Ok, I was going to call this 'yellow poo day', but since I came up with
that title, the day has gone from mad to madder to mazin! (And yes, my
poo was yellow today... I need say no more on that subject, nay, I have
imparted too much already... enjoy your tea :-/ )
Lots happened
today, so much so that I will probably forget something. The point of
writing my adventures down is so that I get to remember some of the
finer, more subtle little things about this trip, which I could easily
do there is so much going on. I could have written it in a word
document and kept it for my own amusement, but where is the fun in
that! Luckily I have been sharing this experience with not only a
seasoned traveller (no, not a gypsy, or someone covered in salt and
pepper!), but a top bloke too, so we have been getting on with the
business in hand, but also having a good laugh along the way (and where
would any of us be without a laugh?).
I turned in last night
(that's "went to bed" for all you heathens reading) after writing the
report of the day, and well, just led there awake until about 2 am,
which was a bit rubbish. This is when I remembered the 'message' story
from the first night by the way! (which I added to my notes earlier
tonight) So insomnia is good in one way you see... whilst laying there
unable to sleep, you remember things. :-)
So this morning I was
not feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed as usual. Went through the
routine of shower, shave, cleaning teeth (using bottled water of
course) and getting dressed ready to meet for breakfast. I was feeling
a little shell shocked this morning, I think the whole time change and
lack of sleep was catching up with my body clock, and it all felt a bit
wierd. Stomach was feeling a little dodgy and I was a bit achy all over
from a restless night and the eyes were filled with grit. We met for
breakfast in the buffet bar, where the thought of more Chinese food was
beginning to disturb me now. Luckily the fried egg-man had been busy
and there were some waiting for us, so I had two of those on a couple
of slices of bread (the toaster was missing!) and some sliced sausage
meat and a bit of crunchy pickled cabbage (seriously, this was the
'good' stuff from the cart!). This all went down ok and got washed down
with a few glasses of the orange juice which was pretty good. I also
braved another coffee, which had not improved since yesterday's... I
went back to my room, for another bout of 'sitty on chinese toilety'
and SJ went to settle the bill in reception (with the strictly
non-Engrish speaking staff!). Turns out that they wouldn't let him
settle as his luggage was still in the room, I think they thought he
was going to steal some of the 30p mini bar treats or something! :-/ We
then sat downstairs and waited for Jenny (our chinese companie's
english speaking person) to collect us to go and see their 'other'
factory for the CNC machines.
We got picked up (the bell boys
insisting on carrying our bags all of 2 meters) and here-in began what
can only be described as a somewhat sedate, yet terrifying,
rollercoaster ride through the back streets of hell! The car was a
sensible, family car, with nice seat covers and a boot full of
blankets(??). The driver was ok, didn't drive too fast, was pretty
sensible in fact. But the roads, and the other road users...!! Oh My
god! The place is nuts, there are so many road users, as I described
before, on all types of vehicles, and they just go for it... crossroads
are ridiculous... everyone just starts turning, and goes where they
want. Passing each other on the wrong side, swerving around pot holes
(deep enough to bury a man in!) and piles of rubble and parked bicycles
and groups of people and pedestrians taking their own lives in their
hands crossing the roads... one of the roads we crossed, which went
into a huge trading estate type place was particularly scarey as we
approached it under a fly-over, there were at least 10 lanes all
converging onto one another in a straight crossroad where both side of
the fly-over also joined in, we ended up going left under the fly-over
with the intent of crossing all of these lanes and up onto a kerb into
the estate! It was almost closed eyes time I can tell thee... cars and
buses and bikes coming from all angles, horns going off everywhere, but
we made it!
I thought we were at our destination, but we still
had to go through this estate, which was as dusty and run down as we'd
seen on any of our road trips, the sort of place that you really really
didn't want to get dropped off in, if you know what I mean, something
from one of those horror films where the young explorers take a wrong
turn and all end up hanging from the rafters with chainsaw welding
maniacs for company! (Ok, my imagination is on fire, but bear with
me...). This estate was mahuuuuusive. It must have been another 2 or 3
miles of broken roads to swerve through to get where we were going...
the whole place was really run down, the buildings looked really old,
and battered, like something out of an old war film, windows smashed or
hanging out, and dust and debris everywhere, including in the road.
Randomly in the middle of this mostly disused site was a section full
of little single units and shops which were packed with goods, and a
large Honda distribution centre in the middle of it.
We got to
our destination, which was a 'new building' and frankly it looked as
shite as the rest, but it did have all of its glass intact! There was a
few offices, and what looked like staff living quarters on site, with
clothing hanging out of the upper windows, and a dog and its puppies
running around in the yard... The production line was much the same as
the one we saw the day before, badly lit, crap tools, messy staff,
dusty environment, but my good were they throwing some superb looking
kit together. They had clearly been well designed and albeit a slow
looking process, they were certainly churning out the machinery. We
hung around here for a while, trying to get a feel for the kit and how
robust it was and how well but together it was, taking a few piccies
along the way. The main tech man, who was loitering with the translator
was intent on 'banging' on things with his trusty brush, banging on the
machine chassis and gantry's as if to prove their robustness... lol
We
then witnessed them taking delivery of one of these huge machine frame
works from a truck that reversed into the workshop, this was a sight to
behold! They had no formal lifting gear, just two foot pumped
push-along fork lift trucks and a load of fearless Chinese blokes. They
quickly decided on how to move it, and found that they were unable to
balance the frame from the middle of due to its positioning on the
truck, so they started trying to move this thing by hand, and slide it
back on the truck! I have no idea how heavy this frame is, but it was
made of steel and was built to support a heavy duty router with a bed
size of around 2.5 meters by 1.5 meters, so it was fuck-off heavy (for
want of a better phrase!). Needless to say they could not move it, so
they placed one fork lift under one corner and the other on the
diagonally opposite corner to lift it precariously into the air and
then they pushed the truck forwards to give them enough room to lift
the thing from both sides of the truck in its middle... the forks on
the truck were bending under the weight, and these were hand pushed
fork lift trucks. The men doing this had no fear or were clueless to
the dangers involved, and one even passed under the frame to push the
truck! They then put it back down on the truck and picked it up in the
middle and pushed the truck all the way out from underneath it
(goodness knows why they pushed the truck out, it has an engine!). So
then they had a countdown between the two guys operating the trucks to
synchronise the descent of this massive wobbling object onto the
floor... They managed it anyway, and we felt like giving the loonies a
round of applause... it was like a clown act at the circus!
We
were ready to get a lift to the airport at this point and go on our way
to Korea, but they insisted that we went for lunch with them again! I
really didn't feel like it today, but we could hardly say know. We went
to a different place, being across town today, which was on a very
grubby and rough looking street. The restaurant had a similar setup but
was certainly not as posh as the one we went to with the bossman, there
were nice holes in the table cloth for instance... :-/ The driver and
the tech guy came with us too for the freebie on their boss, and
probably to stare at the two Engrish men and put them under pressure as
they use the sticks to eat. I actually thought they might stitch us up
with the food, but again it was sensibly chosen, and once I'd forced
myself to eat some things, was back in the swing of things. We had beer
again, which by now was becoming tiresome, weak as piss and only really
serving as a belching aid (which wasn't really a bad thing given the
state of my insides!). Interestingly the tech guy took about 10 calls
during the meal, which made me quite happy, someone else getting it in
the neck for a change... ha ha. I took a sneaky picture of the table on
the way out, which I'll post up in the Asia album. It just shows the
setup, rotating table and some decimated food. I had a nose at the live
tanks in this place too *after* we'd eaten this time, and was perturbed
to sturgeons swimming around in one of the tanks, these people really
have no shame...
Luckily the drive from the restaurant to the
airport was not as fraught with danger, I do not know if my stomach
could have taken it! Lol. We said goodbye to our genial hosts and went
into the smoggy airport (yup, it is even smoggy inside big buildings
here!). We had to wait for our check in time, so sat with a welcome
cold bottle of water and caught up on some work related conversation.
The
airport had the same theme going on as the Beijing one, big groups of
people standing randomly near other groups of people. This results in
huge areas of the airport being wildly congested with people chatting
(shouting as they seem to do when talking) and taking pictures of each
other. The queue for the international departures looked horrendous,
but it turned out that they were mostly relatives and friends here to
wave people off (and take pictures).
We got through nice and
quickly, checked in the bags, went through security and found a comfy
chair near the air conditioning outlets... no sooner than I'd said
"well, that was easy to get through today", than a man dressed in
security uniform came running towards us in somewhat of a panic, waving
and gesturing at SJ to come with him, urgent problem with his bag... I
had cursed us. I followed along, as I had a funny feeling they had
screwed up ticketing the bags with the right names (which had already
happened once) and it was my now infamous can of Sure deodorant setting
off the alarms again... we followed the running mad man back through
security, where an amred guard took our passports from us and ushered
us through (keeping the passports) and as we got closer to the check in
desk, there it was, larger than life, my pesky blue suitcase! Sure as
night is day, the can of deo had done it again (pun intended). I opened
the bag for the girl, and did my now accustomed under arm spray act.
The treated the thing with some suspicion and made several phone calls
to the unseen boss to make sure it was ok to go through. It was cleared
and I was going to remain clean smelling for at least another day until
the next check in...what the hell have Sure made these damn cans
from!!? Bastards!
We got back through check in and got our
passports back, then had to get scanned and searched again to get back
through to the lounge... what a larf. I can't wait for the next flight
tomorrow night... I might have to ditch this stuff and just go smelly
for the rest of the trip!
The flight was nice, as we booked so
early we had discounted business class seats, which meant we were in
comfort for the hour and a quarter flight to Korea. They brought some
food out, which was a nice fresh meat sarnie with some salad, which was
a real treat after eating nothing but Chinese for two days, lovely. SJ
got some sleep and I shut my eyes briefly and relaxed. The staff by the
way, on this flight were fantastic, and the whole demeanor and attitude
of the Korean people in general is soooooo much nicer than the shouty
Chinese folk. It was very relaxing to be in their company, and as a
bonus the staff spoke great English. The girls in this flight wore
tight cream coloured leather uniforms (honestly) with trousers or
skirts and a jacket, with a light green and shiny blouse, and they were
very pretty and made up beautifully... I wanted to take a picture
really, but my only camera was on my phone and I couldn't be arsed to
mess about with that. I have the very nice image in my head anyway,
thats all that matters... :-p
Our bags came off first, which was
nice and we were soon road side waiting for our lift. The weather here
is horrible, absolutely pissing down, really hard. Apparently this is
their raining season come late... great! We left super hot china in t
shirts... lol
Our lift arrived and he had parked in an
underground car park that was attached to the airport by a series of
tunnels, so we didn't get wet. This airport is huuuuge by the way, very
nicely laid out too. These people have build a superb infrastructure
and are very very well organised. What a welcome relief it is from the
chaos of China!
The drive from the airport to our hotel took
ages, it was approx 60k. It was a nice comfy car though and we had a
good chat with the tech services man from the company we are here to
visit on route. His English is superb, although he needed to dig deep
for some words as he is obviously out of practise. He tells us some
good info on the city of Seoul too, and as we drive in the rain eases
and we are treated to the site of this amazing city.
It is
immense. Huge. Sprawling city. There are over 12 million people living
here, and you can see where! There are some small island areas near the
centre, like the Manhattan setup, which house the financial district,
but the whole new city (the southern part) is simply breath taking, so
big, so modern, so much to feast the eyes on. I really hope we get to
take in some of the views tomorrow...
Our hotel is in the
northern part of the city, which is the oldest part and surrounded by
old style shops and buildings and is really bustling and busy, but
clean and orderly. There seems to be a real respect here for law and
order and for keeping the place working and looking good. A total
contrast from Jinan!
We also got treated to a phone call from
the boss of the company, welcoming us to the country, thanking us for
coming and telling us how much he is looking forward to meeting with us
tomorrow, which is a nice touch. These people are good. I'm so glad to
be here after China.
The hotel is very nice, although the bell
boy was a proper nause and got far to much in our faces, he was lucky
to get a tip from SJ, I was going to punch the twat, but managed to get
him out of my room before it got to that point... ;-)
We are
actually in apartments, with a full kitchen and lots of furniture, a
bit over the top really, and I think the cheap prices in China are
going to be out weighed here...
We were lucky enough to find a
German styled bar out the back of the hotel, and the atmosphere in
there was relaxed and really nice. They had good (proper) beer and a
great menu, so we treated ourselves to some big sausages and chips,
what a welcome break from rice and slimy seafood stuff... hooray! We
ate at the bar, drank a few beers, talked about nothing in particular,
enjoyed the banter with the two Korean barman who spoke perfect English
with a hint of an American accent and then headed off to bed. I had
some tech support to sort out and my bloody work email is playing up
too... Plus I sat here and waffled on for hours of course... But I feel
that I would have just led in bed awake again anyway, so at least now
I'm tired I will sleep when my head hits the pillow!!
Got a full
day tomorrow, will be knackered tomorrow night! Might not log in
tomorrow, we'll see how it goes... got meetings all day, with technical
talk, followed by a commute and a two and a half hour flight to Taiwan
at 19:15!
Thanks for reading! Get a life!
Chuurs
Sloggs
P.S. Please forgive me any spelling mistakes or shit grammar, I can't be arsed to read it all through! Lol :-p
P.P.S. some more pics added to the Asia album... :-)