Flight CA1901
Left Beijing this morning and took a little notice on how huge the airport is. It is pretty amazing from the vantage point I had.
Anyway, last night's news splashed on the bomb attacks at the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels almost simultaneously. It felt so surreal,especially since Iam heading for Urumqi en route to Dushanzi. What safety precautions can l fall back on, if something wereto happen? Not my most comforting moment right now.
Well, at least l'm entertaining myselt with my new Kohjinsha UMPC. Nice...
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Journal log: 18 July 2120hrs
Maitark Hotel 1006
Day 1 of "Disconnected from the world"
The trip to Dushanzi was uneventful, and on reaching the hotel, it became clear to me soon that there will be very few ways to be connected to the outside world. There is no internet, no connection on my mobile phones, even the local phones will not be able to make international calls. My only connection will be via my Beijing colleague, the Chinese agent and another Singapore colleague who has a China-registered number, by calling any one of them.
Let's see how my sanity holds with so much difficulties to be connected.
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Journal log: 19 July 0810hrs
Maitark Hotel Room 1006
Day 2 of "Disconnected from the world"
Weight - 66.4kg
7 hrs of sleep! Without much to do, and not wanting to work at those outstanding but non-urgent issues, without any TV shows that is worth watching, I slept more than I did for months. And I am looking forward to sleeping more tonight.
While strolling the streets last night, I noticed that the indoor lightings are always quite dim... dim compared to the lightings used in Singapore. Perhaps I am too used to the clarity with bright lights back home. And with regards to street design, the roads at Dushanzi are flanked by trees. It looks nice, but I must comment that the design was not well done. The branches of the trees were too low, and these trees are planted over pavements ... pavements that are now inaccessible by people taller than 1m. Duh...
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Journal log: 19 July 2205hrs
Maitark Hotel Room 1006
Day 2 of "Disconnected from the world"
It is really wierd, not having phone connections while mobile. There is no need to take my phones out, and that feels really strange... Will I get used to this?
I jogged around part of the town, and took some nice photos of the nearby mountains. It is not every day that I get to stay in a town near a snow-capped mountain, with some broad expense of green plains. The Dushanzi town consists of very new buildings, nice new estates, older style estates, as well as slums. The contrast of this small city/town is amazing.
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Journal log: 20 July 0715hrs
Maitark Hotel Room1006
Day 3 of "Disconnected from the world"
Weight - 66.9kg
Going back into the plant in the morning. Hope the progress will accelerate, but I understand that in this line, it is more likely for delays to occur. I wonder how I can handle this upset in the original plans.
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Journal log: 20 July 2150hrs
Maitark Hotel Room1006
Day 3 of "Disconnected from the world"
Probably getting fatter due to the heavy lunches and dinners. This is despite the morning 5BX that I have started to do. Perhaps I will remain fit after this trip? Well, I plan to skip dinner tomorrow in favour for a jog... think this is going to happen?
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Journal log: 21 July 0752hrs
Maitark Hotel Room1006
Day 4 of "Disconnected from the world"
Weight - 67.3kg
Another day here... hope things smoothen out at work. But I also look forward to having a day off to go touring. Hmm...
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Journal log: 22 July 0800hrs
Maitark Hotel Room1006
Day 5 of "Disconnected from the world"
Weight - 67.0kg
Not so much as disconnected from the world now. I could receive phone calls on the blackberry and the contact engineer also got me a local number for my use. But internet connection is still not there and I still cannot make international calls. Hope the government will decide to resume connectivity.
There is a solar eclipse taking place right now. Wonder if I will see it on the way to work later?
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Journal log: 22 July 2147hrs
Maitark Hotel Room1006
Day 5 of "Disconnected from the world"
Just came back from a swim at the next door public pool. Nice, though there is way too many people. But swimming does provide some much needed exercise. Dinner is going to be a Dove chocolate bar, yoghurt and oats cereals. Hmm...
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Journal log: 23 July 0757hrs
Maitark Hotel Room1006
Day 6 of "Disconnected from the world"
Weight - 66.4kg
Work is to begin today. Let's hope things go smoothly!
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Journal log: 23 July 2216hrs
Maitark Hotel Room1006
Day 6 of "Disconnected from the world"
Loading started, but with all the problems that I had previously envisioned. and we hanged around waiting for things to happen such that I only returned to the room around 9+. And my colleagues tried super hard to reach me with this one-way comms situation... so grateful... well, let's hope for a more smooth day tomorrow.
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Journal log: 24 July 0757hrs
Maitark Hotel Room1006
Day 7 of "Disconnected from the world"
Weight - 66.0kg
Light breakfasts and dinners over these 2 days have resulted in some reduction of weight. Guess I should continue to only have light dinners, though next week may not be in my total control.
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Journal log: 26 July 0952hrs
Flight CZ317 - Beijing to Seoul
Left Dushanzi yesterday, and was finally "connected" in Beijing, at the pretty good Crowne Plaza Hotel near the airport.117 emails for the 8 days of disconnection, with a myriad of issues to handle, some within the next 3 days. Oh dear... Hope I can get through these without too much pain.
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