T A B L E_T A L K It may be a frightening monolithic media giant, but Disney makes a great theme park. Delight in the wonder of Disneyland in Table Talk's Wanderlust area   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 Losing it in Cambodia By Morrie Erickson Getting a haircut in Cambodia is a good deal -- especially if you like getting more than you bargained for (02/16/99) This week in travel Wanderlust's select guide to the top travel-related news stories from around the globe (02/12/99) You are what you eat By Tim Cahill The foreword from the book "Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects" by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio (02/11/99) Backstage on "The Beach" By Rolf Potts A backpacker's quest to storm Leonardo DiCaprio's movie set ends in an epiphany that won't play in Peoria (02/10/99) Storming "The Beach" By Rolf Potts A backpacker in search of adventure in Thailand puts the moves on Leonardo DiCaprio (02/09/99) Browse the Wanderlust Feature archives Wanderlust's Official Travel Book Partner		-----Captive in Kosovo A journalist finds herself caught in the middle of the Drenica Mountains with a guerrilla pressing a gun against her head. BY SUSAN MILLIGAN IN THE DRENICA MOUNTAINS, Kosovo -- "I kill my friend. I could kill you." This was an unnecessary summing-up of the situation. After all, each of the dozen or so Serbian special forces militia surrounding us had assault weapons and pistols, one of which was pressed firmly against the base of my skull. The large, heavily muscled soldier behind me was holding the gun against my head with his right hand. His left, curiously, was gently pushing my left shoulder against the car he and his colleagues had just ambushed minutes before. Clearly, these men were ready to shoot me and my fellow journalists. Yet this soldier was taking pains to not jam my shoulder too forcefully against the car. I had never experienced this kind of base terror. It was the sort of fear that is so overwhelming it can't be expressed. I had never felt so close to death, and yet my body reacted to it with a remarkable calmness that bordered on the irrational. I shrugged at the commander. "Well," I said, "I don't think you should." The scenario -- being drawn into the reality of the war when I was only supposed to be observing as a journalist -- was something I always knew, hypothetically, was possible. And yet I never really considered it might actually happen. To me, the conflict between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo had been like a movie, and a subtitled one at that. This was not my language, not my country and not my place to be involved. If this was a film, I wasn't even in the supporting cast. So how, I belatedly mused as the soldiers rifled through our car and our bags, did I get here? It had happened so quickly. There we were, three reporters and a translator, driving back to the provincial capital of Pristina from a town called Orahovac, where there'd been a major shoot-out just weeks before. We'd done it so many times, it all seemed normal -- getting stopped frequently by heavily armed Serbian police at checkpoints, having guns on the tanks pointed at us while they checked our papers. I'd see snipers in the mountains, or soldiers digging trenches, and instead of feeling fear, I'd just jot it down in my notebook. A rule of thumb in such conflicts is that the more heavily armed members of the ruling side's army are less dangerous than the untrained militia guys in makeshift uniforms, casually waving Kalashnikov rifles, drunk with newfound power or maybe just drunk. During the time that we were there, we'd grown accustomed to the many rules; they seemed like normal work conditions to us. Perhaps the mind creates some sense of rules and organization when there is none, to help the body function. We had had no sleep, had seen people living and dying in horrible conditions, had chatted with armed soldiers from both sides and had done it all by traveling around a war zone in a rented midnight-blue Peugeot with a sunroof. Stay in any environment long enough and it becomes normal. N E X T+P A G E | The threat is only real if it's expressed verbally - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here.   PPHOTOGRAPH: AP/WIDE-WORLD _________________________________ For more information: _________________________________