One More Story: The Package

I loved the coffee mugs at our New Delhi hotel, and yes, they’d sell me four.  But no way they’d fit in my carry-on luggage.  So I asked at the concierge, and they produced a black box with a big ‘Lamson Black Label Champagne’ logo.  They bubble wrapped the mugs; taped and taped the outside of the box; printed a huge label, and sent Sonu and I to the Post Office.  We waited in line, only to be told we needed to have it ‘wrapped’, and that they needed photocopies of my passport.  A vendor was set-up outside on the street, and the package man hand-stitched a fabric cover.  We used a marker to write a crude ‘from’ address.  Then to another nearby vendor for the passport photocopy, and back to the counter.   They want to tape the passport copy, photo and all, to the outside of the box.  What about identify theft?  In the end, I decide to just go for it, paying about $27 in postage.  The package was delivered to my door this morning, the first day after I arrived home and just 10 days in-transit.  And I’m most pleased with my mugs!