one thing good about company conferences is you get to meet old friends. most of my old colleagues in asia-pacific are here with me this week. it's nice seeing them again – when i look at their faces, shake their hands and get up to speed on all the gossip, i am reminded of all the great things we left behind when we were still based on the other side of the big pond.
i've been stuck here in a hotel in southern california for almost a week now and i am beginning to feel really tired. i am attending a company conference and it has been one prestentation after another from 7:30 in the morning until 5:30 in the afternoon. death by powerpoint, they call it. to make up for all this, each of us got one iPod nano as a gift. not bad. i hope i can attend again next year. who knows, they might give everyone a laptop computer.
many years ago, i was part of a team of engineers that did power plants up in the virgin rain forests of the philippines. well, they weren't virgin anymore by the time we went up. it was more like "partially screwed". during the early 1990's, we had massive blackouts because there wasn't enough electricity in the island and everybody was scrambling to start up power plants all over the country. being in the pacific ring of fire, the philippines has a major geothermal power reserve. to produce power, all you needed to do was to draw from the well, so to speak. i've never been told the reason why, but most of the geothermal power reserves are in the middle of rain forests and in order to tap that power, you need to build power plants right where the resourse is located. as part of the engineering team building the plants, that means we had to live there. it was fun at the start but when you’re up in the rain forest for long stretches, things start to change. because of all the isolation, you start to think crazy thoughts and then you start doing crazy stuff. pretty soon, you run through the jungle naked and do kung fu poses.
i’ve been on the road almost all my adult life. i’ve been to all the right places travelling for all the wrong reasons. yes “ive been to georgia and california and anywhere i could run” as the line of that most hated song goes. i’ve done it by bus, boat, plane, jeepney, truck, car, motorcycle and everything in between. i am an engineer and because of work, i’ve been hopping from one island after another all these 18 years. it’s been a rich experience – i’ve met so many people, seen so many things and been to many places that i would otherwise not have experienced had i done something else. well, i could have been a sailor and maybe travelled even more but i digress.
i am an accidental tourist.
