Katrina K. Photography

The good news is that I'm coming home. The bad news is that Tadashi won't be coming with me. Don't worry -- nothing's wrong; we just decided that since my computer is still defunct and I'm getting worn out from traveling, that I would go back home a month early. This works out well for Tadashi as well, because he was really hoping to get back to Ladakh, India this trip. Since there was no way I can go back to India this year, he can now go alone. The added bonus is that I can then help my mother, katch, finish remodelling our kitchen. So my going home early works out well on all sides; it's win-win-win!

You may think that we've forgotten that we're here to do a project, that we're not on vacation. Sure, we are having fun doing parahawking , but despite what it may seem, we have not forgotten our purpose. In fact, in addition to following birds off cliffs, we are talking to people about education. Indeed, our time here has given us quite good material to include in the book. We have also worked out some organizational issues and are slowly catching up on our transcribing, among other things.

Tadashi and I went parahawking again -- this time for sunset. Although we weren't leaving until 4 pm, we weren't too keen on leaving the Maya Devi "compound", as it was Holi . Holi is a Hindu holiday during which kids and young adults throw colored powder and water (plain and colored) at each other. There are kind adults who will gently give you a tika . Tadashi and I were both blessed with a tika by the Maya Devi restaurant manager, Nani.

A friend of ours had told us about Parahawking in Nepal. It's paragliding using hawks to find the good thermals. We watched a bunch of YouTube videos before we left, and were very excited to go once we arrived in Nepal. The parahawking is done in Pokhara, Nepal -- a 7-hour bus ride from Kathmandu. We were able to fly with two Egyptian vultures, Bob and Kevin. The great part is that we each got a falconry glove and were able to feed the vultures mid-air! In the picture at left, you see Bob on my fist as well as Tadashi and Brad in the background (Tadashi's in front). It was absolutely amazing.

I thought I should follow-up on Tadashi’s blog, On Leaving Rajasthan. Tadashi and I both wanted to share why we left Rajasthan, but we were not sure how much of the story to tell. While we had heard reports of “some women” in Rajasthan being given a hard time, neither of us were prepared for the gravity of the problem. We decided it was important to share just how bad the situation is there for women.

Tadashi & I went to Kollam for a tour of the Kerala backwaters; we elected to go by using a dugout canoe. Apparently all the day-trip tours go the same island. Sadly, this tour felt like a ride at a theme park. You know the ride where you’re in a car, and you can pretend to drive while the car goes through different parts of the city/county/world, but really the car is just on a single track that automatically pulls you through the ride? Well, that’s what this tour felt like, except we were in a boat. Sure, we saw some wildlife;

Kerala is a long and narrow state of India, stretching from South of Mangalore, to nearly the tip of India. It goes inland to the tea plantations in the mountains ( gats ). We spent about a week in Kochi, in the middle of the state. We actually stayed in Fort Kochin. There's not a whole lot to see here, although it is a relaxing place if you stay away from the famous Chinese fishing nets. Sadly, nearly all our time her was spent in an internet cafe downloading software to fix my computer. We've since purchased "WiFi on a stick"; that is, a USB stick that uses cell phone technology to get wireless internet (made by !dea, if you're interested). With this, we get unlimited wireless thoughout India for month -- for only $10! (Plus the cost of the stick.) We spent that much at the Fort Cohin internet cafe in one week.

Arriving in Kolkata was a surprise. I had expected a loud, dirty, crazy city. But overall, it’s pretty clean & tame. Except for the traffic. Having been traveling in SE Asia for 5 years now, Tadashi and I have had a lot of experience crossing the un-regulated streets of Asia. In SE Asia, you wait for a break in traffic, then beginning slowly across. You keep a steady pace, and the traffic gauges you speed and veers either in front of you, or behind you. The cars, trucks and motor bikes will come really, really close, but they won’t hit you. The worst thing you can do in SE Asia is to stop or run. Changing speed, stopping or running can cause you to be hit. But in India, if you DON’T stop or run, you will be hit. So crossing the street here is an entirely different game. We often find ourselves running back to the sidewalk along with the locals.

The good news is: we've been in India for two weeks and neither of us has been sick yet! Talk about no good deeds going unpunished: we think we figured out why we got so sick last time we where here. We like to be responsible travelers and not use so many plastic water bottles, so we bring our own water purifier. Even though our purifier is still pretty new, Tadashi decided it would be a good idea to test it before leaving for this trip, just in case. And a good thing too! It turned out that this purifier -- although it's only been used a few times over the last few years -- wasn't completely purifying the water! AND, It was the same purifier we brought to India last time.

My computer is finally fixed! So far, almost our entire trip in India has revolved around getting this thing fixed. Unfortunately, getting a new hard drive here in India was looking to be a very bad deal indeed. First of all, it would mean not being able to recover any documents on the hard drive. Second, the warranty tech people here would only install the hard drive – not the operating system. So even then, I wouldn’t have a working computer, nor any recovered documents, and would have to pay for Windows all over again.

I had a really good blog all set to go about our 3 days in Kolkata. But that will have to wait until later, as the hard drive on my NEW Toshiba laptop has decided to call it quits. That darn thing is only 7 months old!! A similar problem happened to my Sony and I blamed Sony for the problem. Maybe it's time to start blaming the hard drive manufacturer. Add to that the fact that I can't seem to shake this ridiculous cold, and that now Tadashi is beginning to come down with a cold as well; you can imagine that we're not in the best of spirits right now. But we've been catching up on our HBO and Star Movies.

The first time we came to Luang Prabang, in 2005, we met a very nice young man named Sinchan, who worked at our guest house. We would often help him with his English and he would ask very tough questions. He often wanted to know the difference between two words whose definitions were very similar. The one I recall most was when he asked the difference between melt and rot . Tadashi and I had to think for a few minutes before coming up with an easy explanation (ice melts and wood rots).

Our only purpose for visiting Vietnam this year was to see our friend My (pronounced Me). We met My on our first visit to Hoi An in 2004. How we met her is actually quite an interesting story. We were originally trying to leave Hoi An the morning we met her, but that bus was full and we had to take the afternoon one. That morning, I was sleeping in and Tadashi went for one last morning walk along the river. He was taking pictures on a bridge when My approached him, said hello and started up a conversation. It turned out she was going to try to sell him a boat ride, but was clever enough not to be obvious about it (usually people just ask, “You ride on my boat?”).

I promised this in July 2008, and I apologize for the delay. Once you read it, I think you’ll understand why it took me 6 months to write; it’s disheartening and depressing. Cambodia is a country where corruption is so ingrained that it is essentially part of the culture. One would not be surprised to find that many politicians are corrupt, but it is shocking to find that some monks and teachers are as well. Even the people that run orphanages and schools for poor children take a cut of the donations. In Cambodia, the notion of a “not-for-profit” is all but unheard of.