Dublin downer

Not a very jolly visit this time around.  The company has recently lost a fairly important account and this necessitated making three employees redundant.  This in spite of the fact that we have just won the biggest single contract in the company's history.  The senior management team were particularly despondent and it took several lenghty sessions in the hotel bar for them to regain even a fraction of their normal good spirits.

Hong Kong

I was expecting to have much more free time at my disposal for this part of my trip as I only had two shortish meetings arranged over the three day period. I ended up spending most of the time in my hotel room attending to various pressing work tasks that had accumulated over the previous few days. Ah! the wonders of life with the Internet.  
I was not too bothered by this as I reckon I have seen pretty much all of the interesting stuff in Hong Kong several times over. 

(not) Diving in Pangkor

The plan was to go to Pangkor for a couple of days diving with a few buddies from KL, before heading on to Hong Kong.  Pangkor is a smallish island of the west coast of Malaysia, to the north of KL and to the south of Penang.  The fact that the only airline offering a service to the island had ceased to operate this route last year should have served as a warning that all was not going to turn out as planned.  We ended up making the 6 hour trip by road and ferry.
Once there it transpired that my mate's information was somewhat out of date.  The only dive shop on the island, which he had used a couple of years ago, was now closed.  We decided to make the  best of it by doing some snorkeling instead.  This was also a failure as the water was so cloudy that visibility was less than two meters.  Apparently this is the case for a bout 50% of the time, depending on rain and other seasonal factors.  Not surprising then that the dive shop closed down!  The moral of that tale is: always do your own research beforehand.
Leaving aside the lack of diving, the island was pleasant enough and the beach we were staying at was pleasant enough.  Most of the other holiday makers were Chinese Malays, and the local restaurants seemed to  cater for their tastes, so we ended up eating some excellent Chinese food.

Capacity Asia 2011，Kuala Lumpur

Back in KL again for this annual telecoms conference, although it is two years since I was last here. This time no stand to man, leaving more time for networking, which is what this event is really all about. Some useful information gathered from the people I was planning to see, but as often happens, the chance meetings over lunch turned out to be the most fruitful. I may even have identified a new channel to market for our software.

In the evening I had time to revisit some of my favourite KL venues, including the street dining delights of Jalan Alor.

Phuket Hash

From Phuket 2011

This event was the main reason for stopping off in Phuket on the way from Bangkok to KL.  Several of my running buddies from the Petaling Hash (in KL) were over for the weekend so it made sense to kill two birds with one stone by meeting up with them for the hash. My efforts got off to a bad start when I missed the official bus from Patong to the hash site, which meant that I had to make the trip via tuk-tuk.  Unfortunately my driver had no idea where the village was that we were supposed to be heading for, so I ended up getting there 10 minutes late.  Normally this would not be a big deal as the hash runs are designed so that the slower runners (or late starters) have the chance to catch up with the leaders.  This did not work for me on this run, and I had rather a frustrating time trying to follow the disjointed trail, ending up at one point doing at least 0.5 km along a stream. I finally caught  up with the pack as they were on the home run to the starting point.  There followed the usual beer and banter that is the main objective of the Hash, after which I caught the official bus back to my hotel.  Unlike the Petaling Hash, there is no organised post-Hash meal, so I will be meeting up with my KL colleagues for dinner tomorrow.

View Patong in a larger map


Postscript: having checked my GPS track (blue) against the official route (yellow), clearly I took a wrong turn somewhere?

Bangkok Jinx

From Bangkok 2011

If I ever ask you whether you want to travel with me to Bangkok, remember to decline the invitation.  Clearly I am jinxed when it comes to this destination.  Over the past two years my travel plans have been thwarted by a Yellow Shirt sit-in at the airport, floods in southern Thailand, Red Shirt barricades in Bangkok, and now to cap it all, a major flood which is threatening to overrun the entire city as I type this.


The day I travelled out from the UK, the Thai government announced a five day public holiday to coincide with my visit, the aim being for all Bangkok residents to flee the city, or at least stay at home (presumably if they live in an upper floor apartment).  The situation had worsened by the time I arrived, with a quarter of the city already under water, and government warnings that the main river dikes were almost certain to be breached over the weekend, which would result in the inundation of the remaining districts.  


The figures are quite overwhelming.  Apparently the flow rate of the flood water from the north is 100 million cubic metres per second!  The only defence against this deluge are hastily erected sandbag emplacements around low lying buildings.   Since most of Bangkok is less than one metre above sea level, that means most buildings.  The picture above is of the defences at the base of Vince's apartment, where I was working until 2 hours ago.   We were listening to the news reports that plotted the advance of the flood waters along Bangkok's streets.  By the time it got to 10 sois from  the soi where my hotel was located, I decided it was time to make a quick getaway.  


Luckily I had already planned to travel to Phuket for the weekend with some buddies from Malaysia, for the Phuket Hash.  It was fortunate that I had booked in advance as the airport was crammed with Bangkok citizens trying to escape anywhere they could.  The ticket counters were queuing around the block.  So barring any last minute disaster, such as a tsunami engulfing the airport, I should be clear of the impending  flood within the next hour or so.


Aside from the flood, the two days in Bangkok were quite a success from a work point of view and we have now kicked off a major project with one of the mobile phone operators in Thailand, which will keep us busy for much of the next year or two.  I am not sure to what extent I want to participate in the follow-up project visits, bearing in mind my Bangkok jinx.

More Qatar

What can I  say about Qatar?  Back here again for a project kick-off meeting with Vodafone.  Not much to see or do in Doha outside work.  Night life seems to revolve aorund the international hotels, which are the only places you can get a drink in Qatar.  Some of these have some pretty decent restaurants and the occadional night club, but I am glad that we are only here for three days per trip. 
Looks like I will be back here a few times over the next 6 months.