As I write this from my hotel room in Sydney, Australia I have been working my new job for 12 days. The first week or so I spent configuring my laptop and getting the product installed. I should say installing the product, not getting it installed as very specifically one of the goals was that I be able to get everything up and running on my own. It is very important that should I find myself in some remote location, which are really the only kind I'll be finding myself in, that I am able to reinstall and reconfigure everything so that I can make sure that I'm able to show the product to potential clients and partners.
As I write this from my hotel room in Sydney, Australia I have been working my new job for 12 days. The first week or so I spent configuring my laptop and getting the product installed. I should say installing the product, not getting it installed as very specifically one of the goals was that I be able to get everything up and running on my own. It is very important that should I find myself in some remote location, which are really the only kind I'll be finding myself in, that I am able to reinstall and reconfigure everything so that I can make sure that I'm able to show the product to potential clients and partners.
Three days ago I left Israel en route to Sydney, Australia. Getting to Sydney is about a 25 hour journey. Our flight was very empty so I had two seats to myself. If I were a bit shorter I might have tried to grab a four seat middle row for myself to sleep. I was easily able to sleep the vast majority of the flight. Interestingly El Al is promoting an ethnic menu. They are going to serve foods that represent different large cultures in Israel. This month is Iraq month so they served Kubbeh with Okra. It wasn't half bad and they passed out a booklet with the recipes for all the ethnic foods they are serving.
As our flight began to descend over Thailand I noticed a windy river. I hadn't really thought about the overall landscape of Thailand even though I'll be there in two weeks time as I'll be spending all of my time in the hearts of the cities of the places I travel. The river got my attention as there aren't really any long flowing rivers in Israel, just little streams that we call rivers. Closer to Bangkok there were rows and rows of what appears to be farmland. The parcels of land seem to be very narrow and long. Flying overhead it struck me that as we moved the angle changed and some of the rows seemed to shine brightly. These parts were just as long, stretching into the distance, and very narrow. Though I don't know what they are growing there it would appear that these are irrigation canals. At one point a very straight highway crosses the farmland at a 25 degree angle.
My colleague had asked me back in Tel Aviv if I played golf. Though I don't play the Thai are apparently very serious golfers. So seriously that when the plane landed at the airport I was astonished to see that there is actually a golf course, complete with carts and caddies, between the runways. Even more interesting is that to get to the golf course you drive your car across the tarmac! I can't imagine how they allow this as it would seem to me that it'd be easy to stick a small missile launcher in a golf club bag.
The Bangkok duty free looks much like any other duty free area. The same perfumes and bottles of alcohol are sold as any other duty free. The difference is that I saw three massage parlors in duty free. They seemed pretty busy with lots of people waiting for a massage. A back, head, neck massage for half an hour is 600 Baht or about $18. I didn't get a massage this time.
The flight from Bangkok to Australia was a British Airways flight under a Qantas ticket. It was also empty enough that my colleague and I were able to split up so we had more room to spread out. It has been a long time since I was on a flight as rough as this one. Also since I slept so long on the flight to Bangkok I was hardly able to sleep on the way to Sydney and the flight seemed to be extremely long.
Australia has very strict quarantine laws to prevent bringing diseases to the island continent. You are not allowed to bring in any kind of meats or plants or perishables. They show a movie about it on the plane and go over the information on the loudspeakers. As the plane reached the point where it will begin the landing pattern the stewards walk through the cabin and spray some sort of disinfectant. Getting through customs was pretty quick. When the taxi driver opened up the trunk I noticed that in the back there was a large round tank. Apparently Australia is rich in natural gas but not as rich in oil. They have converted cars to run on natural gas instead of gasoline. Apparently only older cars have tanks in the trunks as most of the new cars can be bought with the natural gas tank already installed.
Last night we all went out to a place called Kingsley's Steakhouse and Cigar Lounge. It was very good and the atmosphere was great as we were in a private dining room. Tonight we went to the harbor to a place called Nick's. I figured I'm in Australia and never know when I'll be back here again so I ordered a nice Kangaroo steak. It was done medium rare and tasted a good deal like tenderloin.
G'day!
Posted by David at March 12, 2005 01:59 PM | TrackBack