respondents to a Smart Travel Asia (www.smarttravelasia.com) survey also admit to taking alarm clocks (14 per cent of respondents), coat hangers (21 per cent) and hairdryers (5 per cent). Such thievery has led some hotels, such as Bali's Bulgari Resort (www.bulgarihotels.com), to create branded board games, sun hats and other cheap curios with the intention that the items will be taken. The survey had only 134 respondents so the claim by 1.49 cent of them - two people - that they have made off with a television set must be taken with a pinch of salt.

Proving there is always a buck to be made in a crisis, one former toxicasset trader is hosting tours of New York?s Wall Street. The Wall Street Experience?s (www.thewallstreetexperience.com) Financial Crisis Tour is conducted by former Deutsche Bank vice-president Andrew Luan, who tells participants about the trader lifestyle and their favourite haunts. Tours cost US$40 per person and run on Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, from 1pm.

If Air Supply can do it, so can Nobuyuki 'Nobu' Matsuhisa; fans can be entertained by the Japanese chef during a cruise around the Mediterranean. Nobu will spend a week on the 12-day Crystal Serenity (above) cruise that sets sell from Venice on July 28, signing books, giving cooking demonstrations and creating omakase dinners - 'chef's selections' - for the Silk Road restaurant. The cruise, which is priced at US$6,055, stops at San Marino, Corfu, Rhodes, Bodrum, Istanbul, Mykonos and Athens. For more details, go to www.crystalcruises.com.