The Flight to Delhi

Feb 6 at 4:00 pm we took the shuttle to the airport, met the organizers and packed our team shirts and work gloves. With some minor adjustments, we were assigned seats 41E and 41F on the 777 aircraft.

We cleared customs and met more of our team members inside. We visited Duty Free in hopes of getting some wine for India but there was none available. 22 of us went to the restaurant for supper. One of the team members' company picked up the tab for all of us.

9:33 pm our plane departed Newark - 9 seats across. Newark to Delhi is 11,776 km or 7,317 miles with a flight time of 12 hours and 32 minutes.

10:30 - we travelled up the eastern seaboard of the USA and passed over Fredericton NB

11:25 - We crossed over the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland somewhere between Port Saunders and Flowers Cove (as best I can tell).

3:30 am - we are between Oslo and Lillehammer, Norway and we pass south of Helsinki Finland.

5:30 am - we pass south of Pakov, South of Kaluga, South of Tula and north of Kharkov (all in Russia)

6:40 am - we pass just south of Astrachan on the Caspian Sea. The temperature is -79 C outside. We are travelling at 579 Kph and have gone 11,125 miles. We have 3 hours and 33 minutes left to reach Delhi.

When we first took off, there was mild turbulance. We were not out far when the flight attendant told us to stay seated and that the "moderate" turbulance would last for a little while - it lasted just over on hour and was like driving over a rough gravel road.

We were served 3 meals during the flight including a chicken or vegetarain meal that was quite tasty. Around 5:30 am, they came around with a very reasonable snack plus drinks.

9:00 am - travelled over Afghanastan - mountains cover the entire area. It is now dark here. As we flew, we could see lights from a small village but nothing else for miles. The land is very rugged looking. We passed just north of Mashad, Kabul is to the north as is Peshawar. Karachi is well south on the sea.

7:33 pm local time - we are 1 hour and 21 minutes from Delhi travelling at 1024 kph (111 mph). The temperature outside is -24C and we have a tailwind of 65 mph.

10:40 am - we are on our decent into Delhi - lots of lights.

9:15 pm Delhi time we arrive at Indira Gandhi International Airport. It is 57F.

We collected our luggage and gathered in the airport where we were presented with a lei. We boarded buses and headed for Sanjiv's weekend home.

Noticed - military were everywhere in the airport with uzzi's hung over their shoulders. Outside as we boarded the buses, there was a concrete bunker with sandbags and a guard inside with a large machine gun trained on the airport entrance.

As we drove through Delhi, I noticed what appeared to be many small shops or garages. The area seems to be very poor. There were numerous small fires along the road with men standing around them trying to keep warm.

As we drove along, I noticed several large multi-national office buildings for Alcatel, Erikkson etc.

At Sanjiv's home were were met by he and his wife. We had a curry supper and departed for our hotel - Suryansh Hotel, Sohna Road, Guygoan. It was very very very cold. Slept in a t-shirt, sweater and socks.