Current to January 26, 2011
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Panama Canal:
We just returned from a cruise from Miami, Florida to Los Angeles, California, USA -- via the Panama Canal (locks, right).

It was an unusual trip for us, having sailed so long on our own sailboat. This time we traveled on a beautiful ship, the 68,000 ton Crystal Serenity.

More pictures to come.

We are completing final editing, proofing and indexing on Don’s five year book project. The life story of U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson will be published by the University of Oklahoma Press in September 2011.

Anna’s Story:

Becky has completed her report about rescuing a little girl from desperate circumstances in the mountains of Nepal. Read Anna’s Story in International Essays.

From the story: “At Sandoop's request, the local leader of the Maoist rebel group soon arrived, escorted by his teenage bodyguards. They looked like gangsters.
 
Maoists are self-styled, uneducated, rural rebels who, over the previous decade, had essentially held citizens of Nepal hostage and created a civil war that ultimately ended with the collapse of Nepal's centuries-old, godlike monarchy and the deaths of thousands of civilians. They had also raided communities in the mountains, and now possessed all privately owned guns in Nepal.

Ten Years of World Exploration

Nothing we have said or done in these ten years of travel in many countries has exceeded the events of 2009, which began in Thailand and Laos, and ended in the mountains of Nepal. There, we agreed to support one little girl, Meena Lama, who had been in horrible circumstances in a village near Tibet. When we flew to Kathmandu to meet her, a surprise series of events ended with Becky and our friend Sandup rescuing another girl, Anna Lama, from even worse circumstances.

Meena had been abandoned by starving parents in a remote mountain village.

Sandup found out about her and made arrangements to take her into his home. We will sponsor her through to adulthood, no matter what she needs. The moment we met her, we fell in love. (Picture: Meena with Sandup’s wife, Furpoo).

Anna lived in a tiny village on the Annapurna circuit in Nepal. Her destitute parents were low-cast and in desperate circumstances.

Anna’s father was a violent drunk who beat his wife, who was forced to beg for money and odd jobs.

The situation was so desperate that villagers feared for the life of little Anna (not her real name).

After consultation with village elders, the area Maoists, and agreement by the parents, the little girl was release to Sandup’s care. After he and Becky brought Anna to Kathmandu, she moved into Sandup’s home.

Ann and Meena share the home with six other children and four adults. For the first time in their lives, they are safe, protected, and receive education and medical care. Almost immediately, the two connected as “sisters.”

Of all the things we have done these past ten years, the crown jewel is having become involved in the lives of these two children. May they live long and well.

Last October, we toured Sikkim, India via 4X4 vehicle. This is our best picture. It was taken at sunrise of the world’s third highest mountain.

Early last year, we flew to our Asia Expedition Headquarters in Chiang Mai, Thailand from Railay Beach in southern Thailand, near Krabi.

We shot two hundred high resolution RAW photos, and two hours of high definition video there. Check out our new high resolution clips on the videos page.

In March 2009, we returned to our headquarters in Montana.

Before returning, we took in the annual Chiang Mai, Thailand flower festival. It was a huge event, one not to be missed. See the photos in our Thailand photo galleries.

Until late February, the weather was still cool enough to travel the mountain areas in the north and west part of the country.

There, we met a number of “Long Neck” women at a village where the residents have previously spent long periods in refugee camps, after escaping terrible oppression in Burma.

We interviewed one of these women. Look for it on our videos page.

Also earlier this year, we spent three marvelous weeks in northern Laos.

This, our third visit to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, was the best yet. Look for new photos in our current logs, and enlargeable versions in our Laos Photo Gallery 2009.

We also flew Nok Air from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, then took a bus to Kanchanaburi (site of the famous Bridge Over The River Kwai, and our former home). One of the highlights was a visit from a woman we met in 2000, when we were living there.

“TM” traveled across Thailand via bus to see us. We had a wonderful time with her and her nephew. This picture was taken January 2, 2009 at Erawan National Park, west of Kanchanaburi.

Photo Below: In one Thai temple, we watched for a long time to see if this monk was real. We even shot video, watching closely for movement.

We were finally convinced that this is a beautifully crafted work of art.

The longer we were in Chiang Mai, the more we loved it. The people couldn’t be more pleasant, or the area more historic and photogenic.

We continue to plan trips back to Asia, in order to help children and the disadvantages, and we are now considering other destinations as well. Several locations in South America on on the long-term planning board.

The Billings Gazette in Montana ran a nice piece on us in their Sunday magazine. Read the text in our Essays section. Click here.

In Kathmandu, Nepal, some time ago, we were interviewed by the editor of a monthly English language magazine, Alfresco.

Editor Shyam Krishna Shrestha asked about our peripatetic lifestyle and the blind students whose education and housing we support there. It was an interesting exchange, occurring as it did in a country that continues to face significant challenges in daily life.

The text encourages people to seek their dreams, no matter the obstacles. We have come to know many Nepalis and continue to marvel at their optimism and spirit.

Together, we have been in more than seventy countries and U.S. protectorates, and of our many highlights was a brief appearance on THE TONIGHT SHOW.

Becky spoke on the air with Jay Leno (photo below) about our visit with descendants of Borneo's infamous Headhunters (she dropped the Chief’s favorite head, breaking off its jaw). See it for yourself on our videos page.

The best part of the interview came when Leno asked, “Cannibals invited you to dinner -- and you WENT?”  She responded, “They weren’t cannibals, they were headhunters.”

We began this website to record our travels in order to someday reflect on them, and to give relatives and friends an idea where we were. We soon found that people from all walks of life were interested. We hope you too are encouraged to travel -- and to learn about  our world’s diverse cultures.

Follow this link to our travel statistics and a listing of the countries, principalities, commonwealths, territories and protectorates we have visited.

Thanks for following along.

Don and Becky Hardy