How about the idea of asking someone in a country that’s 95% Buddhist if they know about karma?
Yeah, that seemed weird to me too. Then again, I wouldn’t bat an eye if an Asian sitting in an American cab asked the caucasion cabdriver if he knew about original sin. So maybe the cringe factor I felt was just me being a self-loathing American in the context of the ugly American tourist stereotype.
This made me chuckle. Having lived in NYC, I didn’t think there was such a thing as a caucasian cabdriver any longer, but I guess there are some elsewhere.
Did anyone other than me think Phil looked terrible this episode (or as terrible as someone that goo-looking can look)? Did he have a black-eye?
In our case, my mom had done everything right (other than losing her passport 
):
- she had a photocopy of her passport stashed elsewhere in her bags - this allowed the embassy staff to look her up in the database very quickly
- she had another form of valid government-issued ID with her - her NYS driver’s license
- we showed up with photos for the replacement passport
- she lost it in a major city - Dublin. This factor might have been the most important one - we didn’t have to travel to another city to find a US embassy. Short bus ride away from our hotel
It did cost us $120 in 2001, which at the time was about twice the rate for a regular passport obtained at home, but a small cost compared to the cost of the rest of the trip.