Since the start of 2002, I’ve literally racked up around 30,000 miles traveling all over, including business trips to Russia, Estonia, India and Bhutan. I went to the former Soviet Union for a digital divide policy conference in Moscow last February, and managed a few extra days in St. Petersburg and Tallinn, Estonia, where I got to spend Estonian independence day (and even met the Estonian president and former Lithuanian president Vytautas Landsbergis). After experiencing my first Russian winter, I got to experience the other extreme: an Indian summer, visiting Delhi in May. I went to India for the launch of our new website, Digital Opportunity Channel, which we’re co-producing out of Washington DC and Delhi. As part of my trip to south Asia, I was fortunate enough to be hosted by the UN Development Program’s office in Bhutan for two days. It was a painfully brief trip, but it gave me a taste of the beauty and hospitality of this largely unknown Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas.
Of course, some of you are probably wondering when I’ll publish travel journals for these trips — sorry, but don’t hold your breath. Since these were business trips, they weren’t exactly a typical exotic adventure, and I didn’t have much time to journal. At least I hope to publish photojournals at some point in the near future.