T A B L E_T A L K Aquatic holidays await -- find out the best places to go boating in the Wanderlust area of Table Talk   Find a world of travel books -- new, rare and out-of-print -- at barnesandnoble.com Search by:  Keyword Title Author     R E C E N T L Y The new great place By Jeff Greenwald Luang Prabang has been discovered -- and once laid-back Laos will never be the same (01/31/99) This week in travel Wanderlust's selective guide to travel-related news from across the globe (01/29/99) "My Mexico" By Diana Kennedy Mexico's foremost food writer celebrates the culinary traditions of Campeche (01/28/99) Deep in the heart of Thailand, Texas By Roger Beaumont Wild-eyed expats swap yarns and squander fortunes in Bangkok's Lonestar bar (01/27/99) Hurricanes and hope in Honduras By Rachel Louise Snyder As the storm-battered Central American country rebuilds, dreams take root (01/26/99) Browse the Wanderlust Feature archives Wanderlust's Official Travel Book Partner		A travel magazine employee gets free luxury hotel rooms and four-course feasts -- but there's always a price to pay. BY CHRIS HAINES | I am looking, as I write this, across the Bay of Naples toward Mount Vesuvius and the Amalfi Coast of southern Italy. My perch could not be more comfortable -- the living room of the Presidential Suite atop the Palace Hotel on the island of Capri. Since my boyfriend and I arrived last night, our every need has been catered to with the level of service afforded the suite's other recent guests: the king of Sweden and Whitney Houston (presumably on separate occasions). The chef greeted us in the lobby the moment we arrived and sent prosciutto and melon, a sampling of pasta dishes and exquisite desserts to our room. The hotel manager personally guided us through the maze of bedrooms, living areas and terraces (with a private pool, of course) that we would call home for the next few days. ("This button will open the curtains. This one will open the ceiling over the bed so that you may look at the moon.") Every few hours, another maid arrives laden with fresh linens. Here's the kicker: It's all free. The suite, the food, everything. In fact, every hotel we've visited throughout Italy during the past week -- fine establishments all -- has been free. As were many of the meals, including one four-course, knock-your-socks-off lunch. I am the first to agree that there is no such thing as a free lunch, but I, for one, would rather not pay cash. Call me a piker. The piker has a bad rap in this world. It's what you call someone who is stingy or cheap, a tightwad who tries to get something for nothing. Name-calling is usually a smoke screen for deeper feelings, and this is certainly the case where piking is concerned. Getting things for free -- like a luxury hotel suite in Capri -- tends to provoke jealousy among friends and co-workers. Strangers, too, resent us: Everyone who belongs at an expensive hotel -- from bellhop to wealthy guest -- can spot a piker at a dozen paces. Not many guests check into the Palace Hotel carrying their possessions in a gym bag. No one really knows where the word "piker" came from. Some etymologists think that it was a name given to the poor immigrants from Pike County, Mo., who scrounged their way across the country to California in search of a better life. Others derive it from "pike," the act of playing cautiously. In my case, it is a combination of the two: playing cautiously during a journey to a better place. Piking, the verb, has no etymological pedigree. I made it up. But there is no question in my mind about what it means. I happen to be in the fortunate position (for a piker) of dating a man who works for a travel magazine. Although David (I've changed his name to preserve his job) works in the publication's advertising department, most of the freebies that are offered to his travel writing co-workers also come to him. No free airfare, but hotels are "comped" and so are a lot of the meals, as well as other attractions like tours, and cruises, and ... Let your imagination run wild. I have. During the early days of our courtship -- when lovers size up each other's assets -- I told David that because I was an entertainment reporter, I could take him to any show on Broadway for free. He smiled and kissed me. "I get hotels," he whispered in my ear, "and meals." Our first tentative journeys were to nearby cities. By traveling on quiet weekends, when conventions were just a glint in the hotel marketing directors' eyes, we settled into a life of sumptuous suites and downy robes, a "champagne lifestyle on a beer salary," as my mother would say. I developed an addiction to the Four Seasons, with its impeccable room service and heavenly beds. Have you ever slept on a Four Seasons king-sized mattress? You'll never want to sleep anywhere else -- unless, of course, you have to pay. But lest you get jealous, let me remind you: Piking is not free. N E X T+P A G E | The price you pay _________________________________ For more information: _________________________________