It's a different world..... (1 Viewer)

[alia176]

So, I've been working in China for the past week and trying to soak in the culture - which equates to eating myself stupid at every opportunity The work is located at a fairly remote part of the country and it took me four planes and 36 hours of traveling to get to the hotel. Hotel Google map I had an overnight layover in Shanghai before arriving at my destination in Golmud, China.

Flights: ABQ to LAX, LAX to Shanghai, China (flew over Japan). Overnight. Shanghai to Xi An, Xi an to Golmud.

Working here has been very interesting. I have one interpreter/engineer named William Xie who is helping another colleague and I get things done. The workers are hard working and smoke like chimneys. They're paid to seven days/wk and ear 3,000 Yen ($1.00 = 6.5 yen) and are paid monthly. No time off during the project and I think they're paid in cash.

The two hour lunches has been a treat because the lady who is cooking our food on sight is awesome. She puts out some mean meals and with a full gut, it's hard not to lay down somewhere and nap!! Lunch is usually a two hour deal and we work until 1900. Google map of work site

The vehicles are interesting as you can imagine. Lots of Chinese made vehicles and lots of Japanese made vehicles like Isuzu, Toyota, Mitsubishi, etc. Surprisingly, I've seen lots of Buick Lacrosse's driving around. The most popular taxi cabs are VW Santanas. Toyota buses are common and everything that I've seen so far has manual transmission. These guys are s***ty drivers but they're also very conservative with the fuel consumption. Just about every vehicle shifts from 1st to 2nd within 35' of starting from a stop. They lug the crap out of the engines from 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th. Of course, the requisite honking of the horn is enough to give me a head ache.

Today, we left work early enough to check out the open air market. The place is a zoo!

I'll post up some random shots from the trip for your amusement!

Now, why don't we have cup holders on the backs of airplane seats?

Oh crap, which way do I need to go?

 

[alia176]

China trip cont

Barrier free elevator (AKA escalator!)

My hotel in Golmud

Hotel pool

Hotel exercise facility locker room pics

Your door key card must go into this slot so that your room electricity comes on. This includes A/C, TV, lights, etc. A good way to conserve electricity when the room is unoccupied.

Check out that awesome tub

On the last leg of the journey, some fish oil spilled on my Pelican suitcase so in the shower it went. I don't know if you know fish oil but it's used for cooking and has a VERY strong odor. The hotel elevator and the taxi stank something fierce.

Gotta love all those switches by the night stand

One of those switches turn on Do Not Disturb light outside of your room

 

[alia176]

China trip cont

A/C control unit

A view from my hotel window through a dirty glass. Notice the roof top solar water heaters. According to William, some houses have solar heaters as their ONLY source of hot water. So, after the first shower, you have to wait to get more hot water or you take a cold shower!

Morning breakfast at hotel. A little of this and a little of that and tea of course.

Project site pics

The mountains are less than five miles away but they're always hazy. We think it's the moisture content in the air due to our elevation of 10,000'. Sure wish I had my 80 to go exploring!

Employee temp shelters on site

How about this for a makeshift satellite dish?

Evidently, it works well for capturing free air programs

All the tens have lamp cords running to them from this breaker

and is it any wonder that something shorted out and took out this breaker

So, the shorted power did not just stop at the breaker, which it was suppose to, it kept going uphill and went through a GIANT disconnect a before heading up to the pole and hitting the 10kv line

and also took out a giant disconnect and cooked the 10kv fuses?

The disconnect disintegrated!

The site lost power for about half a day. But don't worry, mamasita (my name for the cook) was rocking and rolling on propane. Whew, that was close.

 

[alia176]

My eyes watered when I entered the kitchen from the wok on top of a giant propane burner that sounds like a jet engine!

Honestly, her food is better than the hotel food by far!

street sweeper that wasn't doing a very good job I don't think

A guy at the site was collecting all of our packing styrofoam and taking it into town

 

[alia176]

China trip cont

Cool rig

Our crazy taxi driver

After lunch, it's siesta time. Just find your favorite packing foam and lay down on the ground.

My little cubby

very common work horse around here

Isuzu

Check out this ride. Another common truck used to haul very heavy things like concrete to the job site. The rear leaves were probably 1 ton and it's pulled by a small engine, maybe 35 hp, hand crank start

 

[alia176]

This is a drill rig with a giant air compressor in tow. The driver/operator seems comfortable on his perch.

I could not, for the life of me, find a cooler for cold drinks. This country just doesn't do cold beer, soda or water. So, a tupperware was purchased and I used foam to create a cooler for Pepsi. Gotta have my Pepsi man. I went four days w/o Pepsi and that was just too freaking long.

A 380volt single phase welder with no ground wire. Who needs a ground wire for safety? Meh.

 

[alia176]

China trip cont

On site clothes washing machine

Went wheeling at lunch time and found a dam project that wasn't built too well. The water from the mountains is directed to go through the town. The entire town has shallow culverts that channel the water so that the road side plants and shrubbery are automatically watered. This water is also used to wash cars so lots of taxi cabs are found on the side of the road washing off their cars. I've seen bull dozers pulled over getting a bath. The water is very cold and clear. I can't seem to sucker anyone into taking me into the mountains just yet. I'm working on it though.

Nissan Paladine (Exterra)

More work horses

The front end loader at work broke a rear driveshaft so it was getting stuck on the soft sandy area. A slow recovery work took place.

After eating great Chinese food for six days, I was hankering for some good old fashioned junk food. Found a place called Diko's. Everything is chicken, no beef and it was tasty.

 

[gr8wrk]

We don't have those cup holders 'cus they won't hold a Bud Light.

 

[pappy]

Now you know how they feel coming here. Cool stuff Ash.

 

[dfmorse]

really great shots; thx

...

 

[OGBeno]

Any hottie pics?

We need more of those.

 

[DanS HJ-45]

Kate read about and saw the pics of the food. She hates you now.

Very cool! You realize the motor that was under the hood of that black 80, right?

Very, very cool.

Dan

 

[alia176]

Kate read about and saw the pics of the food. She hates you now.

Very cool! You realize the motor that was under the hood of that black 80, right?

Very, very cool.

Dan

abq time: 1700 hrs 9/17/11
china time: 0700 hrs 9/18/11

Yeah, I did realize but the guy kept moving around town so I wasn't able to steal his 1HD-T

More pics of food. We went to a market yesterday and stopped at another restaurant where William had to order food for us. Food, as usual, was fantastic. Warm Pepsi and warm beer hit the spot.

Yummy soup

Yummy fried pig fat. I can used to this dish, holy moly it's delicious.

Yummy spicy beef with noodles and stuff

Yummy cabbage with vinegar and a basket of rice. Saying that I stuffed myself was an understatement.

I wondered over to the bar to check things out and take some more pics. I needed a break from the cigarette smoke.

Puppy in a box? WTF?

Snake juice? Dead snake floating in the jar

Cow penis in a jar?

I don't know WTF this is

Then I wondered over to the kitchen. This entire restaurant is being served by ONE mamasita, holy moly

Picture of William our interpreter and engineer on site

Pete from NJ office and I

general pics of the restaurant ambiance. I'm taking the pics w/o using a flash to keep it discrete.

 

[alia176]

China trip cont

After dinner, we head over to the tea shop. The shop owner sits us down and makes us a sample of different teas. It's quite the ritual. He has a hot pot of water boiling on his right side and uses that to rinse out the tea leaves and the little sample cups

The dirty hot water goes right through the table into a catch basin below.

Check out the tea sets and tea serving tables

Afterwards, we headed to the food store. This is a three story building with escalators and full of all kinds of goodies. Everything is orderly and clean. There are lots of ladies who is ready to help the customers.

Refer section

 

[alia176]

China trip cont

More pics of the food store. I'm using no flash so some pics did not come out super clear. It feels a little strange taking pics of people and things like a tourist!

Chicken feet?

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[alia176]

China trip cont

Dried fruit sectioni

Then it's off to the open air market

 

[alia176]

Well, it's Sunday morning and I'm off to work. Will post up more pics this evening.

 

[alia176]

Any hottie pics?

We need more of those.

Yeah, about those....definitely lacking in this part of the country, LOL!!!

The ladies were face masks to protect against dust and the sun. This area is very much like NM, high desert with very little rain. The winds pickup serious dust from what I've seen.

I tell you what, I have yet to see an overweight man or a woman on this trip. This is a very healthy culture, even though most men smoke. I've not seen a woman who smokes just yet.

 

[marcfj60]

Lot's of really neat things to see. For some reason, the pull-tab soda cans really stick out the most to me. Makes my trip to Chicago last week seem really dull (it was anyway).

 

[Daisy 53]

Looks like paradise to you buddy, lots of food to feed your tapeworm!!

Daisy