So, a work opportunity came up that I couldn’t miss. I resigned from my post at Baker Hughes and
began anew. My new company works in a
few different countries overseas so my first order of business was to do a bit
of travel to get familiar with our business...
Plymouth, United Kingdom
The first stop was the UK.
I flew from Calgary to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Paris, and then
after meeting up with my bosses we continued from Paris to Exeter. It was a long route, but it was with our
preferred carrier. We took a taxi to
Plymouth and started about our work.
Most of this trip had been filled with work, which makes a great deal of
sense given that it is a work trip, but I was able to see a few sights.
Old Street
Plymouth
The office we visited in Plymouth was small, but the people
there were good, and doing exciting work.
We spent the days there and the nights were spent enjoying fine
meals. We ate alone, and with the team
from the UK, and enjoyed some British meals, and French.
Our hotel was near the Barbican, which was one of the only
segments of Plymouth to survive the German bombings in World War II. It is a pretty amazing area, and though my
only free time was at night I did my best to grab a few photos.
Brick
New Old Buildings
Spire
On the Sea
Under
Looking Out
The Arch
The Gate
Statue
Brick Street
Plymouth Sunset
Sunset
Ships
The Bay
Vines
Flower
Over Wall
Lights
Artillery Platforms
Rooftops
West to East
Island
Along the Water
Old Inn
Barbican Waterfront
Reflections
The Calm of Night
Barbican Night
The Church
Ruins
Stone in the Night
Windowless
In Light
I had a great time with the crew in the UK, and after a few
days it was time to leave. We took the
train to London (on its first day open after having major repairs due to flood
damage), and then a plane to Paris, and then from Paris to Tunis.
Tunis, Tunisia
I didn’t know what to think about Tunisia before I headed
over, but I knew it was in Africa which was a first for me so I was
excited. Some of my colleagues described
Tunisia as a country that just isn’t quite right. There is no way to really put your finger on
it, it just isn’t quite right. After
having been there I think it was an apt description. I was also doing a bit of research for a Grade 3 class that is studying Tunisia this year, so if you hear me mention it that's what's going on.
My first impression was landing in the rain at about
midnight with the temperature being above 20.
That, and the security presence at the airport. It wasn’t too significant but there were bomb
scanner things and temporary fences to corral people away from the exit. The hotel was new and nice, but things did
seem a bit sketchy when I looked outside at the Canadian Embassy (which was
right next door). The embassy was
surrounded by fences and abundant and massive coils of razor wire. Evidently Tunisia was still in a state of
emergency just weeks before my arrival, the emergency was carried over from the
revolution a few years ago. During the
state of emergency the Canadian Embassy also had twenty-four hour armed guards
on site.
Le Corail Hotel
Power Outlet
Don't Drink the Water
Street Outside My Hotel (feat. Canadian Embassy)
But, the people were nice enough, though I really couldn’t
understand a word of what they were saying.
Something about them speaking in only French and Arabic. No matter.
I did try breakfast at the hotel, and let me tell you... Tunisian
breakfast is different than Canadian breakfast.
It is not the first time I have run into this kind of situation, but
yeah, I could identify maybe 40% of the items on the buffet table.
Breakfast in Tunisia
Tunisian Breakfast
We have an office in Tunis, but our main base of operations
is in Soose. I was picked up at the hotel
and then taken out to Soose. Tunisia
looks like Africa. It is green right
now, but evidently it will all be brown very soon. Even in early April the temperature is easily
in the mid twenties, and only getting hotter.
But, spring is advanced compared to back home and the flowers and
everything are out.
The crew at the base in Soose were nice and they showed me
our equipment etc. We went out for lunch
at a local restaurant where I had a seafood pasta with like five different
kinds of seafood. It was rather
impressive. After that some of the guys
took me to a tourist market to try and pick up some souvenirs. I didn’t find too much, but it was
interesting to see, and interesting to see the tourists from Tunisia that came
down for a little R&R.
Gate to Touristy Area
Touristy Area
It turns out that political instability drives prices up and
Tunisia is a prime example of this. The
exchange rate is in our favour, coming from Canada, however your purchasing
power is much diminished in Tunisia.
Things definitely are not cheap, which is sucky for tourism.
On the drive back I got to see a bit more since it was a bit
later in the day. The shepherds were out
with their massive herds, everywhere, as were the people lining the highways
trying to get rides into Tunis. Near Tunis there were some small mountains, and by Soose it is flat. Still, it looks like Africa, and where we use
barbed wire fences to mark our property lines, they use massive walls of cacti;
like, impassible eight foot tall walls of deadly deadly cacti. Epic.
Tunisian Countryside
Africa
Lumpy Mountain
Also epic is that Tatooine from Star Wars is a real
place. It is spelled Tataween by the
locals (and something else in French) but it is just on the edge of the Saharan
desert. The Star Wars movies were filmed
there and the sets are still available to see, if you are brave enough. That also happens to be a rather dangerous
section of the country, including kidnappings etc. The desert is a bit rough right now with
Algeria passing troops and drugs and weapons through the unprotected sands, and
there are special rules. There is no
driving at night, and there are different coloured flags that need to be posted
on vehicles so the Tunisian army can see them from the air. The colour is changed periodically like a
code to make sure that it is Tunisians using the Tunisian desert.
Back in Tunis I was hoping to see the ruins of Carthage, but
I ran out of time. I did explore a bit
around the hotel, which was in one of the newest parts of Tunis. The buildings in Tunis are under
construction. Quite literally about 40%
of the buildings are mid way through construction. Evidently they build until they run out of
money, and then come back again and again until they finish the job. So there were lots of semi-complete buildings
around the hotel. Also, there is garbage
everywhere. Education is limited, and
taking care of your own country seems a bit unheard of. Garbage everywhere. I walked down to Tunis Lake, which is
evidently a lagoon connected to the sea, and the people all seemed nice
enough. Definitely with the French
speaking, but nice enough. Down by the
lake has some nice restaurants.
Evidently there was funding from the Saudi government on the condition
that no alcohol could be served at any of the establishments for fifteen years.
Walking to Tunis Lake (hopefully...)
Tunis Lake at Night
Standing in the Lake (sorta...)
Lake Walkway
Lake Tunis
Tunisian Snackfood
Walking Around Tunis
Tunisian Construction
Bench
Mini Park
Graffiti
Trash
Being Built
Flowers
Wealthy Home
Seed Pods
Seeds on a Tree
Growing from Garbage
Construction
Stark
Tunis Lake at Daytime
Lake
Palms
Arabic Stop
Grandeur
In general it seems like a nice place, but the feeling is a
bit off.
I visited our office in Tunis, had the pleasure of going to
my boss’ house for lunch (and meeting his wife and super cute kids), and then
my time was up.
Dubai Hotel
Bidet... this photo is for you Dad...
Tunis to Dubai, then a night in the Emirates wing at a local
airport, then back at the Dubai airport.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Dubai was nice, but I didn’t see much. I do know that it was friken hot, which was
nuts... my body is still in winter mode.
But yeah, it was nice, and modern, and the people there were very
nice. One thing that is amazing is the
airport. I don’t think I have ever been
to an airport that big, or that well run.
Everything runs smoothly... and it is massive. Emirates Airline evidently has 48,000
employees and is huge! There are Airbus
A380s everywhere, and the terminals are large enough that they just look like
regular planes; except that the jetways happen to be two levels.
As for the inside of the terminals. Gargantuan.
There is one level for economy, one level for business, and one level
for first class. There isn’t just a
little lounge for business, but an entire floor! And they don’t make you walk a long way
around to get to the gate, there are private elevators going from first class
and business directly down to each and every gate. That is the way to travel.
Business Class Lounge... trying to be inconspicuous... terrible video, but you can hear the prayers in the background which is interesting...
Breakfast in the Lounge
We enjoyed the lounge, and then got on the plane for
Emirates’ amazing service.
Dubai to Erbil.
Emirates
Village
Fortifications
Irrigation
Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq
I didn’t know what to think about going to Iraq, but the
real thing wasn’t at all what I expected.
It turns out that Kurdistan is extremely safe. There are military checkpoints outside of the
cities, and the police genuinely want to keep people safe, say, as opposed to the
police in Tunisia who are just looking for a profit.
That being said, there are checkpoints everywhere. We were in VIP immigration but there is still
a bomb check at the airport, and then at the hotel security guards use mirrors
to look for bombs under the car, and then going into the hotel there is another
bomb check. The hotel was great, but
definitely pricey. You pay for comfort
and security. There were a few stores
there but they were a bit out of my league... for example, we kept looking at a
cell phone that cost $21,000 USD! Some people
have more money than I do, even though I was sitting on 372,000 Iraqi Dinar
(like ~300 USD).
$21,000 USD!!!
Divan Hotel
Killer Chandelier
Financial Chaos
Supper
Supper
Supper
Breakfast
We went to some meetings with some people, and visited our
base to be, and things were good. We did
get an afternoon off and I managed to head downtown. Evidently Erbil is the oldest continuously
inhabited place on earth, with their earliest settlement going into 6000
BC. The centre of town is a large
citadel on a man made hill, which made it rather impossible to conquer for quite
a long time. The citadel is currently
being restored; as the rest of Erbil is under massive development... evidently
it takes a while to get things build back up after years of war. My driver from the hotel took me downtown and
showed me the citadel. Most of it is
closed, but you can still go up and look around. The Kurdistan Government and UNESCO are
working hard to repair the citadel and it will be incredible when it is
done. We saw the main street, and when a
busload of students came from another town we were on luck. We hopped along with them and managed to get
into the baths for part of a tour. I
will say I didn’t exactly fit in, with being a hairy white guy and not speaking
Arabic, but they were happy to have us along and even used what English they
knew to make me feel welcome. It was a
great experience.
Streamers
Downtown Erbil
Fountains
The Citadel
Downtown Erbil
The Road Up
Erbil
Mosque
Citadel Reconstruction
Reconstruction Plan
The Map
Gates
Pride
Inside the Citadel
Mosque, Bath, and Out
Unrestored
Carvings on the Baths
Carvings Inside the Baths
Inside the Baths in the Citadel
More Baths
Leaving the Baths (feat. mystery students)
Old Erbil
The Tour Group
Through the Gate
Leaving the Citadel
Back Down
After the citadel we headed into the bazaar, which was
insane. It was not a touristic bazaar,
but an actual place where actual people go to buy stuff for their real
lives. It is immense, and in the time we
were there I must only have seen a small segment of it. Yeah.
Huge. Unfortunately I faced a
similar problem as with Tunisia.
Unstable and war torn countries have high prices and aren’t the best for
shopping. Also, most everything is
imported into Kurdistan which doesn’t help.
Mosaic
The Bazaar
Inside the Bazaar
Inside the Bazaar
Shoes
Modern Erbil
My driver took me to one of the many many parks in the city
and showed me an exhibition of art from local artists. It was amazing.
Park Gates
Neanderthal
Pavillion
The Park
Mosque
Old Minaret (top blown off in combat)
Kurdistan is a beautiful place. When flying in all of Iraq was brown brown
brown brown, but then, as you near the mountains there is green green green
green. That is Kurdistan. Still, I don’t think there is a single tree in the
entire country that wasn’t planted on purpose... it is rather... desolate. Also, when flying over there are a lot of
what look like makeshift fortifications.
I took a few photos and will see if they turned out, but I wouldn’t be
surprised if they were. There was a lot
of war.
On the bright side, the people in Kurdistan are doing much
better after the war and after Saddam, whereas the people in Tunisia are
actually doing worse after removing their dictator and enabling democracy (they
don’t understand that with rights comes responsibilities... they like the
rights part... responsibilities... not so much).
Back to the hotel.
More meetings. Etc.
Back to the airport.
More bomb checks... got frisked by some cops, and sniffed by some bomb
dogs, and then at the airport. Into the
air, back with Emirates’ incredible service, and back to Dubai.
Erbil to Dubai. Dubai
to Tunis.
Dubai Hotel... Upgraded...
Trying to make the shower work...
Mecca
Dubai
Desert
Tunis, Tunisia
Flying back was interesting... the routes in and out of
Africa appear to be carefully planned, with very specific avoidance of
Libya. Also, it is interesting just to
fly around there. We flew over Cairo,
which was cool. And over water. And over Dubai with its manmade islands. And over desert, and desert, and desert. I haven’t been to that part of the world before,
so it was fascinating.
I was only back in Tunis for a night so I took it easy. That being said, I went to the hotel
restaurant for the first time and ordered veal with fois gras. That part was incredible, and I mean
spectacular, but the appetizers were... interesting. To be quite frank I am not sure what they
were... but I tried them all, and they were interesting...
Tunisian Restaurant
Tunisian Appetizers
Tastes Like...
Tunisian Appitizers
Tunisian Supper
Tunisian Food is Awesome!
Up early and in the air.
Tunis to Paris. Paris to
Bucharest. Picked up at Bucharest and
driven to Ploiesti (Ploy-esh-tih).
Slipstream... you can just see the airflow over the wing...
Ploieshi, Romania
It was a massive moment of déjà vu when I stepped out of the
Bucharest airport and was hit with a blast of Romanian air. Oh Romania!
I love Romania. Great people, and
great country. I was picked up at the
airport and we headed north. Ploiesti is
known for being heavy in the oil industry and that is where our base is. I was taken to a nice and new hotel and left
to rest.
Albert Hotel
The Hotel
Room
I was facing some anxiety due to my upcoming martial arts
testing, so in France I picked up some cigars at the duty free, and in Romania
I began to smoke away the stress. The
hotel is in a very nice neighbourhood with very nice houses, but as always
there are the hordes of wild, and often dangerous, dogs roaming through the
city.
Walk in Ploiesti
I spent a day in the office meeting people and seeing what
we do in Romania, followed by a nice long walk where I headed towards
downtown. Ploiesti is not one of the
most beautiful cities in Romania, and it looks a lot like communism, but, it does have its own kind of beauty, and
the churches are beautiful, as well as the many parks. I was also marveling at some of the other
scenery, and was awed at the accepted shortness for some of the skirts of the
Romanian women, but then I realized that they were prostitutes and my dreams
were crushed.
Mansion on Main Street
Steeples
Through the Trees
Spire
Church Reconstruction
Parkway
Heights
Blocks
Looks like Communism
Concrete Jungle
Sunset Lights
Memorial
Worn
Good Luck!
Blocks
In the Light
The Birds
Supper was schnitzel and fries with a cigar out on the patio
and it was amazing... oh yeah, and there was some tiramisu mixed in there. It is kind of a treat to be able to smoke and
have a meal at the same time. Not a
treat I need often, but I guess that’s what makes it a treat.
Sunset Patio
Schnitzel
Tiramisu
Supper and a Smoke
Anyways, the next day we went into the field. It was a five hour drive to where we were
going, but it was incredible. There were
shepherds and their herds, and goat herders and theirs. There were horse and ox drawn carts and
carriages. There were abandoned
communist era structures, and beautiful old ruins. There were a mix of old and new traditions
from the classic Romanian farmers to the new up and coming generations. There were crazy drivers as usual and crazy
roads. Most of southwestern Romania is
plains, so there was also a whole lot of flat.
We had a good time.
The guys were fun, and we marveled at the hundreds of street dogs that
we must have seen. They live a free
life, but a very hard life. As do the
prostitutes I imagine, as they too roam the streets wild.
We made it to the wellsite, and we were working on a well
that produced more barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) than the entire area I was
last managing as a production engineer.
There are something like four wells in that area and they produce 10% of
Romania’s gas production.
Insane.
We ate lunch on side, which was an excellent meal of chicken
schnitzel, with mashed potatoes, and dill pickles and red peppers on the
side. Oh yeah, there was also some kind
of traditional meatball soup that was amazing.
Wellsite Puppy
Nap
After checking out the well, and doing our work, we visited
their production facility, and then headed home.
It was a long drive, but I enjoyed the
countryside as the guys made their discussions in Romanian. Back to the hotel late, and then time for a
new day.
To the office.
Talking with people. Asking
questions. Learning. Planning.
Trying to figure out how to do best what I have been hired to do. Then back to the hotel. It was raining, but the timing was good so I
headed down to Kaufland, which is a grocery store here. I haven’t been able to get many souvenirs, so
it was time to get some edible ones.
Romania is stable, and developing, which means that stuff is cheap. I got a bag full of loot for a handful of
dollars, and it will be some interesting eating when I get home!
Sluggin` Along
Face from Another World
Headstrong
Another day or two of work and then it was time for my trip
to come to a close. I caught a ride to
Bucharest (with a few stops in Ploiesti to see a few sights) and to the Rin
Airport Hotel. There I sat, I rested, I
checked my photos, and wrote this blog, and got ready for my long trip home.
Park Island
Flowers
The Lake
The next morning I was on the plane and on my way back to
Canada.
Bucharest to Paris.
Paris to Amsterdam. Amsterdam to
Calgary. Calgary to slurpees…