Transfer day to Calcutta; leaving Delhi behind us
William in Indiareis 2018 2018-05-03 04:45, laatste update 2020-09-30 13:00
This morning we arrived at 8:50 in the hotel lobby in New Delhi, with our suitcases already packed and left at the rooms for our transfer to Calcutta later on the afternoon. With everyone but Stefan - who felt too ill to join us unfortunately :'( - ready we walked towards the Ramakrishna metro station where we forced ourselves into the busy metro only to change lines at the next station on our way towards the Indian Institute of Technology of Delhi.
We got out at Haus Kahz station and found ourselves walking through the burning Delhi sun on the slightly improvised sidewalk of one of the many busy streets. Seeing construction work being done on the pavements by people in regular clothes was quite an experience. After continuous sweating during the little wait at the security station - what coincided with our first moment of contact with Indian eduroam - we were guided into IIT where we were showed around the clean rooms of the Nano Structures Facility and were given a look at some of their research subjects such as fuel cells or scanning probe microscopy.
After we surprised the head of the facility at the end of the visit by describing our way of transportation (I don't know wether he was shocked by us walking in general, or with us walking in this weather), we received a guided exit towards the metro station by a scientific staff member (who then had to walk all the way back to IIT again).
Back at the hotel I did not only find Stefan still (or hopefully again) sitting on the toilet, but we also quickly gathered our suitcases and hopped into our shuttle buses to conquer Delhi traffic one last time towards the airport. After check-in I went for a quick meal at McDonald's (I myself had a MacMajahara Veg, which is the Hinduism approved version of the Big Mac basically, with a corn and cheese based burger) before heading to the boarding gate. Luckily Peter got some precious time photographing planes before all out of nowhere a dusty fog covered the airport, luckily not affecting our flight's departure time.
After a bumpy ride the plane touched down in Calcutta, the second destination of this study trip. At the airport, government vans (yes, really) were waiting to take us to our hotel. After checking in, our hopes of being able to quickly fall asleep were somewhat crushed by the slightly unpleasant state of the rooms (I will spare you the pictures). So Stefan and I decided it was time to take out the mosquito net and duct tape for the first time this trip to give ourselves a slightly better feeling for the upcoming night. I guess it worked as Stefan, who luckily feels better, is sleeping already as I'm typing this. I can't blame him, for the first time this trip I feel quite tired as we and can't wait to get some sleep on this uncomfortably hard bed.
Cheerios,
Willie
