It’s Sunday (22 Nov 2009), and April and I have finally got a decent night’s sleep as we awaken in our room literally over the sea, in Cherai Beach Resort near Kochi. The A/C in our room works, thank god, which dries out there air a bit (feels like 140% humidity outside) and keeps it cool. Finally.

Kochi — or Cochin, I can’t figure out which is the more correct name but I personally like calling it Cochin because it reminds me of the font — is in the deep south of India on the west coast, along the Arabian Sea. And the Cherai Beach Resort where we are is on a small strip of land between the ocean and the backwaters — a cross between a lake, river and swamp.

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Palakkhad, India, Saturday 21 Nov 2009 – From the orphanage (see prior post) we leave on our “30 minute” drive to our resort. We have now taken to calling the estimated travel times “IST” – for “Indian Standard Time.” It’s been our experience that you can add from 50% to 300% to any travel time quoted. And here again, it took an hour or more to get to our resort under driving conditions that would make most American drivers howl in terror – a recurring theme (the hours of driving) throughout the rest of our travels. Read the rest of this entry »

India, 20 Nov 2009 (Friday) – Once again we are under-slept and travel weary as we get up at 6am to be out of our 2-bedroom apartment in Bangalore by 7am. We head the harrowing roads back to the airport, through security lines segregated by sex, and onto a Kingfisher Airlines turboprop to Coimbatore airport. Kingfisher – owned by man who owns the large Indian beer company – is actually a very nice airline, with recorded announcements in this alluring, sexy voice, and a pretty good vegetarian meal served on such a very short trip. (You hardly get peanuts on most of the US airlines, even on 4 hour flights.) The inflight magazine is a trip … I’ll have to take some pix later an upload them.

After landing, a big red tractor pulls in our luggage, and our new driver gets us to Palakkad, south India. (It’s pronounced Palghad, which I later learns how it is pronounced in the language of this region.)

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(Good thing DAD has his helmet on! Note the family of 4 on the motorcycle.)

After a great flight on British Airways down to Bangalore (or Bengaluru, as it’s officially named now), I finally arrive in India. I have to admit, standing in the airport I could’ve been in Mexico or any other tropical airport. The people and outfits look as normal as an afternoon at LAX back home in California.

The body scanner – a big TV hooked up to a video camera, showing everyone as a heat signature like in some crazy video game – was India’s way to catch people with a fever and stop the spread of swine flu. And as a member of one of 3 countries considered infected, we had to be reviewed by medical personnel before being let in.

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As the sun rises over London — viewed from BA flight 9119 — the flash of the wingtip lights illuminates the light fog and the pink glow of morning warms the horizon. With all the chatting among new business friends, I’ve slept maybe an hour, blanket over my head in the surprisingly comfortable economy class seat.

We land in heavy winds, the 777 more like a ship in large seas than a smooth jumbojet … but the Captain sets it down perfectly, to scattered applause.

My colleagues go on to a morning event, free hotel, and more networking. I’m a bit jealous, as I scheduled a bit too tightly and must stat in the airport for my connecting flight to Bangalore in 5 hours. (The big question is if I can talk my way into the supposedly fab BA Heathrow lounge?)

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Four hours. That’s how long I’ve got until it’s time to wake up and begin this journey in earnest.

April is 7 of the 11 hours to London, probably asleep over the north pole right about now, and I’m up in LA sleeping in her old bed, closer to LAX and my 7am flight to Chicago.

Since I haven’t written for so long, I guess a bit of catching up is in order: By blind chance — or more likely divine fate — I met my soulmate about a year ago. (And when I say ’soulmate’. I’m not just trying to be romantic … we are like the same person split at birth and reunited decades later.) In August, after dating a whole 8 months, we realized that there’s no stopping the freight train of fate and got engaged.

Fast-forward a few months, and I become the lucky recipient of a British Airways “Face of Opportunity” promotional ticket anywhere in the world they fly. (Thank you, BA!!)

I chose India in order to develop a website that has been germinating in my mind (purpose: to change the way peoe give to charities an improve 1 million lives and more per year… more later on that.) And, so in just a few hours I begin the trip: first to Chicago (thanks, Crista, for the ride!!), then onto London, another 10.5 hours to Bangalore, and then a domestic flight (Indian domestic, should I be concerned?) to Kerala District, in the south.

I’m tired, but excited, wondering how I’ll weather the 30-something hours in the air, looking forward to working on the website along the way. I’ll post as we have Internet (why does the iPhone believe that word should be capitalized?), maybe even talking my little Luddite into a post here or there also. Next stop … Chicago, and our chartered 747 networking flight.

Yes, to the blog has been “dark” for quite a while now … somewhat because of Facebook (if I post there, what do I put here??), and somewhat because I haven’t been traveling much. However, a new big trip is in the works in just a few days … LA to Chicago to London to Bangalore (India) to Palakkad … and those are just the flights!

I’ll try and update the blog as regularly as possible for those followers who are looking for updates … and of course, when I get back I’ll put the pictures here as well. Keep an eye out over the next few weeks for actual updates. Thanks!!

The famous Kogi Korean BBQ Taco Truck (www.kogibbq.com) made an appearance at the Santiago Art District in Santa Ana last night (May 16, 2009). I waited in line a mere 1-1/2 hours for my 6 Korean BBQ short rib tacos, Korean BBQ short rib burrito, and Kimchi Quesadilla. (I hear that others waited as long as 3 hours for theirs.)

Truth be told … it was good, but not amazing. I enjoyed the different experience of the Kimchi Quesadilla, but I’m not a huge Kimchi fan, and so probably wouldn’t order it again. The tacos were good — quite good — but not sure that they were worth 1.5 hours in line. We also had a desert — for the life of me I couldn’t understand what they called it, but it sounded like a “Roofie Sandwich”. It was more like an Orea outside with a buttery, sweet cream filling on the inside, like a big cookie. I loved it — but my friends Missy and Stacia seemed to think it was just okay. I ordered the burrito to save for tonight, so we’ll see how that is later.

I did enjoy the crowd, and the Kogi staff on the truck was great. It’s definitely worth a try, and even worth waiting … if only for the spectacle of it all. Hopefully they’ll come down again, I’d even wait one more time to try the other dishes on the menu…

The Calendar Factory has expanded to include many things that we’ve been doing for years: magazine design, magazine ads; books; and calendars. We’ve launched The 28 Page Agency’s website recently. It will be updated and changed regularly (we’re already working on a complete redesign) … feel free to stop by!

So, I read in the news today about “Bernard Madoff, who pleaded guilty today to masterminding the largest Ponzi scheme in history…”

I’m confused. Isn’t the biggest Ponzi scheme in history the US Social Security System?

(Ponzi Scheme, from Wikipedia: “pays returns to investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors rather than from any actual profit earned. … other English-speaking countries do not distinguish colloquially between this scheme and pyramid schemes…. The perpetuation of the high returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors in order to keep the scheme going. The system is destined to collapse because the earnings, if any, are less than the payments.”)