Off to Jordan again...

Afternoon all,

I'm off again. I'm off back to the place where I was half a year ago. I'm going back to Rashadiyah in Jordan. The second installation is ready for commissioning. Should be a straight forward trip as they already have one of our systems so no training this time... We hope...

This is the plant. It is about 60 km away from Petra which I might have a chance to go and see this time. It is also near to the Dead Sea so with a bit of luck I might be able to do my floating turd impression on the salty lake... I better take some warm clothes as this plant is high up in the mountains it can get cold there in winter. Let's put it like this, last time when I was there I spotted a snow plow at the entrance of the plant. I thought it was an arab joke but when I asked they told me that they get big snows sometimes in winter. In the Middle East????

This was the place where I stayed last time. It is an old village that is now being done up to used for eco tourism. There is a lot of exotic wildlife about, like hyenas, coyote and Ibex deer.

This was a wild plant that was growing right outside my hotel. Dunno what it was but it looked pretty... I hope I get to eat the local speciality again, Mansaf. This is the goat dish in goats yoghurt and is pretty good. The first night I will stay in Amman again as I arrive late on the saturday. Maybe this time the passport people will let me in with no hassle as this time I have a proper passport, not an emergency one...

OK, gotta go, these cases don't pack themselves you know,

Cheerio,

Alex.

Indonesia Rocks!!!

Afternoon all!

Again it has been some time since I have updated the page. This time I went back to Indonesia. I had an excellent trip.

I started in Jakarta working at Indocement which is just outside Jakarta. I stayed there for a few days, completed the job and then flew from Jakarta to Yogjakarta. There I found out that the customer was not willing to work during the weekend so instead of travelling on to Cilacap to start the job for Holcim I holed up in Yogjakarta for the weekend. Yogjakarta is a town close to several sights. From Yogja you can visit Borobudur, The Pranbahan temple and Mount Merapi.

I picked to go to the temple and Merapi. The visit to Merapi was badly timed as the whole mountain was covered in clouds and we could see bugger all. So after walking around on the lava flow that covered a village last year I cruised down from the mountain and went to Pranbahan. This is a thousand year old budhist temple. I just had a quick trot about and took some piccies and then took my driver to a good restaurant and stuffed myself with all sorts of indonesian foods. I love the food out in Indonesia, its spicy, its fresh, its cheap and more importantly, it doesn't give you the Tijuana Quickstep (The Cairo Buttclench, Dehli Belly etc...)...

In the evening I found a good bar in Yogja. If you ever go over there, give the Bunker a try. Its a dance/nightclub and it is the only one I found that doesn't charge to get in. I hate having to hand over cash before I know I like it.....

On the sunday the Holcim driver picked me up from Yogja and drove me across the mountains to Cilacap. This was a hairy ride. At some point we had to cross a river on a bamboo bridge as the concrete one had washed away....

After a week in Cilacap I travelled back to Jakarta to start the third job for Holcim Narogong. This time Holcim was nice to me. They stuck me in the Gran Melia hotel in Jakarta. That is a top class 5 star place. Needless to say it was nice to have a room again without wildlife on the ceiling. Also the laundry service was highly appreciated as it was very hot and sweaty. 35 degrees C with a 90 % humidity...

This piccie is from the Pranbahan temple. It looked quite nice but as I know fXXXck all about budhism it didn't mean much to me. Still, nice place and it was cool that is was very quiet. It was out of tourist season...

This was the park at the exit of the temple. There were loadsa deer roaming about free.

My stay in Jakarta was made complete by the bar staff at the J Lounge in the Gran Melia hotel. I can't remember many of the names but especially Anisa and Agin (Ajin? I don't know how you spell that name... The main guy behing the bar who kept dropping glasses when doing his 'Cocktail' bartender impression...) Also I had a chance to go to BlockM. This is the notorious nightlife area of Jakarta and i thought it was ace! Good bars, cheap booze and all the crumpet you can eat!

For my next trick I'm off back to Jordan. Im going to Amman this saturday for a 4 day job. After that I believe the Philipines is on the menu for the beginning of december...

Cheerio,

Alex.