Physics in Exotic Places

This post is about two recent visits I made to academic campuses in places somewhat exotic.

Malta

Malta is an archipelago of five islands in the center of the Mediterranean (somehow islands tend to feature prominently in my academic travels: Iceland, Japan, Crete, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia...). It is to the south of Italy and an hour and a half flight from Rome.

Malta is very densely populated, a fact that becomes evident as soon as the taxi drives you out of the airport area. I found the number of cars per unit surface area to be quite remarkable. Generally it was easy to get around; everybody follows English; the other official language - Maltese - is descended from Arabic.

Of course, the beaches and shoreline are spectacular. I gave a talk at the University of Malta and had time only to visit the capital Valetta. Malta has a long and rich political, cultural and economic history because of its central location in the Mediterranean (it was coveted by the Ottoman Turks as a launching pad for their invasions of Europe; the knights of the Order of St. John repulsed a massive Turkish attack in 1565 and were awarded the island by the Roman emperor in exchange for the yearly tribute of a Maltese Falcon; some may remember the book by Dashiel Hammett and the follow-up movie based on the falcon). Valletta is named after Jean Parisot de la Valette, who was a Grand Master of the Order.

In modern times, I saw influences from Italy, Greece, Lebanon, England, Turkey, Egypt, and India (at least). The streets of Valetta, undulating at steep angles, make for great tourism. There are historical buildings, markets and restaurants at every step: tourism is one of the money-makers for Malta.

The classical art collections in the museums and churches have some amazing Caravaggios (the big name in Maltese painting is Mattia Preti); I loved the title of the modern art museum ('Malta's National Centre for Creativity'); I ran into houses where Coleridge and Joseph Conrad stayed; unfortunately the historic Teatru Manoel was closed when I passed by it.

Probably the most spectacular sight I came across was the immense armoury in the royal palace museum. Every conceivable weapon of war and defense is displayed there (cannons and cannonballs, cuirasses with bullet marks on the armour plates, shields, daggers, swords, helmets, crossbows, you get the idea).

I would love to go back and visit the other inhabited islands: Gozo has prehistoric remains (Ggantija Temples) and Comino has the Blue Lagoon. Also, it would be great to taste again the local fish soup (aljotta) and the mahi-mahi entree (lampuki).

Mandi

The Indian Institute of Technology at Mandi sits nestled between high hills in the state of Himachal Pradesh (HP) in India. I went by car from Delhi, a journey which takes about 10 hours if - and there's the rub - the weather is good. When I went (August) is actually not a good time to go, as it is the rainy season, when there are floods and landslides. The road is flat until one meets the border of HP riding out of the state of Punjab. And that is when the adventure starts.

5 tunnels have to be crossed along the way to Mandi - roads have been blasted through the mountains to make the journey shorter. Two of the tunnels were long and dark enough that I had to breathe systematically to control my claustrophobia. In between, there are spectacular views of mountains, water, and picture-postcard villages on perched on hill slopes.

The incline is not arduous until one reaches the town of Mandi. For 15 kilometers after that there is a steep hair-raising climb along a narrow and winding road. Going up, you stay on the left side of the ride, with a deep crevasse only a couple of meters away. My driver was cautious and drove at a moderate speed. But the downhill traffic in the opposite direction, it seemed to me, was driving in hell-for-leather fashion. Maybe they were used to the drive. Things got particularly critical when large buses would come the other way and we had to move over (closer to the drop!) and stop until they passed.

Topping the mountain, we climbed down a bit (this was more tolerable as the hill was now on our left and we were the downhill traffic) to reach the Institute campus. Actually there are two nearby campuses, one mainly for the undergrads and faculty residences (North campus), and the other for the graduate students (South campus). It had not rained during our journey, but it started as soon as we reached. This was not good news (one of the local sayings, we learnt, was that if it is raining you should stay home).

The campuses are undoubtedly beautiful, surrounded by spectacular mountain landscape, waterfalls at unexpected turns, a big stream flowing through the gorge nearby, wispy clouds resting on the hill slopes. The place felt like a resort. In fact the next stop on the highway is the famous tourist town of Manali.

I stayed in the guest house in the North campus. My talk the next day was in the South campus, but a rain-induced landslide delayed my 15 minute hop next morning by 2 hours. Finally, the bulldozers came and cleared the road so my host could drive me over. I learnt that some shops outside the campus kept 2 months of groceries in store, in anticipation of road blockages.

On the way back to Delhi we saw rocks from the landslides blocking the opposite lane in several places. Huge nets, nailed into the hillsides were being used to hold back the mountains, so to speak, at other points. After I reached Delhi, it came on the news that one of the tunnels had been flooded with rainwater. Later, I learnt there had been more landslides and it had taken some people 24 hours to drive back from Mandi to Delhi. I guess we got lucky with our timing.