Depending on Internet access, I intend to accomplish two things with this blog.  First, I’ll update family and friends with the progress of my trip.  That should include more than a few photos as well as personal notes along the way.

Second, though I’ve “officially” retired, I thought this was a wonderful way to observe with a purpose—paying particular attention to communication practices and noting the use of media and communication technologies in public settings, in both the urban centers where I arrive and more remote locations to which I travel in each country.  When I arrived in Antique in 1968, the telephone had just arrived and there was no newspaper (one of my projects near the end of my tenure).  Now I connect with folks there via email and Facebook.  I was last in the Philippines a decade ago, and, while I’ve been to India twice, it was many years ago, and I’ve never been to Ethiopia, Cambodia or Australia. 

To get things started, here’s my itinerary in brief.

 

Jan. 16: Monday, fly out of Cleveland via Chicago and Istanbul to Addis Ababa, arriving early Wed., Feb. 18^th

Jan. 18-22: Touring several sites—hopefully Lalibela, Gondar and Axum—in Ethiopia.

Jan. 23: Fly via Istanbul to Delhi, India, arriving Jan. 24, and departing the next day for the Palace on Wheels trip that takes me to Jaipur, Sawai Madhopur & Chtitaurgarh, Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Bharatpur, and Agra.

Feb. 2: Fly via Bangkok to Phnom Penh, where I’ll tour Siem Reap and Ankhor Wat before returning via boat trip to Phnom Penh.

Feb. 8: Fly via Bangkok to Manila, in the Philippines.  I’ll spend two weeks visiting friends in Antique, where I served in the Peace Corps forty years ago, and in Los Banos, where I was a Fulbright scholar at the University of the Philippines in 1983-1984.

Feb. 23: Fly via Singapore to Sydney Australia, where I’ll spend a couple days before flying to Ayers Rock (Uluru).  Later I’ll go by bus to Kings Canyon and Alice Springs.  The first of March I fly to Cairns, where I hope to see the Great Barrier Reef.

March 5: Fly out of Cairns via Guam to Honolulu for a little R&R before returning home via Los Angeles March 10.