Ear Hair and other observations

The Indian’s seem to take a certain pride in having extremely long hairs covering their ears.  The older gentlemen I come across have the hairiest ears I have ever seen.  This fellow is an example of the pride they have in their grooming skills.

On to more interesting things- I had to give an update on the project to senior management the other day and afterwards was considering why it was such a unproductive meeting – it might have been due to having the meeting at a table the size of a squash court – it could have held 50 people around it.  But there were only 6 of us in attendance – with us 3 on one side and 3 on the far other side a good 3 meters away.  A very impressive board room I must say, but not too effect for small meetings.

Taxes:  The Indian tax system is as confusing as their normal way of life.  The large project that I am working on has required countless lawyers, consultants and tax advisers to guide us through the tax risks of doing a project in India.  While I won’t bore you with the tax details that cause my eyes to glaze over as soon as anyone tries to explain it to me, but I will share some insights in to it.  The rules are clear in how it should be applied, but there are many different tax departments and they are quite ruthless in applying their own interpretation to the rules.   They have put the fear of God into the many large businesses with their tax powers.  So as a result we have lengthy discussions on how these rouge tax officials may look at our documents.  In end we will create thousands of pages of paper, all of which is for no purpose other than to prevent an aggressive tax official from falsely assigning a tax penalty (which could be millions of dollars).

 

The Doctor comes

 God – finally feeling human again.  I have gotten to know the bathroom well in the past few days.

On Tuesday I finally called for a Doctor, who comes your hotel room, by the way.  I have to add it to the plus side of my list of things that I love and hate about Mumbai – currently the list is heavily weighted on the Hate side.  But I digress.   He lined up blood tests (also later done in my hotel room) and issued a prescription for antibiotics after a short physical.  24 hrs later I am starting to feel better and have not had any more diarrhea.  The prescription was also delivered to my room and they even offered to pick up my stool sample (now that is service!)

The diet the doctor told me to follow was interesting;

Lemon tea, coconut water, fresh lime water, peeled apple, boiled rice, yogurt and toast.

I had a difficult time finding any of the stuff but I got the idea and kept the food very simple.

Mumbai - again -

Sunday - Well after 4 days in Mumbai, I am hit with stomach problems.  Last night bathroom trips started and I was up several times in the night.  Figures that it happens on the one day off I get.  So I spent all day either in bed or on the toilet.  If I am not better by tomorrow, I will call a doctor.

I assume it came from my lunch at the office restaurant, but no one else seems to have got it.

Visiting Perth in style

Saturday July 28th

It is a 5 hr flight and not in business class - :(  However, the seats are roomy and they even serve free wine.  It is my first time in Perth and I am picked up at the airport by a colleague who has graciously offered to put me up at his house for the three nights.

The weather is fantastic – sunny 24°c.  Perth is a beautiful city and I am very impressed by it.  It makes San Diego look dumpy.  My host has an impressive town house across from the beach and I am shown to a very nice room with its own full bathroom.  The beach is endless and relatively empty.  Waves are surprisingly small, as winter is the prime surfing season. 

The living room - all windows look out over the ocean

The view from the balcony

Sunday morning, I wake late to find my host has gone surfing and I take advantage of the time and go for a run.  Later, we spend the day touring the city and I am taken for a ride in his limited edition hand built Aston Marton.  New it would cost $400’000, but it is 6 years old so it probably only cost him half.  He even lets me take it for a drive, which I am a little nervous about, hoping that he has insurance up to date.

Monday we head in to work, where he works at a major law firm who is supporting us on a number of different projects.  The offices are on the top two floors and the view as you enter the reception area is successful in impressing me.  I don’t know what the psychology is behind all these large firms having opulent offices.  I would be happier using a firm working out of a warehouse and charging $200 an hour less.

The lobby

The view from the 2nd floor (top floor of the 38 story bldg

The room I work out of for the day

The office is in the 2nd bldg from left

Tuesday – I wake at 4:45am to catch a cab to the airport.  Time to fly to Mumbai – Oh joy, oh joy.

Coastal drive south of Sydney

July 23 - 26

My flight(s) to Sydney go well and I arrive only one hour late into Sydney in the evening.  In total it turns out to be a 21hr trip, with a very good connection in Singapore.  I pick up a rental car and with the help of a GPS drive south in the dark to Wollongong only an hour away.  (BTW - the movies were not good )

Wollongong is a pretty town next to an industrial port with a very large steel factory that is progressively being closed down due to the high costs of labour in Australia.  The weather is a little cold (being winter) in the evenings and the hotel room is not heated, however the days warm up to 18°c.

In the Port - Scrap steel ship being loaded

I am quite tired and go to bed at 9 am and sleep until 6:30am. I am quite happy whenever I wake up and find that I have managed a good night’s sleep after changing so many time zones.  However the next night I am not so lucky and wake up at 4 am, and go for a long walk along the beach in the dark from 5 - 6am.

I have 2 days of meetings in a cramped construction trailer at the project site.  The only break I get  is getting out early one afternoon, where I get to enjoy a run along the ocean.

Saturday I drive back to Sydney along the scenic coastal drive, to catch my flight to Perth.

 The coastal hwy

 The view back towards Wollongong

 The view from the beach at low tide

My bed for the night

Kite surfing in Sri Lanka

 My alarm wakes me up at 1 am, and I am surprised at how much sleep I was able to get.  The 3am departure time is not ideal, but for some reason they only have middle of the night flights to Colombo.  The flight is uneventful and I arrive at 5:30 am only to find an enormous line at immigration which takes 30 mins to get through.  The duty free shops in Colombo are interesting because of all the things that you can purchase there.  Even at 5:30 am the shops are very busy selling refrigerator’s, flat screen tv’s, and other appliances.  I am in a rush to get out of the airport and on the road for an exciting free weekend at a kite surfing destination just up the coast.  And as usual, my progress is indirectly related to my desire to get somewhere.  First the 30 min delay in immigration and now I find that there is no driver waiting for me.  It is now 6 am and after wandering around a bit, I start searching for people to wake up on a Saturday morning.  Fortunately I get a hold of someone who tells me the driver is late, but on the way. 

The trip up the coast is crowded with traffic, but I arrive at my kite surf destination basically on schedule only to find – no wind and no people.  Confident that both will change I dismiss my driver for the day, and go in search of people. 

The destination is quite interesting, a small lagoon that is shallow and next to the ocean so that the strong trade winds blow across it, so that the wind and shallow flat water combine to make it a great spot for learning to kite surf.  An Australian fellow has set up a kite surfing school and hotel at the place and it is a little rough (like a Canadian cottage) but comfortable.  The meals are served buffet style and everyone eats at one large picnic table.  So you have to be a bit sociable (I make an exception and pretend to be sociable)  The background of the people is quite interesting, with a cross between die hard kite surfers that are taking a year off to travel the world to the top destinations and other die hard kite surfers who use all their vacation to visit top spots – and then the wannabe kite surfers (me) who are trying to learn.  I love the accommodations as there is no AC only the trade winds blowing through the night to keep you cool.  The owner, not the most organized guy, over booked the place and he is kind enough to offer a bed at his place (at no cost).

The wind kicks in just after lunch and I get to sail for a couple of hours (still in the learning phase) but my body is getting old and is very sore after just 2 hrs.  The next day I progress much better and I am sailing comfortably across the lagoon and even manage an (accidental) jump of good height but not the landing.

There is a Sri Lankan kid who works at the camp and his payment is getting to sail every afternoon.  He is completely fearless.  The jumps he takes are insane – height around 7 meters and he covers 25 meters in distance.  I saw him showing off to the local kids that come to watch – They were yelling at me, but I think they were hurling insults.

 The dinning room

 A small jump

The lagoon