Thursday, September 18, 2008

INDIA!

We made it ... 14 hour flight from Newark wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We left Asheville around 5:30pm on Wednesday and arrived in New Dehli at 8:30pm on Thursday.

Tomorrow, we will be picked up at 7:30am and be driven to IBM to meet with the Director of Education for the country and then on to Indira Gandhi National Open University- IGNOU - for another meeting before flying out to Agra for the weekend.

Highlight of the flight for me ... GPS tracking of the plane all the way so we could see exactly where we were the entire time. I took a picture of the screen in front of me but it is pretty blurry. You get the idea though - we heade NE out of Neward towards Greenland and then across towards Moscow and down through Afghanistan and Pakistan into India.



Second highlight for me on the flight ... viewing the mountain range between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Not the northern Hindu Kush region we all know so much about thanks to Al Qaeda taking refuge there but impressive none-the-less.

14 comments:

tjd said...

Wow! 14 hours is too long. The GPS tracking screen is really neat too. Who are you there with anyway?

Anonymous said...

Hopefully there were some good movies to pass the time on your long flight. Maybe one worthy of being a 3rd highlight? Good Luck!

Daniel said...

Glad the flight over the hump was mostly uneventful. Nice shot of the Hindu Kush.

Deja said...

On one of my previous flights we also had a GPS depiction of our plane moving across the US. I thought it was really cool...helps answer that question of 'are we there yet'. Great picture of the mtns. I dont believe I've seen such a good picture taken from an airplane window like that! Keep 'em coming.

Anonymous said...

They would have to tranqulize me to endure a 14 hour plane trip. Your photo of the mountains reminds me of the book I'm reading about the crash of a plane in the Andes carrying a rugby team that had to cannablize each other to stay alive. Remember: don't drink the water - they still have the plague over there!

avlclimber said...

Whoa! The most surprising thing here is I never imagined going (counterclockwise?) ...east to get to the Far East. I would have assumed you fly west to go east.

just another example of things in the world not being quite where you imagine them to be. Good thing we've got maps.

However, this doesn't explain why the East coast doesn't have better Indian food.

--Nathan Z

Beth said...

Ok, very cool picture of the mountain range. Glad you made it into India ok and I hope you have an awesome time there. Was the GPS tracking pretty close to real time? Probably not real time but I bet it was fairly close to it.

Sean said...

Wow. Great airplane window picture of the mountains. I've taken an 8-hour flight before (Atlanta-Anchorage), but never one that was 14 hours.
My sister took a flight with the onboard GPS once...said it was awesome.
Have a good time in India. Nothing like experiencing other cultures.

Dakota said...

I agree with Paul, bring on the tranquilizer (i.e. party liquors).

The GPS on the plane is pretty cool. I just got to use a GPS for the first time the other day in my friend's car. The voice on it was creepy, but it was useful.

Have fun and remember two things: easy on the curry and DO NOT bathe, or drink from the Ganges. oh, and don't kill any cows either!

Tammy B said...

WHEW! 14 hour flight. I think that it is cool that you were able to use your GPS to map your route!

I also love your photo. I would have been glued to the window myself!

Hope you are great!

margy said...

14 hours for such a distance...what type was the airplane? The Afganistan border picture is impressive. Now I see what we are looking for and why so long...

EvanHimself said...

It's neat to see your flight path displayed like that.

Unknown said...

I would stick with the aerial view. They aren't as impressive from the ground. If you get a chance to venture that way, I can hook you up with some great places to eat and see.

Cyndy said...

Who would think that you would fly towards Greenland to get to India? Awesome mountain ranges. The less attractive city pix remind me of Ixtapalapa, the town of Raflatac's production facility 60 or so miles south of Mexico City. Big eye opener for me to see for myself the living conditions of some folks on our planet. We are SO lucky...

Travel safe! Hope they presented you with a lovely lei at your arrival :)

Cyndy