KOPI… the worst is yet to come…

On arrival, i realised why the camp is much detest as the MORO camp was much cleaner as compared to this. Camp facilities were pretty much used and left over from the previous project group.

But at least i was assigned a decent room, where i am typing this away at 2145LT. This is the second night here.

On the first day (Sat), there was orientation and induction, we were walking up and down the camp site. Its not that big, but there were sure signs of wear and tear around. We didn't do much here, since we understand that the vessel was delayed as the local authorities found some life insects in the containers to be loaded to our camp. It turns out to be a big issue, cause the government is very particular about foreign insects, plants, animal  breading in the country and changing the natural habitat of the country. So its more delays until Monday where we will know how long the delay is…

Food in the camp is much lower quality then up there. Meal times is strictly 0500-0600, 1200-1300 and 1800-1900. “Full stop. End of story” No tea breaks in between, no other food sold… No snacks… T_T We had to queue to enter the mess and queue to grab our food. There will always be two choices of meat each meal. but mixed vegs seems to be the staple… There is nothing much to talk about the food there… Oh, yes there is. My dinner tonight was lamb chops n rice. I was greedy as i wanted more sauce to go with the rice. Turn out… The sauce was disgusting!!! Only then i notice nobody takes the sauces… I had to try my best to swallow the food, esp the rice, else i will go hungry at night… Sad…

I did had a chance to go out of camp for a tour coz one Aussie friend that i know when i was in Batam doing the loadout was tagging along another environmental fellow out for inspection. Since i had nothing to do, i wont mind spending some time outside and catching a glimpse of the “outside world”. The client didn't want to follow, simply because in the meeting earlier, we were informed that there was a case of the local people carrying M16s and attacked a group of people carrying camp equipment to another camp. It was calculated almost 0.5 million worth of equipment were destroyed but none was injured. I guess that really scares him a bit since it quite surprising to know that the local people actually managed to get such sophisticated weapons…

Well, with that behind my head, i hopped on to the landrover out of the camp. I wouldn't want to missed my only chance out of the camp! Who knows, i might catch a glimpse of some hard to find birds like the birds of paradise. :P

In the vehicle, i managed to know that the driver is actually a local villager and offered to bring us around his village after the inspection. Yippee~ The road was long,  almost 1 hour of driving, and bumpy. Imagine 1 hr of bumper cars rides with constant “bumping” not fun…

So out in the forest, we were inspecting this…


It notice the big opening, that is where the forest was tore down, to make space for the pipe laying… Impressive right? Oh, i didn't mentioned before that PNG has the second largest rainforest in the world! While driving, it trees n trees and more trees!!!

This is where the tree cutters sleep in. All local people. Now i begin to appreciate my camp…

After which we went to the nearby town to have a look.

This is the police station. Not so bad huh?


We are standing on a airstrip that was used in WWII!!!


After that we went to the jetty to have a look.


Look at the endless forest and the long rivers.


Notice that the boat is actually a “dug out” from a long log!!!


Something like this!


We went to a local shop.


This is how it look like inside. They sell almost everything!!!

More surprisingly is, the stall owner is actually Chinese!!! They are from Guangzhou and has been here for more then 10 years!!! They are so nice that they didn't want to charge me for the titbits and drinks that we wanna buy! “Tong xiang” they were saying… lol.


After dinner, i smuggled this from the mess. U all know what is it???


Call me "Swa Ku" but i nvr seen this fruit before! Mostly in photos and pictures but i nvr know they look like this. It Passion Fruit!

That pretty ends my first 4 days in PNG. Very much more to come, though they will be boring since i wont have much chance to step out of the camp… Machiam prison loh… Sigh… Some more no hardship compensation doing this job… Sad…

More to come! “I hope” *Crossfingers*

Up up and away~ (MORO Camp)

Flight to MORO camp was in the afternoon and i arrived there earlier as i was worried that my luggage will have some issues, since they “preferred” to have soft case bags on the plane. Upon reaching the airport, i noticed that almost all of the passengers had soft bags. Only one other guy have this long boxy case, probably for some equipment… However, all was ok as the staff collected my luggage without questions. The next worry is the chopper flight…
 

This is MORO Camp from the plane.

This is the view from the plane.

Haha, the wheel. :P

The propeller plane...

This was the plane we took.

The bunk up in MORO camp.

Gloomy day that day.

Some other view of the camp.

Up in MORO Camp, (Up, because it is 1000m high up!) i was like a lost chicken in the camp, coz most people were regulars in the camp. Luckily i had this client rep with me, and that makes two lost chickens in the camp. lol

 
Sadly i was assigned to a two men bunk and had to sleep on the top bed. The client got his own room and bed!!! But luckily we were only to sleep there for a night. Food in this camp is pretty good. There were a good spread of chicken, fish and rice for dinner and i had a sumptuous meal before we hit the bed.
 
We finished chatting at about 8pm local time (LT) which is actually 6pm SG time… As we have to wake up before 5am for breakfast and meeting at 6am, we have to sleep… Meaning i have to sleep at SG Time (7pm – 3am) Zzz… 3am sounds like the time that i go to sleep loh… Nevertheless, i hopped into bed at 9pm(LT) only to find out that the bed is shaky!!! My bunkmate is watching Australian football at that time, so i tot i should try to make myself tired and at the same time wait for him to sleep before i try to sleep. So i set up my laptop on the bed,trying to play some games. True enough, after approximately 1hr, he was snoring away. So its like my turn to sleep, 1030pm LT = 830pm SG time. How to sleep?!? Furthermore i have to keep still, coz every slight movement, the bed will twitch and shake… I think i only sleep at around midnight loh… Aiyoh so tired…
 
Early morning, breakfast was decent, much better the Crown Plaza, simply because there are 4 type of eggs! Hard-boiled, scrambled, sunny side and Omelette. Woohoo~ I had three types of eggs that day. lol.

I remember people were saying that this camp is good and the next one is bad… So i kinda kept my expectation to the lowest for the next camp to come… KOPI Camp.

Chopper flight was alright, given that we were travelling with one of the ExxonMobil big shot. There were 7 of us out of the possible 9 seats available.

PNG Posting from Live Blogger.

Lets see if this works… (Continued from last session)

Its been a really long while since i last posted, sorry folks!

Not that i have not been eating good, shooting well and having fun, but i was just too occupied with work, having fun, eating more and shooting even more!!!

So since I am pretty much bored out over here (I got to wait until Tuesday minimum to get to do some actions.) I tot i might as well write something about this place! That is provided i got some decent internet access here...

So i departed on the 23rd to Port Moresby,  Papua New Guinea (PNG). Got myself some transport to bring me around. In fact, we are only allowed to travel in our client's appointed vehicles (ExxonMobil) and almost everywhere u go, u will be monitored. I guessed its either the security is bad here or the client's security is too good... I will soon find out...

Here are some photos in my hotel.


The room is pretty much the same as anywhere else loh.





















This the view from my hotel room.

Actually i have a number of photos from my iPhone. Now i jus need to find out how to transfer them out…

Got checked into the hotel at 0600hrs, oh my flight was overnight thru Manila. Ask me about Manila airport, i will tell you, dun do your transit there... Its a boring place.

So i slept till noon. lol. i didn't get much sleep on the plane. Since i am only required to travel to the next location, Moro Camp, the next day, i might as well get some sleep...

Lunch was nothing fancy since i wasn't hungry and yet i dun wanna waste the chance to order food service. So i got sometime local to try, fish...





















The fish wasn't that bad, consider that it was not fishy and its meaty. But probably i was not hungry, so i had only the fish but not the vegs.

After a heavy meal, i set out to get my Malaria Survival Kit (MSK) and purchase some "Insect shield" clothing (PPE). PNG is a country where there are many cases of malaria and trust me, u wouldn't want to know how bad malaria can be, but ultimately, you can die from getting that disease... So we have to be real careful, getting repellents, "insect shield" clothing and etc.

It was pretty cool to be transported around. :) i just have to call the dispatch and the driver will be at my disposal within 5mins. Oh, i was also assigned a call sign! V248. lol Maybe should go buy 4D. Wahahaha.

Dinner was some lavish western food in the hotel, after debating over paying 69++ for seafood buffet dinner or 94++ for posh western food. The currency is in KINA which is about half SGP$. End up i decided to “punish” the client with a slightly expensive dinner. Wahaha.

I ordered the Prawn Bisque and Brandy Espresso with Lobster Biscotti, what a long name!!! I nvr notice the espresso as the soup was served in an espresso cup. It was flavourful of prawn but i missed out the brandy taste. It could be the slightly bitter after taste after each sip. I also didn't notice the “lobster”on top and all of it went into my mouth in one gulp. lol. The main was Beef Ribeye on the Bone (aged 21 days) with Cafe de Paris Butter and Saffron Mash. Just the name it self is pro right?!? It really took me quite a while to decide on this coz i was not in the deleprate intention to wack the client one. But it appears that it was the biggest portioned meat, so no choice la… lol In conclusion, the meat was brilliant! I ordered medium and it came jus what i would love steak to be. Slightly charred on the outside, and pink in the inside…. Yummy~ This could possibly be the second best steak i had! Of course,the best one i had is still Gordon's Grills and the company counts too!!! I myself is not a potato lover but this one was outstanding. Though i didn't know how saffron would taste like,but i sure know that its the world most expensive spice! (Knowledge courtesy by Josh) I caught a few strand of saffron in the potato but didn't notice the flavour, but in the whole it was great. The “semi-mash” style cooking keeps a few chunks of potatoes in it and it was tasty in general. The butter on the steak was slightly “oily” to my preference. Probably i would prefer less oil, but more herbs. But all in all, i had nothing to complain of the combination.

Breakfast in the hotel was rather simple. Although they same western restaurant was used as dining place for all club level customer, there wasn't much quality in the food. Bacon, sausages, eggs and cereals were the few i ate. Come lunch time, i was yet to be hungry, but i ordered a sandwich, since i dun want to end up hungry on the plane. Turn out, the sandwich was delivered late, and i had it packed out instead. It was Roast Beef sandwich with lotsa olives. yummy~

That kinda ends my “Good life” in PNG and off to the worst…

Family CNY highlights in Korea Part 3

Time to leave Yong Pyong Ski Resort...

We had our brekkie before making our way to Seoul. This friend rice from a small stall in the hotel taste so much better then the restuarant ones!!!

Spicy kim chi noodles.... Pretty much like the Singaporean instant noodles.

Fried udon taste great too~

We had another bowl of wantan soup. I think our Singapore ones are so much better!!!

Check in to EastGate Tower Hotel. It is jus above a new shopping centre called, Cerestar, occuping the 18-20 floors. We have the family suite which has two single beds and one queen bed. The room is huge!!!

A view from the bed,

This is the dining area.

This side is the queen bed.

We had BBQ for lunch today. This is suppose to be premium beef. The marbling is nice~

We order pork too. This one is marinated. :)

This Kimchi is pretty crunchy!

We didnt have enough so we order an additional of pork belly and they came in this form!!!

They taste great after the grill!!!

They always have lotsa greens to go with the meats and the sauce is goood!

OMG! I look soooo piggy!!!

This is the Dong Dae Mum palace.

Bought some "sao bao" at the end of the day.

And some fruits!!!

I continued walking with my second sister while my mum n elder sis went back to the hotel. We chance upon this make shift eatary and went in to try.

The place is not so fantastic, but the food is nice. :)

Too tired and feeling sleeping liao.... More posts later...

Family CNY highlights in Korea Part 2

Today we finally got the chance to try out skiing!!! I was soooo excited and not knowing the things to worry later...

To fall down and get up with ur ski on is SUPER HARD!!! Esp for people like me, with the big tummy. (I think the previous photos already shows right?), have an even tough task! - To overcome ur own tummy.... For the whole skiing practise, i only fall down thrice ok!!! Two times during the training as we need to learn how to get up. The last was when i first try out the high slope...

To stop, u have to open your legs in a manner to create a "A" shape with your ski. I find this trememdously tough and i almost wanna give up at some time! After lunch, when my sis wants to rest before continuing our second lesson, i didnt follow and went out to practise myself. Skiing is fun and exciting, but to slide down and climb up is so tough!!! Can u imagine my hair was dripping sweat after a few times! In a -12 degrees celcious weather!!!

In the end my hard work paid off, as i managed to understand the skill and eventually went up a much higher slope with the lift and slide down. At the end of the day, i even slide on my own! Without the instructor. I even can make turns! Wahahahaha.

Me with the equipment!

Lunch was korean chinese restuarant.... This is their sweet and sour pork. Taste nice!

I remembered i ordered beef with rice, but they gave me this...

But i still ate it. It was ok la....

Mum had this fish soup which i think its a bit fishy.

Fried rice with brown sauce... The sauce is yucky and the fried rice is so so nia...

At the end of the day, i took the lift myself!!!

Wah it is soooo cool!!!!

After the ski, we were exhausted.... We hurried to the sauna to relax ourselves.

Did i say the sauna was FULLY NAKED!?!

Actually we went to the sauna on the first night already. The promotion for hotel resident was 50%! So my sis was so excited! Went i and saw all those naked butts in the room... I felt so out of place...

So i braced myself and step into the sauna FULLY NAKED, with a towel on hand to try to cover the vital parts... lol

In the sauna, there are 5 pools and two shower areas. The temperture of the pool are 14, 37, 42, 44.... 14 degrees is a freaking cold temperature!!! I only managed to dip myself init after warming my body in the 44 degrees pool and i nvr managed more then 5mins.... Wahahaha. Conclusion, i am a warm hearted guy. :)

Tml got to travel to Seoul already. After it would be theme parks and shopping!!! Yeah! Stay tuned!