12.20.2008

Perth/Singapore/Jakarta

First off, I have a few additions to make to the Worldwide Driving Rules.

Perth:
1. Actually, I don't have much to say. Everyone there drives pretty normally and doesn't get too upset about anything. Except for the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the rode, everything is normal.

Singapore:
1. Again, a country that drives on the wrong side of the road.

2. It seems to me that better directions are needed, but that is probably because I do not live or drive there.

Jakarta:
1. Basically follow the same rules as India.

2. When there is no longer any forward movement, get as far over onto the soft shoulder as you can and continue forward movement until you must force your way back in due to an obstruction.

Now on to the trip. I flew from Dubai to Perth late on Saturday night/early Sunday morning. As I have recently become a gold member with Emirates, they can't deny me space on the plane. As long as I have purchased a ticket, they must give me a seat on the plane. There were no seats available in coach when I arrived, so they gave me a business class seat. That was great. The seat lays completely flat.

I arrived in Perth around dinner time. I checked in to the hotel and then went for a walk to find something to eat. Interestingly, nothing was open. I found out later that everything closes around 5 or 6 pm every night. There are a few places that remain open, but for the most part, everything is closed.

I didn't sleep well, waking up around 2 AM and then falling back to sleep around 5 am both nights.

The office was nice there, everyone is great. On Tuesday after lunch, I made my way to the airport to fly to Singapore.

I arrived in Singapore around 9 PM and proceeded immediately got on the phone with work in the States. We had run into a few problems and we needed to get them resolved. I was up until about 2 AM and not everything was resolved, so I woke up at 5 AM to get back on the phone.

Then, it was in to the office. This is my second time there and all seemed well there. We went over a few methods for checking on inventory and spend most of the afternoon just talking about what was going on there.

I went to sleep that night about Midnight and woke up at 4 AM to shower and get to the airport for my flight to Jakarta.

The arrival in Jakarta was pretty smooth. I was questioned a bit about why I was there at immigration, but ultimately they let me through. I caught a taxi to the hotel which took about an hour.

Once I had checked in, I took a taxi to the office and found out that a buddy of mine from Dubai was also in the office there this week. We talked and all went well that afternoon. I had some interviews to get done and I got through the first one on Thursday afternoon. Thursday night I went to dinner with some guys and had some drinks. I probably stayed out a bit late considering I wasn't feeling great and hadn't slept a whole lot the whole week.

The second day in the office, I completed the second interview and then had a couple of meetings. For the most part it was a good trip to the office finding out exactly what is happening in my new area.

I flew home late Friday night/early Saturday morning. I arrived in Dubai at about 6 AM. Not a whole lot to do today, so I took a nap and ate lunch. I am now just trying to recover from this cold that I somehow got while not sleeping and traveling 24 hours on planes and flying a total of 13000 miles or so.