My friend Scott is in India taking samples for his geology studies. He wrote a great post on the challenges of traveling as a Korean-American instead of a Korean:

Your average Indian or Ladakhi in Ladakh doesn’t really grasp the concept that one third of the population of the United States are not white, in the classic sense. This says a little about Indian education and a lot about the type of Americans that travel to India (read: Lily-white). And aside from said Lily-white Americans, absolutely no one correctly guesses my country of origin. Instead, what I get are Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and once (inexplicably) Thailand. Your stereotypical Asian tourists–herds, cameras, broken English–are here in force. Despite the fact that I’m travelling alone and speak pretty damn good English, I’m inevitably lumped in with the real Asians.

And to reinforce my friend Kelly‘s previously discussed decision to only carry on luggage for a trip to Italy, Goldblog reports on a TSA experiment wherein Delta employees five-finger-discounted valuable items from the TSA’s planted luggage:

The two 20-somethings have been charged with grand larceny, possession of stolen property and falsifying business records — for some reason, they thought it would be effective to swap luggage tags in attempt to throw everyone off — and now face up to four years in prison if convicted.

Hell, and that was on a domestic flight!

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