init

Writing about my journey through India starts two weeks after it started. This has two main reasons. First I had to breath in before breathing out and second I was traveling with two friends ( +Falko Richter  and +Andreas Krienke ) in the beginning and had not much alone-time to write that way.

the check-in

I was flying via Moscow, my friends took the route over London. The route just looked more direct to me ( when flying Berlin to London to Delhi you basically fly back over Berlin after the stop in London) Also I wanted to have a look at the airport that Edward Snowden was trapped for some time.
The journey already had a nice start for me when noticing that I have a bus very close to my home that directly drives to the airport. I used the night to make some last minute changes to +Project Voyager UAS  This also prevented me from oversleeping my early flight. I rent out my room over the time I am not there. My bed was already gone this night so I made the last solder joints in the kitchen.

from the plane over Russia - still a cold place like Germany

My bag was checked before check in by the federal police - project voyager always stands out when my bag is x-rayed. This time I was able to unpack and explain it - last time this process happened without me and I just found a paper in the housing of project voyager taking me that it was checked by the police and seem to be harmless :-)

USB charging and Ethernet on the Seat

The police-lady picked up my explanations faster than expected and that way I had some time left to meet a nice SPS coder who was going to work in remote and really cold place. He works on serious and dangerous machines like presses with a lot of power. Interesting to see that they do not use automated testing or even simulation. He was saying that he always operates in close proximity to the machines as he needs his senses like his ears there.
The plane had a USB and one Ethernet port on the seat - too bad I had no Ethernet cable with me to explore the options here.

public charging and iPad station

The Moscow airport is really big and has free WiFi in contrast to the Berlin one. Even charging stations and public iPads are available. I could really see why Edward Snowden picked this one :-)
But this airport has also the downside of modern technology - for example there was a naked-scanner which is highly discussed in Germany - I was not forced to go through it as I was just on transit, but I was able to see this thing in action for the first time. But I just made a photo of an inactive one as making photos of security-related stuff is often not allowed and I did not want to get in trouble here.

the naked scanner

In the plane from Moscow to Delhi I was sitting next to a very nice Indian guy who really scared me when he was mentioning that it still is winter in India when I was telling him that I am fleeing from the winter in Germany. But if this is winter what I experience here then I am totally fine with it :-)
He was working in Holland - repairing 2g equipment. He was on his way to his family.


When arriving in India it was very early in the morning. I was leaving the airport as quick as possible as I thought you do not get good deals on money exchange and transportation inside.

backside of the paperwork when entering India

But this was a mistake. Once you are out you can only enter again with a valid ticked which I did not have. Outside the was nothing but taxis and some armed forces. I was a bit lost and not really happy with the situation. Then I found a driver which I could pay with my Euros and was driving to the place where my friends where staying. I asked at the reception for my friends - they only spoke a little english and passed me a phone - I thought there is somebody with more english skills at the other end, but it was my friend they just called. I arrived like one hour after them and they where kind of sleeping. But getting bumped out of sleep seems to be common in India ;-) This place was organized by the family of the bride from the wedding we where invited to. Starting the trip with this wedding was really nice as it directly brought us out of the tourist track into the real India.
As a last fun-thing for this post here are some malfunctioning windows terminals in the Moscow airport: