Dinesh

Day 5 Today was supposed to be the last day of our official tour, but I had other plans. I decided to stay back for one more day to explore the local areas. Fortunately, one of my colleagues from the cohort also had the same idea, and she knew a local who had helped us. After breakfast, we left the hotel and took public transport to the meeting location. Some key persons we met during the trip attended this final meeting. We were joined by representatives from the Ministry, and together we provided feedback on the agenda we had been following throughout the tour and suggested a few action items. Honestly, I’m not sure how many of those will be implemented, but we don’t have much say in that. The official tour concluded with a networking lunch, and we were free for the rest of the day. The group decided to return to the hotel for a quick siesta and then visit the market area in the evening. Berlin, the capital, was undergoing numerous construction projects, and we saw "work in prog

We packed our things and set off for Berlin, the capital, via a private bus, as covering the ~200 km distance by public transport would have been difficult. One curious thing we noticed as we began the journey was that the driver insisted everyone wear seat belts—it was mandatory. I found it uncomfortable sitting in a two-seater with a seatbelt on and felt a bit suffocated. So, midway through the journey, I moved to the back seat, even though it was technically against traffic regulations! You won’t believe this, but during my entire week of traveling across the country, I heard a car horn only twice. The first time was on this long road trip, and even then, it was a mild sound, and the second was in a Berlin market area. The trip taught us many valuable lessons. For instance, everyone strictly followed lane discipline. There was a ~25 km traffic jam on the national highway due to heavy truck traffic, but none of the vehicles, including our bus, moved into the car lane, even though it