When you really want to get home....

[Globalti]

Am currently at the end of a fairly punishing two-week trip that started in Cyprus, then moved via a night in Doha to Khartoum in Sudan where I worked through to late Saturday night at a trade fair, then after a long-delayed Sunday flight, finished here in Addis Ababa where I'm in a comfortable hotel but the work schedule is fairly punishing. The traffic, the noise, the filthy diesel fumes, the bone-dry air and the endless meetings and demands from local colleagues become wearing and you have to go into maximum export patience mode to cope. On top of that the tummy has been dodgy since Sudan and on arrival in Ethiopia I got a cold, which has migrated down to my chest and now I've lost my voice so today's meetings are going to be interesting.

Right now, sitting at my desk, I can hear: the roar of the bathroom extractor and the AC fan, hammering and crashing from the building site opposite the hotel, a regular dull bang from somewhere inside the hotel that I've never identified, a car alarm and the sound of someone down on the main street 100 yards away haranguing the public though a loud-hailer. When I get home the frst thing that always strikes me is the complete silence so I'm yearning for some peace and quiet, an undisturbed night's sleep, cool moist dense air and a nice glass of English beer. Oh, and some exercise; the waistline definitely expands on these trips. But I don't think I'd be able to cope without the fitness and stamina I enjoy from being a cyclist.

There are a few other exporters on this forum, I know that @Fab Foodie does overseas trips and I'm sure he understands how the nerves get frayed as the trip progresses and tiredness takes over.

(First ever trip to Ethiopia by the way - an amazing country, so different from the rest of Africa.)

 

[jonny jeez]

Sat at Gatwick north terminal for an early flight to Geneva, followed by a weekend at home, then Monday in Keflavik for a three day trip to Iceland, then on the Friday, Schiphol.

All pretty civilised locations, with plenty to maintain interest and comfortable hotel stays. So I suspect I shan't feel as frazzled as you.

I don't tend to travel for more than 3 days for each trip, unless I am embedded in a project which is a different kind of challenge.

 

[mustang1]

@Globalti
Sorry to hear that.

Is this a trip you do annually, several times a year,or just a one off? If you're doing it again, I don't suppose you are able to break.the trip down to say 3 one week trips instead?

Otherwise if guess you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[biggs682]

Do you have time to relax and do something non work related?

I know we are all different but we all work for the same reason and that is to earn enough money to live on and do some nice things once in a while .

Ok i sit behind the same desk .pc and phone Monday to Friday for a relative small salary but its enough for us and in less than a years time we are mortgage and debt free , mainly down to frugal other half .

But i am 9 mins by bike from home . 11 mins by bike away from daughters school , 20 mins away by bike from my ageing parents and about the same from our only grandaughter .

So i suppose what i am saying is not in a nasty way but you made that career choice

 

[vernon]

But the paycheck each month makes it all worthwhile.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I'd quite like a few weeks away every now and then with work.

 

[TVC]

It'll all make good material when you come to write your memoirs.

 

[Dave 123]

Sometimes I get to go to Scotsdales garden centre. I go in a van.

I have a friend who has a sales territory of Scandinavia and Africa. I've heard how it can be a bit wearing and that it's not all glamour.

 

[alicat]

Sounds grim @Globalti. Tell us more about Ethiopia.

 

[Spinney]

My only two business trips abroad (apart from getting the company plane to Munich for meetings with MBB when I worked for BAe) were to Ghana (very hot and dusty) and Mongolia in winter (-20 outside, absolutely baking in the hotel with the heating on full blast and uncontrollable, I had to sleep with my window open, breathing in the fumes from the coal fired power stations that heated the city and were located only a few miles away).
Still - all sounds more comfy than Globalti's trip!

The standards of driving were similar in both places...

 

[Levo-Lon]

I couldn't think of a worse job ..constant airports visits air traval and hot places with poor food hygiene..
I'd die in a month or be locked up for killing someone...

 

[nickyboy]

I go to the Far East quite often. Usually a couple of weeks at a time. Despite having flown there 70 or so times in the past 15 years I still look forward to the trips and feel a little excited when I get to Manchester airport for the flight.

I guess it's down to an individual's mentality. I like meeting foreign people, experiencing different cultures, eating different food. For the record, I'm hardly ever staying in the big cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong etc. I'm staying usually in smaller cities that have decent enough hotels etc but really don't cater specifically for westerners. Having said that, I almost never eat western food while away as the local food is so much better

There are times when I really want to get home. After a particularly tough trip or when work isn't going so well or whatever. But these are few and far between

The one thing I always do on these trips is sleep whenever I get a chance. They're exhausting and it's tiredness that gets you down. So I'll sleep on planes, taxis, airport lounges, buses, trains....anywhere

 

[Creamcrackered]

Addis Ababa - the airport with the least number of loos for the most passengers. Otherwise, Ethiopia is a great country

 

[pplpilot]

I feel this. I used to work for our international division and spent 3 years of my life traveling the globe sometimes 6 and 8 weeks at a time, after a while it really grinds you down. I'm predominantly UK based now with the odd trip overseas which I look forward to just because I know it to be the odd one.

 

[nickyboy]

Whilst there are undoubtedly the difficult times in crappy hotels with incessant traffic noise and ropey food....there are the experiences that make it all worthwhile.

I was visiting a potential project in Yunnan, China. This is in the far south and it is very remote. We went into a dense valley to look at the mining project and we were miles away from even the nearest village. Clambering around on the hillside I heard some bells clanking and along the path came the local goatherd with his goats. We stopped for a chat with him. He could understand my Chinese but I couldn't understand his dialect

Turned out he lived in the valley tending his goats and just went to the village to buy stuff and sell his goats. He had never seen a westerner in his life. He had also never seen a camera or a photograph of himself. So I took one of him. The cape thing he's wearing is made from coconut which grew locally. Hat is made from banana leaves I think