Day 2 (6 March 2017) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Since the meeting starts around noon, I woke up late, and mate my colleagues around 1030am. We headed to the meeting place, which is close to SDU airport. By the way, we quickly found out that Uber is the cheaper taxi service, and we ended up using it effectively. We had lunch at the SDU terminal (very nice buffet lunch) before we convene at the meeting hall. At the end of our meeting, we went back to our hotel. After a little while, we both get hungry and would like to eat, went out for dinner at Manoel & Juaquim Bare Botequium restaurant, which is located at CopaCabana beach. The food was very delicious.

The restaurant where we had dinner!

Typical Rio public transport!

Day 1 (5 March 2017) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Glad to be back to Brazil for the third time. After 16hrs total flight and layover time, just landed at Sao Paulo international airport. Immigration checkpoints are so smooth and fast. I then had to find the domestic transfer terminal, which is a bit unusual to me. I had to get out the airport to catch the shuttle to the other terminal. Finally, here I'm waiting to my flight to Rio De Janeiro where I'll be hiding for the next one week.
Landed safely at the SDU, which is named after the first Brazilian (Alberto Santos Dumont) who fly airplane. Then I tried to follow the advices given by my two friends. The first advice was ‘pay inside before you exit the terminal’ and the second one was ‘take the yellow cap’. I tried to accommodate both advices, and I paid at the taxi booth located inside before I left the terminal, and the lady gave me a receipts (one for me and one for the driver) and told me to take any taxi. However, when I exited I found out that I can not take yellow cap with the ticket that I have, instead a regular black SUV driver was telling me that the ticket is valid for him and offered me to jump in, but I refused to get in and the driver and I went back the terminal to confirm with the lady at the taxi booth. Finally, yes it was the a spacial taxi and it was ok to take, which I took it to my hotel. Since some of the roads were closed due to the ongoing Carnaval party, the driver had to take other route to my hotel, Cesar Park hotel located at Ipanema beach. After I settled at my hotel, I met my colleagues from Washington around 6:40pm and went out for dinner together. Finally, crashed to bed like a baby to catchup my missing sleeping time.

Ipanema beach taken from my hotel

This one of his many statue located at Brazilian Air Force base

Finally, I would like to say a few words about this Brazilian hero, Alberto Santos Dumont or simply known as Santos-Dumont. He is one of the very few people who contributed significantly to the development of both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air aircraft. He dedicated himself to aeronautical study and experimentation in Paris, where he spent most of his adult life. In his early career he designed, built, and flew hot air balloons, and won the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize on 19 October 1901 for his flight that rounded the Eiffel Tower. He then turned to heavier-than-air machines, and on 23 October 1906 his 14-bis made the first powered heavier-than-air flight in Europe and got certified by the Aéro Club de France and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Santos-Dumont, who was was member of a wealthy family of coffee producers, is a national hero in Brazil, where it is popularly held that he preceded the Wright brothers in demonstrating a practical airplane. Countless roads, plazas, schools, monuments, and airports in Brazil are dedicated to him, and his name is inscribed on the Tancredo Neves Pantheon of the Fatherland and Freedom. He was a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1931 until his suicide in 1932.

Day 5 (17 November 2016) in Sangli, India

Today is my last day in Sangali. It is also school closing day, which is scheduled to have a fancy closing ceremony. The school participant students was prepared by professional dresser for closing ceremony.

A pause with some of the dressed up students!

The students were dressed up at the lobby of our hotel, and I tried to get myself done and took the hot seat; however, I was dragged away saying this is only for student not for the VIP. Then the lecturers were driven to a special place (I think it was the office for local government official), and they dressed us up beautifully.

  Don't I look like Indian??

If you're wondering how this head scarf can be designed, here is a professional designer who did everybody!

 VIPs for the closing ceremony! 

Some of the School attendee students from different countries around the world!

Fancy closing ceremony of the school!

After attending the closing ceremony for a few minutes, we hit the road back to Mumbai to catch my flight back home. Although it is a bit uncomfortable to reach Sangli, in my view the school was well organized and very successful. It was a memorable trip for me. Sangli is known with its rich sugarcane and Turmeric spice.  

Typical public transport city bus!

These cows reminds me my childhood life!

Day 4 (16 November 2016) in Sangli, India

Nothing new in the morning. Went to conference room and and work on my NASA LWS proposal which is due on Friday (18 Nov). The school ends early for the day. We went to our hotel and locked in my room and work on my proposal before I joined Keith for beer before we head back to the cultural dance evening program.

The evening dance program kicked off at 7:30pm, which was absolutely stunning. In addition to the professional dancers who mostly controlled the stage, some of summer school student participant also performed on the stage; some of the perform dancing and others sing a song. Especially, the only contingent from Egypt represented international school student participants and performed a stunning song in Arabic and received warm applause from the audience.

Some of the performance pauses! 

 One of the school participant, she is smart scientist but also stunning dancer! 

What do you do when you watch such magnificent dancers, except attentively enjoying the act with 150% full attention! 

More pictures of the audience who are also enjoying the performance!

Day 3 (15 November 2016) in Sangli, India

Had excellent sleep and and woke up fresh. After Breakfast I headed to the conference center and stayed at work until lunch. My colleagues, Keith, and I decided to go for shopping  (unspecified shopping), and we asked Gope our Indian colleagues to accompany us and he gladly joined us. One of the local conference organizers drove is to one of the mall, though we did not find that attracts us to buy. We then went to another shop, this time by Bajaj (as the Ethiopians calls it). Before we enter that shopping center, our backpack had to be sealed, and a security guy sealed each zippers shown on our backpack. The purpose is straight forward, i.e., not to pick any items and put it in your backpack.
We're not lucky enough to find anything attractive in this shopping center either. Finally, we decided to go back to our hotel, this time by foot. It was not that far and we walked through the village, by trusting Gope's GPS navigation. We arrived at our hotel without any issue.

Sugarcane transportation!

These typical appearance of Sangli streets!

Guess what, when we got back to our hotel after nearly 2miles walk, our dream was to have a cold beer and relaxed until dinner time. However, the hotel does not have a bar at all. Well most hotel in Sangali do not serve any alcohol. Thus, we had to walk back to one of the really found liquor shop to get beer to our room. Finally, we got what we wanted.

This is the beer you may like to enjoy whenever you visit India!

Day 2 (14 November 2016) in Sangli, India

I had a good sleep, no jetlag at all. After having breakfast, we were driven to the conference room, which inside the campus of the Smt Kasturbai Watchand College. We spent the whole day. My lecture was in the afternoon, which actually went out successful.

This how the Karitika Poornima festival celebrated!

At the end we came to our hotel. Later I picked up by a college faculty member and took me to the festival, know as Karitika Pornima (Kartika Purnima). It is a Hindu and Jain holy festival, celebrated on the Purnima (full moon) day or the fifteenth lunar day of Kartika (November-December). It is also known as Tripuri Poornima and Tripurari Poornima. On that day people went to the nearby river shore and light a candle, put it on aluminum paper (traditionally it was on the banana leaf) and make a wish and place the candle on the river. I was also asked to place one on the river, but did not make any wishes. It was a great experience for me to see such colorful festival.

I also tried my wish and placed a light on the river with one of my colleague! 

Day 1 (13 November 2016) in Mumbai, India

I'm back to India (my third visit to this country in 10 years). This time to the western part of India. My first stop is in Mumbai where I spend a night at Bawa International hotel, which is located in the vicinity of the Mumbai international airport. This is just a transit one night stay to my destination called Sangali. I'm heading there to take part at the ISWI summer school as an invited lecturer. The school kicked off last Monday, a day before the Americans surprised the world by electing a controversial president. However, my part at the school starts this week and that is why I came a week later. 

Beautiful Sunset on our way to Sangali!

Just arrived at Sangali after more than 7hr on the road. Not an.easy drive, but thanks God we made it. The good thing is we were connected throughout the journey because the car has WiFi. 

This is one of many clubs in India (a leftover British heritage) where we're welcomed for dinner!

We have been awaited by other lecturers, who came from different countries, for dinner at one of the fancy club center, "the Officers club". we had a wonderful time and dinner. Finally, we were driven to our hotel "ICON" hotel. Tomorrow we will start our official mission at ISWI school.