Living out of a suitcase

I have just finished a 7 week road trip to places far and wide. My trip started in Hong Kong, then to Indonesia for a week. After finishing a maintenance assessment for a client I travelled on to Bangkok for another maintenance assessment for the same client. From Bangkok I went to Khon Kaen where I spent a week. Now this is where the trip turned crazy.

The client got the idea we needed to do some planning so I flew to Bangkok for a cup of coffee and then on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. One day of planning and educating, then back to Bangkok. There I met my colleague and continued interviewing the client to conclude the assessment.

After 2 days of interrogations (me not the client)I headed back to Kuala Lumpur for a visit with another client. I gave a brilliant sales presentation that more than likely fell on deaf ears (my best work sometimes falls to the wayside). Much interest but I am not holding my breath. Run to failure prevails.

After leaving KL I headed on to Muscat Oman. Purpose was to visit client and local agent and sort out schedule for the next year. The outcome of this 6 day visit was sorting out the schedule for my consultants, a short visit with the client, and touch bases with another prospect in Muscat. Next stop: Dubai.

Travelling to Dubai reminds me of the opening visual of the city of Caprica in the television show, Battlestar Galactica. Its unbelievable simply said. Anyway each time I visit I feel like I am in another world. Unfortunately the city quite simply has no soul. There is nothing that you can call the city center. Everything is scattered about but irregardless there are a few hot spots.

I did a 5 day course in Dubai called Maintenance Planning, Scheduling, and Coordination. The course went well and I am sure I impacted a few students. perhaps something will come out of it. Who knows.

I spent a total of 10 days in Dubai then I flew to Doha in Qatar. 2 weeks in Doha working at the largest gas plant in the world. I conducted a one week "hands-on" course on maintenance work preparation and scheduling. The class was a success much more than I imagined. SAP was the CMMS (ERP which I am not an expert but with gentle prodding and questioning I was able to assist the students in building a schedule in SAP.

I finished up feeling extremely satisfied with my efforts. This particular engagement almost didn't happen. I almost backed out at the last minute because I was under the impression they wanted SAP training to go with the maintenance training. Fortunately I was wrong and the training went on as scheduled.

I left Doha on May 29th and headed back to the US which culminated my around the world trip. This was my third "around the world" business trip. Sounds fun but it was brutal. 8 cities and 8 hotels in 7 weeks. To top it off once I arrived in NC I had a cup of coffee and then flew on to California for a week. I am glad to be back home now:)