What the Blog?

At a bar the other night, the topic of taxicab scams around the world came up - how there are a number of region-specific taxi or transport-related scams that guidebooks often warn travelers about but still catch some victims off guard. I thought it was interesting how these scams have evolved, and thought it was worth cataloguing the ones we'd heard of.  How timely then, that only a day later we encountered a DC-specific taxi scam after a late train ride home from New York. I always doubt the honesty of DC cabbies (and happily for New York, have found almost every single one to abide by their regulations - DC, what are you doing wrong here?) and this experience absolutely confirmed why that doubt should continue. Indeed, despite the perception that taxi scams only exist in developing countries, or target foreigners who don't speak the language in the country they're traveling in, cabbies often try their "luck" within the heavily regulated taxi commissions acros...

I recently returned from a whirlwind trip to Delhi and Amritsar, mostly to see family but also to do some shopping and touristing. A summary of 2 days / 1 night in Amritsar: Low-cost flights are available on Jetlite and IndiGo - we flew in and went straight to our hotel, the Golden Tulip . The location is excellent - about 15 minutes to the Golden Temple. I'm told that they'll offer shuttle service to the temple by 2012, but until then it's easy to hire a taxi (the hotel can arrange one) or hop in a three-wheeler. For the price, you can't beat the location - and included breakfast - but we found the walls a bit thin, the shoeshine machine down the hall a bit loud, and the staff - although friendly - a bit forgetful. For a higher end experience, the Ista is pure luxury but if you're on a budget, the Tulip is a good option. Before heading to the temple though, we hit the shops. Amritsar is a great place for juttis and beautiful hand-embroidered fabrics, and we st...