Going to Sweden, more plane trouble

Today it was time to go to Sweden again for a workshop. Thankfully the trip to Sweden was over Munich and not Frankfurt which is a pain to fly over. So, when I finally got on board the flight from Munich to Stockholm I fell asleep immediately and woke up about 2 hours later when the pilot announced that we where going in for landing. Looking out of the window I didn't recognize the areas around Stockholm which worried me a bit. It became even more worrying when I saw a "Munich Airport sign" going down for landing. The reason was that halfway to Sweden there was a engine problem and they decided to turn around...

Posted at 04:00AM Nov 21, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Work  | 

Brasil

Having spent a full week back in Sweden hunting, I was supposed to do some work in Sweden also. This however got changed on Friday and I was requested to go to Brazil next week to do a demo for a potential customer. So, trying to get the trip organized I made some new bookings so the return trip to Dubai went over Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

This also meant that the flight for Brazil left at 0530 on Monday morning with a transfer in Paris. And with some standard delays I ended up running through the terminal and jumping all the security queues to be able to get on board in time.

You realize that South America is a long way from Europe after spending roughly 15 hours traveling before reaching the destination. Since I had to work first thing the day after I had booked a hotel close to the office and took a cab straight from the airport to the hotel. The general recommendation was not to walk between the office and the hotel after dark due to the high crime rate, even though it only was 1 km between the two places...

Since I had been for vacation in Sweden, I hadn't brought any suites or black shoes so after the first day of preparations I had to make my way to the local shipping mall to find dark trousers and a pair of black shoes to have something to wear for the customer presentation.

Posted at 04:00AM Oct 15, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Work  | 

DXB-CMB-BOM-SIN-CGK-KUL-DXB In 5 days

Redundant power is always important...




Poor people in India are extremely poor




Townships in Mumbai




The hotel was nice




Poor people in India are extremely poor


This week it was a hectic schedule planned:

Fly from Dubai to Colombo, Sri Lanka
Fry from Sri Lanka to Mumbai, India
Fly from Mumbai to Jakarta with stopover in Singapore
Fly from Jakarta to Dubai with stopover in Kuala Lumpur
Ship dogs to Sweden
Fly from Dubai to Langkawi, Malaysia with stopover in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur

Had to hold presentations and demos for 4 different customers in three countries spread all over Asia this week. First stop was Colombo in Sri Lanka. The country seems to be a good place to do vacation in if it wasn't for the Tamil tigers who are making a stir in the country. There where a lot of checkpoints and military presence in the capital.

Next stop was Mumbai, India where I met with two customers before taking the night flight to Jakarta, Indonesia. At this time I had started to develop a serious cold and I was basically sitting and freezing and sleeping all the way from Mumbai to Jakarta. Landed att 10 in the morning and immediately took a car to the customer so that I could join in the meeting 15 minutes late. After lunch it was time for my demo and once the meeting was concluded I basically went back to the airport and managed to get a earlier flight to Kuala Lumpur which seemed to be a better airport to be in waiting for the flight back to Dubai.

I arrived back in Dubai on the night between Thursday and Friday. The day was then spent preparing for shipping the dogs back to Sweden. This means doing vet examinations, getting the paperwork in place etc. On Saturday it was then time to ship the dogs so we assembled the cages and went down to the cargo village to finish the last paperwork and ship the dogs. Irritatingly enough it turned out that shipping the dogs back to Sweden was roughly twice the price compared to shipping them to Dubai. Anyway, after sending them the worry started and we kept in constant touch with my parents to make sure that everything should run smoothly upon arrival back in Sweden.

This however did not go all that smoothly, as it turned out there where a lot of trouble once the dogs actually arrived. As per idiotic bureaucracy of course the dogs needed to be declared for VAT purposes (even though they where shipped from Sweden just 8 months earlier). Also, additional money had to be paid for vet examination, paperwork etc.

Posted at 04:00AM Sep 09, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Work  | 

Arriving in Istanbul

The Bosport






One of two bridges over the Bosport






Mosque beneath the bridge over the Bosport






Looking out over Istanbul from the hotel






On the way to office


I arrived in Istanbul, Turkey late yesterday evening to take part in a two day workshop. I must say that Istanbul wasn't at all what I had expected. It's actually really nice, people are open minded and the city itself is really green as opposed to the usual Mediterranean bushy landscape. There was a lot of work but one evening there was a company activity that we took part in with a boat trip on the Bosport and a good dinner.

Posted at 04:00AM Jul 09, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Work  | 

Going to Aligers

Today I'm going to Algiers, Algeria on a business trip. Unfortunately it will be a quick in and out (it's always nice to see something besides airports, airplanes, hotels and meeting rooms).
So, leaving Dubai at 03.00 this morning (talk about a early or late flight) with Air Algeria which should make for a interesting experience. The flight is arriving at 07.00 local time which actually is GMT. I won't get my hopes up for a good flight, but hey, I've been surprised before. Will return late Thursday night.

Posted at 02:00AM May 09, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Work  |