Merry Christmas!!!

Being so far away from home, we weren't sure how to celebrate the approaching holidays. Fortunately India found a way to help us out in a rather unhelpful way (some happened to us and some happened to others):

Our Twelve Scams this Christmas

1. In our first scam this Christmas our package home was ransomed. We paid $10 per pound to send home a package, but instead of shipping it, the agent decided to hang onto it for a month until we were 2000 miles away. Then he emailed us and told us that if we ever want to see our package again, we needed to Western Union him $90. No resolution yet...
2. In our second scam this Christmas some travelers were poisoned by a restaurant owner and then taken to a quack doctor who charged their insurance a fortune to "make them well"... the doctor actually continued to poison them so that he could keep them in his hospital longer. Luckily he was caught and this particular scam is over.
3. In the third scam this Christmas, a rickshaw driver lied to us that the prepaid taxi booth at the train station was closed and our only choice was to hire him for 5X the normal price. He had even taken troubles to build a fake prepaid booth which looked closed. We caught a quick glimpse of the real booth (that was open) on our way out of the station.
4. In the fourth scam this Christmas, we were misdirected to an overpriced travel agent by a con artist standing next to an armed guard at the train platform entry. Instead of paying $5 each for a train ticket directly from the train station, they wanted to charge us $100 per person. We left the agent and had to push past the guard to the train platform before we were able to purchase a ticket at the correct price.
5. In the fifth scam this Christmas, we were offered food from a "friend" we met on the train. Luckily we declined (they post signs about this on the trains), although other travelers have been drugged and robbed whilst they tranquilly slumbered.
6. In the sixth scam this Christmas, travelers are asked by local "friends" to transport some jewels back home in order to avoid customs fees and taxes. They request that the traveler pay $1000 as a sign of "good faith." Needless to say, the gems are always worthless pieces of plastic, and the traveler has no recourse to get back the money.
7. In the seventh scam this Christmas, we were met at the train station by a hotel employee with the sign for the hotel that we wanted to check out. It is fairly common for many hotels to offer free transportation, so we thought nothing of it until we were taken to the wrong hotel and informed that our hotel is closed. We were tired and didn't even have a reservation at our intended hotel, so we chose to stay at the place where we were taken. The next day we walked past our hotel, which was bustling with guests... pretty effective way to get customers!
8. In the eighth scam this Christmas, a taxi driver loaded up all of our heavy luggage and drove us away from the taxi stand. He then pulled over and demanded a price which was triple what we had previously negotiated. We finally started to remove our luggage before he agreed to a reasonable price.
9. In the ninth scam this Christmas, a rickshaw dropped us off more than a mile from our intended destination and told us "it's just 100 meters ahead." Good exercise towing around all of that luggage!
10. In the tenth scan this Christmas, we bought a bottle of Banana Boat Sunblock to discover that it was a fake and was filled with Shampoo instead of Sunscreen! Fortunately, we caught on quickly (we are very experienced sunscreen experts) and demanded a refund.
11. In the eleventh scan this Christmas, a man offered Rusty a handshake and then started giving him a hand massage... Rusty tried to pull away, but the man kept saying "no charge." As soon as he finished massaging, he demanded a huge price, so we laughed and walked away.
12. In the Twelfth scam this Christmas, we were given a "free" tour of the sacred cremation ghats on the bank of the Ganges river. At the end of the tour, our guide took us to an old "holy woman" who he claimed had some connection with Mother Theresa. She gave us a blessing, and asked the names of our family. With each name, she would do some holy thing or the other. After it was over, the guide asked that we make a huge donation to a local hospice in order to seal the blessings. Needless to say, we didn't bother, so if you don't feel quite as blessed this holiday season, it might be our fault!

We hope that you are enjoying life and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Love,
Kelsi and Rusty