Bapak Tarakan

When I was posted to Tarakan, never had I heard of this name in Indonesia before. But a Google on the web, I noted that Tarakan to be a significant name for Word War 2 history. It all started here. So, how on earth a small island like this can garner so much attention from the Japanese invasion?

The Japanese wanted Tarakan for two reasons: a rich oil field and as a strategic air base from which further attacks can be launched. Nowadays, it is still obvious to see them here when most of expats who flew with me on the same flight are Japanese and Dutch. I guess most of them work for oil based company that are stationed here. If not, I really don't see why someone will be attracted to here.

When it comes to Indonesia, people will just mention the name like Bali, Bandung, Jakarta or Medan. Tarakan? You just dumbstruck one people's conversation. It is so remote that I even had to make 3 transit flights in order to get there. If you think LCCT2 is a market, wait till you hop on the flights in Indonesia! You might elevate LCCT2 back to Tesco hypermarket status.

Though Tarakan is just another city like Terengganu or Kelantan, you still find some familiar faces back home. Like CIMB. Wow. Just imagine I can pay my Direct Access credit card or bank in my check here. KFC? Well, tried that. The menu and set are just not comparable to those back home.Furthermore, they don't serve bread but instead plain white rice.

I was staying in the only 5 stars hotel in town. Swiss-Belhotel Tarakan. The place has nothing to shout about. Just that I'll have FOC morning call from the morning prayers. Ironically, my stay here was not so lonely. I was actually staying with a group of Malaysian primary students who were having the 12th Asean Age Group Chess Championship in the town. With all those thick glasses student accompanied by their respective coaches and teachers, it reminiscend my day as chess player for my school. The difference nowadays is I do more check-in to hotel and flight rather than check-mate your opponent.

After some hectic night work, I had my ups and downs there. For the first time, I was sent into hospital  overseas. I had to be given jab to treat my allergic to an unknown insect bites. Even worse, I encountered a flattened dead cobra in the middle of the runway. Just imagine that, in full darkness, out of the sudden it was just 2 meter besides you. I knew of a movie called Snakes On A Plane starring Samuel Jackson. I guessed there might be someone up there threatened to follow the act from the movie too in Indonesia.

All these while, I never felt so proud of my work until I came here. The only time, I got journalists so close to me was when I boarded the fully-chartered flight for my friend's wedding. This time, I even had a group of journalists taking photos and interviewing us. Felt like a Justin Beiber doing an engineering job. Last but not least, the fried fish I had there was probably the best seafood meal I ever had. I had it for every meal. Lunch and dinner for 3 consecutive days! Just fried fish, rice, and some raw vegetables that were eaten with fresh sambal (chili paste). The Japanese must had left their fishy cuisine here though it must had been Indonesianised now.

I even tried their Nasi Padang there. The waiter in the restaurant immediately served the dishes directly to our table. Within seconds, our table was quickly set with dozens of small dishes filled with highly-flavoured foods such as beef rendang, curried fish, stewed greens, chili eggplant, curried beef liver, tripes, intestines, or foot tendons, fried beef lung, fried chicken, and of course, sambal. We took and paid for only what we had taken from this array of dishes. It is just like eating mixed rice just that this mixed rice is much more variety and expensive.

The people there was very polite. I found it so funny that I was called Bapak whenever a person greeted me. I think my most memorable moment during this trip was my immigration clearance in Jakarta. The conversation below was translated from Bahasa Indonesia.

Immigration officer: What you doing here?

Me: Business meeting.

Immigration officer: ... (stared at me and then my passport).

Me: ...(I smiled while my attention turned to the weird hand print sign on the counter-top which I never encountered any in other airports before)

Immigration officer: Hand (He said in a stern tone. I quickly divert back my attention to him)

Me: Huh!?!!!?? What?!? (I was confused by his instruction)

Immigration officer: Hand!! (He voiced in a louder tone this time)

Me: OK. (I raised both my hands up thinking that he is checking whether I'm in a sober stage or not)

Immigration officer: ON THE SCANNER!!!!!!

Shoot!!!

My First Building As An Engineer

As an engineer, nothing is as proud as designing your own first building. When I first started working, never crossed my mind that I will be getting the chance of designing a building. Though not that fancy multi-storey skyscraper, but to be able to have a building under your name is already quite a remarkable platform to me personally.

I posted so many pictures with the iconic buildings behind as background. But I think this picture deserved to be ranked among the top on my list. Not a significant landmark. But it's just me and the structure I designed. With not much computer involved, I was taught the hard way of using pencil and calculator by the senior checking my work. I remember one of the great story my lecturer once told me. In the old days, a bridge engineer was asked to design a bridge while he's on his business trip on one evening. With such short notice, he asked for one pencil and a few sheets of paper from the lobby. He worked over the night. The next morning, he submitted his design and calculation complete with the sketches of the bridge to be built. By just using pencil and paper, he had charted the fortune of the people who will benefit from the construction of that bridge.

Though I was not involved during the construction, I have this guy above supervising the whole construction process from A to Z. We had our ups and downs with constant telephone calls, letters and emails dealing with site issues. Luckily, this guy is so high in EQ that he managed to deal with lots of issue faced. Though I felt a bit guilty at times as I was too busy with office issue that sometimes I can't lend a hand and he had to face the bricksbats eventually. Nevertheless, I take that as a learning curve in my life. I have to be thankful to so many people for giving me the chance to entrust me with this task.

Triple Tap - Are You Ready?

Angry with tight dateline?

Fed up with paper jam?

Run out of tissue paper in the pantry?

ARE YOU READY????

To vent out your anger after a tough working day?

Revenge Of The Fallen Contractor

.......In the beginning of time, robots once rule the earth. Conquering the world. But it has disappeared over the time with no one knows of their presence and they left no trace behind.

Some claimed it has transformed into something that forms part of our daily life machinery.

When the sun comes down, they are believed to transformed from it original stature to the most destructive and powerful machines you will see on earth. 

Nowadays, Mother Nature is giving us a sign of their resurgence. Something weird has happened in this part of the world.

Is it a sign of Thor coming to save us?

Or "something" coming to give rise to the fallen?

It it once claimed our so-called best companion for human race. Now they had transformed and changed. We are now witnessing the  revenge of the fallen contractor!

Sheikh-ing Up A Storm In Oman

Last year my trip to Oman for a job there was quite a memorable one. Well, this is the first time for me to travel to a Middle East country. First reaction from my colleague was,

“Wow, you get the chance to go enjoy Oman”

“Have fun there”

I was a bit reserved when they said that. Doing this short-term engineering job, we seldom had the luxury to go around, you see. We are expected to land there, go hotel, that night or if lucky the next day go to work. On the last day, prepare to go back that day itself or if lucky go back tomorrow. No free non-working day for you to enjoy.

In one incident, I had to take midnight flight. Reached the destination airport at 4.15am and had to sleep inside the arrival hall until 8am. Then it’s straight to work non-stop. After that, straight fly back and reach hotel at night! Tough job, huh? What to do? Part and parcel of an engineer’s life.

Having said so, this trip is the first time I get to work less than 8 hours. Not that I chose not to work, but rather I was forbidden to do so. The searing heat I had to face in the country doesn’t allow me to work beyond 9.30am. Furthermore, I can’t work at night as this is a visual inspection. Just imagine how hot and dry it can be. I did my laundry in the hotel and then hang it outside the window. Within 3 hours, the clothes was dried and “hardened” even without direct contact with sunlight.

Food-wise, the only food I would recommend is the briyani rice with fish. Other than that, McDonalds is the next best staple food you get to eat around. Not because there is not any other restaurant around but the cheapest you can get. Eating dinner here at night is really an experience to remember. Here, they have air-cooler especially for your table alone. Because this country is so desert type, your drink has to be covered with aluminum foil to prevent sand getting into your drink.

The second funny thing I encountered when I was in Salalah city is that you WILL NEVER get to find restaurant open between lunch and dinner! Even if you are rich papas and mamas, they don’t give a darn. Sorry brother, when it’s time to eat you should eat. So… McDonalds again?

We all know the rich papas from this country are because of petroleum. Talk about subsidise. Where on earth can you see the price per liter petrol start with zero in front? Fuel is so cheap here that people are reluctant to get out from the car even when going to ATM machine for money withdrawal.

As for the culture, you eat with your right hand. You shake with you right hand. Even if you are a left-handed. Hygiene is of utmost importance that I spend some time figuring the purpose of this bowl beside my toilet bowl.

Wash clothes? I don’t think so judging from the position it was located away from the toilet bowl. Wash leg? Maybe, because you know for prayers, they need to clean they limbs. Or wash face? Can’t be because there is a basin there. Urinal pot? Can’t be when the one to aim is just beside. Wash backside? I can’t imagine how you want to switch from one side to the other when you can just “kaotim” at the place you finished your job. Furthermore, there is a hose attached to the wall. Can anyone tell me please?

As for the people, you really need to see how “barbaric” CERTAIN people are here. The customer service here is the most impolite I ever encountered. You would be lucky if they didn’t scold you back. To them, “customer is always right” is not in their syllabus. When you are rich you can do everything you want just like Bill Gate giving presentation without wearing any formal clothing. Here, you can even play bowling barefooted! How about that?

One thing I noticed the people here have a good features in their faces. They are all generally good looking. Pointed nose and big blued eyes. Some of them are quite big sized too. I even came across one guy in Salalah that looks like an Asian version of Luis Figo.

Middle East is a nice place to earn some extra income. But to call it as a home? You must be someone who grew up in North Pole.

I Am Jack Sparrow!

Jack of all trades, master of none. That’s the idiom told to me when I first started my career as an engineer. After working for three years, I began to notice that engineering is a field which gathers all the trades. Of course, when you have been nurtured as a striker in a soccer game, we thought you will just do the attacking job. That’s the old-fashioned thinking. Nowadays, everything has evolved. You need to be more versatile to be in the team.

I began to understand my director’s stance of involving his engineers in many different fields. In the end thing what you learned from one field helps you in another area. So how about the jack of all trades thing? Well, I won’t rule it out completely. At a tender working experience age like mine, it’s still far to be master of one. Like the Chinese saying goes, “Not enough stove fire yet”.

Learning something new is daunting experience to some. Why? Because you might be learning it from someone younger than you. In other word, “ego”. Some times it could also be fear of failure. I found it tough at first when I was told to go Thailand office to help up for a structural job there. Being an engineer with just one building design to my credit, I don’t consider myself to be qualified enough to do the task when there were 40 structural engineers there.

Just like bungee jumping, the first step is always the toughest to make. After you overcome that, it’s either you enjoy the experience of falling down or end up throwing the breakfast you’ve just eaten. Bad or good experience, it’s always something you need to deal in life to make that one shift into another gear. I had both but I treat the bad as another circle of life. You learned from mistake, don’t repeat it and move on with life.

Be frank with me? How many of you prefer a life of 8 to 5 working hours with no worry to be carried back to home? I will go to the extent of raising my legs to be one of them. Of course that would the ideal job. But in reality I can’t. Lately, I’ve been bringing some of the work to home. Well, this is not a routine task where I can solve the problem with a snap of the finger. Doing engineering is something you need to adapt to new standard, design criteria and lots of new formula.

You need those extra hours to gorge down the books so you will be prepared by the weekday. I must say I’m lacked the so-called site experience of an engineer. I was always jibed by senior engineers because of that. Youtube is a very good tools for us who never seen the real thing before. I’m grateful for one crane operator who took video of him handling the container during his work.

From there, I saw the road marking colour inside the port which I used in my design criteria. Who would have thought yellow and white line serves different purpose in port? When you can’t find any design book or guide to tell you, real life example is a good source of information.

Michael Jackson once said,

“The world greatest education is to watch the expert performs”.

Red Shirt - When Blood Covers The Shirt

It's 3.43PM. The staff has left the building. 

BTS station closed. More soldiers had been deployed.

And they carry guns and mean business.

Tension is boiling.

Even BN has turned green here.

And... Hello...Why am I still in Bangkok?