When you really want to get home....

[Globalti]

Sounds grim @Globalti. Tell us more about Ethiopia.

Well I've only been here five days but the country has made a strong impression on me. Having been to Nigeria over 90 times and many other countries in Africa and the Middle East I think Ethiopia is the most unique place I've ever seen. The people are so friendly and hospitable, the food and drink good, the city of Addis fascinating, the weather superb, it really has a very special character. I have used Ethiopian Airways a few times on my travels and always throught the staff very intelligent and well educated and first-hand experience hasn't dispelled that impression. There's a level of culture here that you don't find in the parts of Afrca that were colonised and tainted with British or French or Belgian-ness. The level of industrial development is low (in my industry at least) but volumes are big and I'll certainly be coming back. In technical terms they are about where South Africa was 25 years ago so I feel I've got a lot to offer them. There's a definite organisation about Addis; they have built a ring road and a commuter railway and the roads are in good shape and all addresses clearly marked. There's only one mobile network, which is owned by the Government who use it as a sort of PA system so little texts keep popping up reminding you of important religious events and thanking you for watching the EBC on TV. Vodaphone doesn't roam here though so I bought a local SIM from a tout for local calls and use hotel wifi for Watsapp calls home. People are fervently religious, about 60% are Orthodox Christian. Just now I walked down to the church in the square nearby and saw people praying, all facing and touching the church, including one elderly man in a suit who was kissing and nuzzling the church gates with his forehead like they were his baby, his adoration was so touching.

The women are quite stunning too.....

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I went to Warrington on Tuesday.

 

[Globalti]

A few pics I took this afternoon: the kids in the last picture spoke excellent English!

 

[Piemaster]

4 weeks today since I was last at home. Joys of working on a ship, so not only do I have to travel to work, work moves about too. I'm the only native english speaker onboard too.
Anchored in Rio at the moment, which sounds nice, but really isn't. No opportunity for actually seeing anything except via binoculars. Work is 35+degrees and even the locals are complaining its hot.

 

[gbb]

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...

I used to say at work to those who didn't think they could travel for work...waddaya gonna do, same thing every week or something exciting, something a bit edgy...
I always found I lost weight when abroad, mind I was usually staying in slightly less favourable locations such as Kafr El Zaiat in Egypt...

Eating crap like this...

and this...

TBF, that was unusual.
134 ish mosquito bites in one night, the severest case of the trots I ever had, big ants on the bedroom floor...you certainly have some memories to take with you .
Cyprus was always a joy, always stayed in decent hotels and well looked after, almost treated like part of the family at the company I visited.
Uruguay, the worlds most bland food.
Spain..always worked in areas away from tourism so little English spoken by anyone.

Nothing like Global or FF I suspect, but I did fly something like 27000 miles in 2007 I think and yes, it does take its toll. I always looked forward to the uncertainty (installing machinery, servicing and training workers to use it)..would everything work, what could I do if it didn't, language, different food, even just the travel itself...but I usually lost weight, the wife never really liked it and I did start to get bored with it after 10 years(although I perhaps only worked abroad maybe 3 weeks of the year)

 

[alicat]

That's fascinating @Globalti. Keep your chin up until you get home.

 

[gbb]

A few pics I took this afternoon: the kids spoke excellent English!

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

View attachment 117991

These are the kinds of things you remember and make it worth while..the personal touches, often with strangers. I sat outside a factory having a cig in Egypt, a street that looked like something out of Iraq and up rode two kids on bikes that looked like 1960s kids Raleighs, bedecked with Premier league banners along the top bar, one was red with MANCESTER UTD on it ! Red tassles in the handlebar ends, cards inserted into the spokes, just ridiculously decked out. We spoke no common language apart from Manchester United yet managed to pass half an hour happily talking rubbish.

 

[Incontinentia Buttocks]

Ethiopia is the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant apparently.

 

[NorthernDave]

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.)

That almost makes me feel guilty for moaning about works inflexible policy on train tickets for when I have to spend a day in that there London next month...
Almost.

Keep smiling @Globalti - in a few weeks the hassles will be forgotten and you'll only remember the good stuff.

 

[nickyboy]

I did fly something like 27000 miles in 2007

My record is over 100,000 in a year but don't let those global warming guys in SC&P know. Must be over a million miles all in

The stuffed bird (is it a pigeon?) looks pretty tasty TBH

 

[gbb]

My record is over 100,000 in a year but don't let those global warming guys in SC&P know. Must be over a million miles all in

The stuffed bird (is it a pigeon?) looks pretty tasty TBH

Pidgeon. Meat removed on the side and the body stuffed with rice...which tbh made It look maggot infested.
Ive had better...

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Here's a big boat on the Manchester Ship Canal. Took this t'other week on trip up north.