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An Idiot Abroad
As part of my job as an Automation Project Engineer I get to travel all over the world to some weird and wonderful places. Since I work in manufacturing and not finance or retail, my visits are usually not to capital cities or tourist destinations but to places that you might call "out in the sticks", places that no one has ever heard of. All this makes my travels interesting and generally enjoyable. Take the picture above as an example, that bridge is over an inlet to Jinji Lake in Suzhou, China. I had never heard of Suzhou but its twice the size of Birmingham. Below is a Google Earth Interactive Map detailing some of the more interesting places I have visited so far. (This map requires the Google Earth Plugin)
The map contains icons for each trip indicating : As a guide, the trips included on the map are as follows :
The best trip I have ever done aboard and probably my favourite country so far. This was to a sanitaryware factory (toilets to you and me) outside Kuala Lumpur. I was there initially for two weeks but this soon turned into three weeks when the client rush forward phase 2 of the project so that I could complete it in the one trip. I wasn't too fussed to be honest, the hotel and factory were both nice but I just felt bad about leaving Jeanette and Archie for longer.
As for my time outside work, I couldn't grumble. The hotel had two large shopping centres very nearby and we had TGI Fridays just round the corner so we had good food and football on the telly. The city centre, with the Petronas Twin Towers was only a 20 minute taxi trip away as was Petaling Street which is a huge indoor market selling just about everything. These are shown in the photeos to the left and below.
The factory was a 50 minute drive out into the countryside which was interesting to say the least. A bit of city driving then a bit of motorway and then some mad local roads up to the factory. It was on these last roads that we saw troops of monkeys pretty much every day.
The factory was in a small town called Batang Berjuntai which was a nice simple little town where we popped out to for lunch every day. One thing we found was that you could buy anything from there. Pick an obscure item and I bet there is a crazy little "Open All Hours" type of shop selling it somewhere on the high street.
The local 7-Eleven was frequented a lot as they sold 'Kickpoo' which I quickly became addicted to. It was nice to have a cold Kickapoo after lunch and on the way home.
This trip was to a dairy company in the desert outside Kuwait City on the road to Basrah. I had a few little trepidations about this trip for obvious reasons but all were completely unfounded. I thoroughly enjoyed this trip.
The only downside was the fact that the hotel was about a mile from the end of the runway of Kuwait International Airport - right under the flight path. I had suite which was nice, it comprised a lounge, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. There was a Boots and a Debenhams just down the road so shopping wasn't a problem.
The photo below shows the small factory shop to the left of the main gate. We were told by the owner of the dairy that we could have whatever we wanted free of charge. So we had free ice cream and Pepsi every night while we were waiting for the car to take us back to the hotel.
The factory had an old Royal Mail post box outside that was painted blue. Odd, but I wasn't expecting that.
I was really looking forward to this trip as it meant I would have chance to call in and visit an old friend in Chicago. The job was to spend a week in Kohler, Wisconsin helping to commission five dryers for sanitaryware.
We stayed in a small town called Sheboygan Falls, proper "small town America" type place. Our hotel was called the Rochester Inn and is apparently the oldest building in town. It was very nice with each of the rooms split over two floors, a lounge area downstairs and a bedroom upstairs. during the second part of the week there was a national classic car event on nearby and the hotel was prebooked so we had to move to the owners second hotel which was a bit out of town.
This was called the Stoney Creek Guesthouse. Wow. I wish we were there for the whole week. It was so cool. We basically had the whole house to ourselves as it was more of a holiday home really. It was so relaxing sitting out on the porch in a rocking chair with a cold beer each evening. If you are ever in the area, this is the place to stay.
On the way home I called at my friends house in
Chicago. It would be rude not to as I was passing less than
five miles from his house on the way to the airport. After a
day catching up it was time to get the taxi he had booked me
to the airport. Little did I know he had only booked me a
stretch limo which was so cool. I felt like a rock star
that?". For those of you who think this is just a limo I snapped at the airport, I have included the internal shot.
Whooh !!! Now I know how the Christmas turkey feels. Over 45C outside. Thank goodness for air conditioning. I was working in a diary installing some equipment on yoghurt filling lines so it was nice and cool during the day but as soon as we stepped outside it was like stepping into an oven.
The accommodation was on the factory in the visitors block as shown above. The site is the largest dairy production plant in the world and the company has 78,000 dairy cows in five farms dotted around the plant. All 120km outside Riyadh in the desert. All 3,000+ workers also live on the site and have all the amenities you need - gym, football pitches, basketball courts, supermarket, mosque, swimming pool and even an internet cafe. The whole place is a town in its own right.
Another sanitaryware factory this time in the south of China very near to Hong Kong. Foshan is part of the Guangzhou metropolitan area and is a very modern city. I was there for 2 weeks and it was probably my most enjoyable of my trips to China. This time the factory was a good 90 minute drive out into the countryside and this gave me a much better idea of the real China. Previous trips were purely in the hustle and bustle of the city. The hotel was great and I even found a bar that was showing the World Cup and served all manner of non-chinese food, including Chicken Tikka Massala and Nan bread.
At last another descent trip to a descent place with some time for myself. Damned if I can find the photos though. Oh well, I was staying in Grezzana half way between Verona and Lake Garda. I've been to worse places. I was working there over another of Italys many public holidays. This meant I had some time to myself so I went to both Garda and Verona. Garda was charming but full of British pensioners on coach holidays. Verona was equally nice and classically Italian. However this time the pensioner were replaced by groups of school children. That's the problem with touristy places which is why I prefer to go and work in the more out of the way places.
Another quick in and quick out trip. This time to to the beautiful city of Milan. Well, I understand it's beautiful, never seen it myself. I was picked up at the airport and taken to the factory where I fixed the control panel. I was then dropped off at the hotel. I went next door for something to eat then back to the hotel for some sleep. Then I was picked up the next morning and taken to the airport. This foreign travel is so jet set at times.
Most definitely the poorest place I have been to. I thought the people in China or Morocco were poor but the people here had nothing but the clothes they wore. This trip was a real eye opener for me.
The factory, complete with its bendy tree, was a hot dusty place made even worse by the fact that I was again working on a large tunnel kiln. The engineers on site were again a keen bunch. Manjula (my left) and Akash (my right) were particularly helpful.
The accommodation was basic to say the least. We stayed on the factory site in an apartment block reserved for visitors. This suited us fine as the factory was at least a two hour drive away from the hotels of Dhaka itself.
I didn't really see much of Dhaka itself as we stayed on the factory. The only parts we saw were on the drive from and back to the airport which meant driving pretty much through the city centre. I got a few quick snaps but really wished I had taken more.
Another site visit trip to talk about an upcoming job. We didn't see much of Oostende as it was only a two day trip but I can certainly say we had a fun evening with all that Belgian beer. BBQ ribs in "Den Artiste" followed by a few beers in "The Bottle Bar" and a few night caps in the hotel. How we were ever in a state to do some work the following morning is anybody's guess. Oh and our car was strip searched as we arrived to catch the Eurostar train at Calais on the way back. Just because we were in a blacked out 4x4 they assume we are up to no good. At least they didn't find the Albanian strapped to the rear axel.
Suzhou is huge. Much bigger than I was expecting and technically its only a suburb of Shanghai. This trip lasted nearly five weeks and involved the commissioning of two fully automated tunnel kilns. Each one 60m long.
I was in Suzhou over the Chinese New Year and this meant that the whole city was gearing up for the festivities.
My hotel was situated on the shores of Jinji Lake the area of which is probably a couple of square miles. The lake side is covered in parks and small shopping areas all of which were illuminated at night in spectacular fashion.
I had to take a picture of a sculpture I found in the park by the lake. We passed it each morning on the way to work and each time it made me laugh. Only in China.
My hotel room was actually a serviced apartment attached to a hotel. I had a fully equipped kitchen, lounge with flat screen TV, bathroom, hallway etc.
We found a bar in Suzhou called "The Blue Marlin". It was sort of a western style bar that did European bar food. I must say that they did probably the best bacon buttie I have ever had. That was a big surprise.
This was another last minute breakdown. Shame its was half way round the world. We stayed in a small B&B which was really nice as we got to have home made meals, watch the rugby on the owners 50" plasma TV and sit outside with a beer.
This was one of the few trips where I actually got a day off and we went into Cape Town itself to see the sights.
I think this was the coldest I have ever been in my life. Central Germany in the middle of winter is not somewhere I will be rushing back to. I don't think it helped that the kiln I was commissioning was next to a loading bay that was constantly open. The trip was particularly memorable for the Italian restaurant that we ate in quite a lot. It was run by Indians and they did a Chicken Tikka pizza and curry meatballs with linguine (?). Sounds wrong but it was so nice. Never seen that before or since.
Another quick trip to fix a breakdown. Seven days this time to fix and recommission two sanitaryware dryers.
The hotel was nicer than I expected. We each had a detached chalet type room consisting of bedroom, lounge and bathroom. All air conditioned as well.
All was going well until I had my shoes stolen while at the factory. That annoyed me more than if I had my laptop stolen. The thought that someone was running around in my Merrill trainers really bugged me and I had to fly home in my safety boots !!
The photograph to the right is of Casablanca as we took off. I may go back one day and I hope I won't regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow.
Ooooh, now this was a fun trip. Marina Di Massa is a little town on the Tuscany coast just north of Pisa. I was there for two weeks commissioning a furnace and it was just like going on holiday to the seaside. Marina Di Massa is the place all the Italians go on holiday, its a bit like their Bournemouth really.
The weather was gorgeous as can be seen from this picture taken from the pier in Marina Di Massa.
The hotel had a dubious name but I don't remember seeing any Australians waltzing about. As can be expected in Italy, the food was amazing. Even when we kept it simple and had a pizza for example, it was fantastic. They don't do them like that at Pizza Hut.
While we were there the middle weekend was a national holiday and the factory was closed so we drove down to Pisa for the day. Here's me by one of the bells on top of the Leaning Tower. Its a testament to the engineers back in the day to see that tower still standing with such a lean. It really is a medieval marvel. Too many tourists though. But then again I suppose I was one of them.
This was a quick parachute-in-and-fix-it job. I was on site for 3 days at a concrete products plant. They made paving slabs and curb stones. The problem was found to be a faulty PLC module which need replacing but while I was there the customer also wanted a few modifications doing as they were already paying for my time. I didn't manage to see anything or get any good photographs, sorry.
My first trip to mainland China was a daunting affair as I was going on my own. Again it was the prospect of food that worried me the most. In most countries you can deduce what a menu contains as they tend to use a western alphabet. Not in China. You cant even begin to try and pronounce a word let alone know what it means. My worries were unfounded as I had a nice guy call Liu who looked after me and took me out each night to see the sights. I was there for two weeks, this time installing a monitoring system onto a kiln firing sanitaryware.
I was surprised that the locals put on a series of firework displays the evening I arrived. I never did find out what it was all about but I will pretend it was for me anyway.
The hotel was quite a modern one, the TEDA Central Hotel. It boasted 5* accommodation, a revolving restaurant on top and a floral elephant out front.
The factory was just the same as one over in the UK really except that there was a large amount of extra staff. Where there would be one person here there is five over there.
I was in Malaysia to convert a very large, very old tunnel kiln from oil fired to gas fired. This was my first trip to a proper "out in the sticks" environment.
The lads in the kiln office were a great bunch, really eager to learn and ready to help if I needed it.
The Hotel Anika was OK but nothing to write home about. I'd stay there again.
Believe it or not this shack was our daily lunch venue. The general rule was to eat it and not ask. I'm still here so whatever it was it can't have been that bad.
To the right is the view over Kluang from my hotel room.
Eight weeks in the sun, just a few miles from Niagara Falls. Hard life sometimes when you work away. We were installing a set of five dryers at a terra cotta manufacturer in up-state New York at a little town called Hamburg near Buffalo. It was at this time that I was introduced to "Bar Bill" in East Aroura. The best Buffalo Chicken Wings you will ever find. They were so good that I took Jeanette there seven years later.
Three days talking about an major upcoming job for a German company that was being done in the UK. Not much time to see anything but a good chance to test my German. Nicht gut.
Not only my first job overseas but also my first ever trip abroad requiring the procurement of my first passport. Most people nip to Spain or France for their first foreign adventure but not me, Boeing 747 to Johannesburg. Three weeks recommissioning a tunnel kiln we moved out there from the UK. Fun trip made all the more interesting after BA sent my suitcase to Rome instead of Johannesburg.
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Copyright 2006-2013 P&J Platt. All rights reserved. |
The
hotel where I
stayed.
The site where I
worked.
getting out at the airport with everyone looking,
wondering "who's
