I am planning a trip to India. Everything I read speaks to the contrasts found in India. I noticed this article, “Book now for the flight to nowhere” over the weekend. A man bought a non-functioning plane and uses it to provide entertainment to people who might never be able to ride in a plane. It’s funny since although I like traveling I wouldn’t really want to sit in a plane for fun – although I can imagine wanting to if I never had. I guess to some degree we all want something we can’t have.

The other article that caught my attention was “The Ink Fades on a Profession as India Modernizes“. It was a story about a gentleman who used to be employed as a free-lance letter writer. As you can imagine as literacy improves, cell phones become ubiquitous and email and txt msg is more prevalent his chosen work is shrinking. I am hoping I can find someone like this who will either a) write a letter home for me or b) allow me to write some letters for his customers.

A few years ago I ran into the web site “Big Dead Place” and it reignited my fascination with Antarctica. I have read a lot of the first hand accounts of early explorers. Reading how people cope with the challenges given current technology and resources makes for an interesting contrast.

I ran into a mention of the book “Life on the Ice” on the O’Reilly Radar. Since I was Christmas shopping at the time, I decided I needed a copy of the book.

The book is a collection of fairly personal essays about Antarctica. The writing was unusually good. I suppose you really get a chance to compose your thoughts during six months of darkness. There were essays focused on the natural beauty, the human relationships and covered some aspects of the science projects that go on. The comparisons between penguin and human behavior made me laugh out loud at least once.

I would sure like to get a chance to visit there someday. I’m not sure if I have what it takes to winter over, but I would love a nice long visit.

Given my next big trip will be to India, maybe I should pick up “Travelers’ Tales India: True Stories” by the same publisher.