From A Scam to A Plan

Me & my Gammie

I know it's been some time since I last posted, for that I apologize. Let me give you a little insight of the craziness that is the few weeks of my life, specifically involving my travel plans. My friend from college, Gabrielle, is also teaching in Korea now. We thought this would be an awesome way to travel together and what better time than a holiday when we're off at the same time.  

In the fall we began searching for places to go over Lunar New Years in January. We changed our minds and places about a thousand times. First we were going to go to Hong Kong. How cool would it be to be there for the Chinese New Year? Then, we thought to go somewhere warmer. Why not the Philippines? But being that this is a big holiday here, ticket prices skyrocketed. Then we looked into Guam. We've heard great things about the beaches there and a beach in the winter sounded perfect. Yet again, the flight times didn't match up with our schedule well and was kind of a long flight for only a few days. So we settled on Taipei, Taiwan. The weather is in the 60's this time of year and I've heard good things about the city. So, Taipei it was. 


Now, we finally settled on a place, we just needed a ticket now. We searched through, what seemed like a thousand websites, to get the best deal. After a few days of debating, we found a site called www.mytripfriends.com. The prices seemed great. The decision was made to purchase the tickets quickly before it was too late. A lot of flights were already sold out because of the holidays. We weren't letting this one slip through our hands. I had no problem sending my money and getting a ticket. The flag went up when my friend didn't get her ticket. We had to send her money a little later because of her work hours. She was unable to get to a bank and we figured the best way was to send the money to me and that I would make the transaction. We did just that. But A few days passed by. No ticket. No email. My friend called me numerous times asking me what was going on and I figured it was just taking a little longer to process. But next thing we know, it's 3 weeks later and still nothing. We both had called and tried to get answers. I even emailed them several times. Nothing.


About a week ago, my friend started franticly calling my phone. As soon as I had a minute, I called her back. I thought she had a problem or had gotten hurt. Something wasn't right. She tells me we were scammed. I ran to my computer and checked my ticket with the airlines. No records. I panicked. How could this be happening? Her friend found a link of someone else saying that they went through this website and the tickets were fake! 


I had a friend visiting from home for Christmas and was having such a great week. To be able to spend the holiday with someone I've known for a long time and hadn't seen since summer 2010 had been a highlight of my stay in Korea. But this put a damper on my mood. I was upset about losing so much money, but I was even more angry at the fact that these people had to nothing better to do than steal from others. What was worse was that I should've known better. I had done some research on this company and didn't see anything that looked bad. It wasn't until after we paid that complaints were being written online. 


For the past week I've been so upset with myself for letting this happen. That is, until this afternoon. I was at the park with my puppy when I got a skype call from my mom. She tells me she's with my aunt and my Gammie and that they were on the way to the bank. She also told me that my Gammie wanted to talk with me. She asked me about my plane ticket and I explained what happened. "Did you book another ticket?" she asked. I told her no, because I had lost a descent amount of money and didn't know if I had enough to spend on another. The next few things she told me were hard to hear. Once I could make sense of what she was actually saying I almost dropped the phone. Her gift was more than enough to save my trip. I couldn't stop jumping around. In fact, I was so excited I got home and realized I had an iPod when I left and didn't now. I ran back to the park, luckily to find it and ran home. 


Thanks to my Gammie, my trip is back on. I have no idea of how I'm going to be able to thank her or what would even be considered good enough to show her how much I appreciate it and love her. What went from me being so upset with how selfish people can be quickly changed to how amazed I was that some people only show kindness. 


So to find out about my trip, stay tuned to find out...


and P.S. I love you Gammie!

Peace & Love,
Elissa Rae