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My Letter of Complaint to Choice Hotels
2011-11-26 05:00:00
Dear Sir/Madam I recently joined the ?Choice Privileges? as I travel allot in Asia and felt that your hotels were suitable for my stays. I started off recently with the ?Hotel Comfort? at Centrair Airport, Japan. The stay was fine and well within my expectations except for the fact that no reward points were given for this particular stay or hotel. I then booked into the Comfort Hotel in Dumai, Indonesia. Please let me start with this hotel by saying it was the worst hotel experience I have ever been through. Over my twenty five years of constant travel worldwide the Comfort Hotel in Dumai put new meaning to the word ?discomfort?.  I will list some of the items that I found in your hotel: 1.       During the evening there were three blackouts in the room. Power was restored only after ten minutes the first time. 2.       Cockroaches were at infestation level. They were in my coffee cup, on the bed, in the shower and I ...
More About: Hotels , Letter , Complaint

Cathay Pacific Annoys me Again
2011-11-16 07:51:00
I flew with Cathay Pacific from Singapore to Centrair International Airport in Japan via Hong Kong a couple of days ago. I previously vowed to never complain about airlines again but somehow Cathay Pacific just rub me up the wrong way. They have a certain knack for doing so. Here's the first issue: If you book an economy class superior ticket you can then choose your seat on-line without checking in. I did this and chose a window seat near the back of the aircraft (all those forward were middle seats only). Unfortunately my table broke before take-off (honest sir) and I had to be moved to an economy class seat in the forward cabin. Now (if you are still with me), I noted during this change that the economy class seat at the back had two inches less of leg room. This makes all the difference to me. The issue here is that I booked a 'superior' economy ticket yet I end up with a seat that has two inches less leg room. I paid 350 SGD extra for that ticket - in other words I paid 3...

A Captain - as seen through a ten-year old eyes
2011-10-31 08:48:00
Am Anonymous entry bu a ten-year old school kid sums up the Master! "I want to be a Captain when I grow up because it's a funny job and easy to do. Captains don't need much school education, they just have to learn numbers so they can read instruments. I guess they should be able to read maps so they won't get lost. Captains have to be brave so they won't get scared if it's foggy and they can't see, or if the propeller falls off they should stay calm so they will know what to do. Captains have to have eyes to see through the clouds and they can't be afraid of thunder and lightening because they are closer to them than we are. The salary that Captains make is another thing I like. They make more money than they can spend. This is becuase most people think that captaining a ship is dangerous except Captains, becuase they know how easy it is. There isn't much I don't like, except girls like Captains and all the girls want to marry a Captain, so they always chase them aw...
More About: Eyes

African Farmers Could Use Trees to Improve Crop Yeilds
2011-10-16 13:33:00
In some cases the maize crop yield has doubled once trees have been planted. Wow! This comes from a BBC headline report today. Wow! What amazes me is that here we are churning out various chemical fertilisers when simply planting a few trees around a field would do the same trick - and we would amazingly help the environment in the process. What is our problem? We have such a pathetic attitude to nature, our daily existence and the future and to all intents and purposes we are in purposeful, knowledgeable and willing self-destruct mode. Nuclear power stations, CO2 capture and storage systems and chemical fertiliser are only three of the thousands of mind-boggling and stupid things that humans see as the answer to the future - why, why, why? Why build nuclear power stations and then watch what happens in Japan and before at Chernobyl? Why capture and store enormous quantities of C02 Gas underground when we should try to stop producing it in the first place? C02 under our feet is ...
More About: Trees , Improve

What Proportion of Boards Should be Women
2011-10-13 04:20:00
A headline in the middle of an edition of the Singapore Business Times read "what proportion of boards should be women". It only caught my eye as I mistakenly read it as .... 'broads'...... but the article went on to suggest that a typical companies board should contain 11-30% females (as per a survey taken of 291 board members from various companies based in Singapore). It went further to suggest that government legislation should be considered to enforce this, although 'tokenism' was mentioned as a direct result of such an action. In the modern world of supposed equality between the sexes it would be outright demeaning to any female to be in her position by law and not by talent and effort. In what other way would the males on the board see it? I find it strange that a percentage figure should be given, as well as the use of the word 'tokenism'. Tokenism in essence relates to a minority group to which the female gender as a whole is certainly not unless to China we go. Tok...
More About: Women

On a Beach in Batu Ferringhi, Penang, Malaysia
2011-10-07 07:58:00
We went to Penang , Malaysia the other day, 3 days booked at the Holiday Inn Resort Hotel in Batu Ferringhi, Penang to enjoy everything that a resort could offer with a bit of tourism into the nearby George Town or the closer flea market for the seemingly necessary trinkets and future memories. On the first day we had a great buffet breakfast and suitably stuffed to the gills we made a bee-line for the beach. Peculiar really. I could see this strange but perfectly drawn line between the still blue sea and the dimensionless grainy sand, a line that defied immediate explanation! Upon reaching this incongruous split of nature it all became clear - a soldiers line of plastic bottles, styrofoam cups, packets of condoms, and anything else that could float-in on the tide just lay there, a warning to the world of more to come perhaps? Looking closer out to sea bobbing containers and bottles could be seen everywhere, a plastic invasion; what seemed worse than the line though was the total a...
More About: Beach

The Slippery Drop in Seafaring Standards
2011-09-20 09:05:00
Since becoming a Marine Consultant in 2010 I have been increasingly concerned about the drop in Seafaring Standards . Admittedly, a Consultant deals with the poorer end of the scale, the collisions, groundings and the 'errors' in human judgment but various conversations with bankers, insurance companies, shipowners, equipment manufacturers and with other consultants/surveyors points toward an over-all demise of basic seafaring skills and the ability for any crew-member to think outside the box they have been put into. I have previously highlighted the fact that this drop in seafaring ability was synonymous with the introduction of STCW and ISM and I standby this today. One Captain recently conversed to me that he could not understand why his company kept on asking him to maintain his vessel. As he put it "I am employed to operate the vessel, not to maintain it". What made this comment worse was the fact that he was British and should have been born under stricter surround, what i...

On a Beach in Malacca, Malaysia
2011-04-04 10:31:00
It was just there today, gone tomorrow Who, why, where, what? As my son put - "beauty in the middle of rubbish" (although the greenery was found to be plastic)
More About: Malaysia , Beach

This Mornings Rockin' Mad Taxi Driver
2011-03-19 10:52:00
I called a taxi this morning at 0445 hours to get to Changi Airport for a flight to Kuantan in Malaysia. This is sort of routine for me now! Not specifically going to Malaysia but the early morning taxi journey that precedes some flight to some end destination. Normally these trips go smoothly and without comment, a taxi pulls up at the door, I kiss the wife goodbye (whilst wandering again why I have to leave the good life) and without further ado I find myself at the airport and a taxi driver with his handout expecting some cash to be passed over. Uneventful as they should be. This particular driver was an exception. I'm positive that I've met him before and in-fact included him in an article I wrote in 2003 titled "The Singapore Taxi Driver " where I suffered a journey of imitation bagpipe playing and horse neighing. This morning as I was ticking through my items for the third time, passport, toothbrush, money, etc, my phone rang. "Eeehee, you call for taxi?", shouted some v...

Silas E Parks and The Football Pools Winnings
2011-02-23 07:55:00
It is my birthday today dear folks. I?m eighty-five years and still as fit as a fiddle. I do tend to spend more time these days thinking about the past, the future is hard to mull over when tomorrow I could drop dead, so I am prone to living the past these days. I recall one time when I used to live for the future. I was in my cabin supping on a light malt whilst dreaming of buying a bar for my retirement, a nice little local pub where I could tend bar, when the Chief Officer called down to say that there was ?land ahoy?. Everybody was excited about getting ashore; a recent win on the football pools had ensured that a large meal with drinks would be comfortably accounted for. As banker for the enterprise I kept the money in the ships safe. I would also go ashore with them to ensure that all partook equally in the handout but first we had to get the ship alongside, complete the paperwork and to wait for sundown before hitting the road for a night to remember. I recall the day clearly...
More About: Football

The Resurgence of the Library to Diminish the Effects of Globilisation
2011-02-22 04:57:00
For the last twenty or more years the world has headed towards rapid globalization using tools that are ever larger and faster and more intelligent than half the operators controlling them. Globalization as we see it shows ever-larger vessels and with Maersk Line recently placing orders for 10 x 18000 TEU vessels with option for ten more the barriers have once again been broken on global reach. Globalization is to all intents and purposes a drawing together of the four corners of the world, what happens in Outer-Mongolia becomes as important as what happens in the Bronx; the things we eat and material possessions we obtain can be from anywhere, an assortment of ingredients or parts from different countries, assembled/mixed in another and sold to a myriad of people who might live in one town and work in another. If we were to put a religion behind globalization the devout belief would be for all of mankind to be equal, of the same color and creed, each man having access to everythin...
More About: Library , The Library

Life as a Ships Superintendent and why the job Sucked
2010-12-31 12:27:00
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More About: Life , Ships

NEW YEAR in HAI PHONG VIETNAM
2010-12-31 11:10:00
It is 1700 hours on the 31st December 2010 and I am in Hai Phong, Veitnam waiting for a ship to come in. It is a strange feeling I have when considering the fact that over the last forty years or so and since I was first able to grasp that fact that clocks went round and that most people got blitzed on cheap wine at this exact time of the year, I am sitting here all alone and in a hotel that might only have only one other guest apart from myself. I am imagining the evening ahead and the countdown to midnight. I will probably have something to eat shortly, an offering from the menu (spaghetti bolognaise perhaps?) and a glass of Heineken. I finished my last novel on the plane here; so a movie later? They like to voice-over movies here ? western films have two sound tracks, one in Vietnam ese narration the other with the original voices behind. It is possible to understand the English soundtrack but it does give headache as the ears work overtime. But HBO and Star World Channels are no...
More About: New Year

The Best Western Pearl River Hotel, Hai Phong in Vietnam
2010-12-31 05:45:00
I am sitting in the Pearl River Hotel (Best Western ) in Hai Phong, Vietnam wiaiting for a ship to come in. It is seasonally cold at 22 degrees (gets a little nippy in the evenings) and oh, so very quiet. So far I am the only patron of the establishment. Maybe a tour bus will pull up shortly and disgorge thirty red-faced and overweight Americans who will then proceed to noisily ruin all that was good, but I doubt it. It is perhaps poignant to state that Western New Year is just around the corner so apart from a couple of stray hippy nomads from Australia (and they prefer rock bottom priced wooden sheds for the night ? can?t score in a good hotel now can we?) the tourism industry grinds to a halt. When I checked in I was greeted by no less than four staff members who obviously welcomed the interruption to an otherwise undisturbed day. The restaurant where I am sitting now for a beer was silent, I?m sure I detected a layer of dust on the tables and no other customer looks to enter any ...

A Return to the Rex Hotel, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
2010-12-30 01:37:00
It is perhaps unusual for me to be in Vietnam before Christmas and again immediately after Christmas but that is beside the point. Suffice it to say that this year I managed to get home to be with my family on Christmas day but an urgent job arose that took me back North soon after. Anyway, the point of this entry is to say that I am sitting in the lobby of the Rex Hotel after a hard mornings work whilst munching on some replica of a fast-food chain (a repeat prescription) .............. they've gone and put an enormous carpet under the tables now. No more strangled-cat noises if they move them yet I would have thought harder to do so  - they would need to be lifted up. I would though like to mention that the removal of the Santas (Christmas Spirit now gone) must have also allowed them to shift the Piano and the tables completely around to create another design effect. The Piano Player was also new and not quite as good as good as the last!
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The Piano Player and I at the Rex Hotel, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
2010-12-22 03:53:00
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More About: Vietnam , Hotel , Player , Piano

The Bemused Frenchman
2010-08-24 21:32:00
I am in Honfluer, Northern France visiting a vessel. I am staying at the Mercure Hotel in the city centre, a small but comfortable chain establishment situated near the centre of this picturesque and village-like little town. Also staying at this hotel is a colleague of mine, a 59yr old bearded and freindly guy. There is also a Frenchman staying at this hotel. I agreed to meet my colleague (we shall call him Tim) for breakfast at 0730hrs before heading off to the ship at 8am. Unfortuately, I had perhaps imbibed one too many beers the night before and so our breakfast meet started with a little confusion. Tim was already sitting at a table muching away by the time I got my act together and out of my room. I said "good morning" to him before heading for the buffet to load up with bread and some much needed liquids! I them proceeded to plonk myself down and to dig in with gusto. I knew I was mumbling away, something inane perhaps, I'm not sure what but it was, as far as I recall they...

Relocation to Singapore because there was no job at home
2010-08-17 11:54:00
It is with mixed feelings that I start the packing progress again! Not the suitcase this time but the house, the family, the life and away to Singapore we go - permanently. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to live in the UK, a combination of wanting a new job that involves less travel and not being able to find the right one on my very own doorstep (which included the whole of the United Kingdom and most of Europe for that matter) - oh and one that pays a decent salary! Machtech recruitment called me yesterday! Another inane inquiry that lead up the empty road. I told him on the phone, "for one year I have been searching, you have offered me jobs and then I never hear anything, nothing, nada, the trail goes cold". I have called some of these recruitment agencies back and asked them the status of my applications. I get the pat answers ranging from "the guy we need to talk is on holiday", "they are having a meeting next week" and "the final selection process is under-way". And the...
More About: Home

Loading Cement in Kosichang, Thailand
2010-07-26 08:22:00
Bagged Cement being loaded from barges into the ships hold Stevedore sleeping between shift in strung hamocks onboard the vessel The unsafe way to transfer workers from the barges to the vessel
More About: Thailand

Bank Stress Tests
2010-07-23 19:44:00
Bank Stress Tests are the ultimate insult to the comman man, including Bankers. What a complete pile of dung, compunded by the fact that some very highly paid and upper-echelon government employees compiled them. Anybody can write a report on anything and to any end; design of these stress reports is to provide stability to the financial markets. The reports may achive their aim but it does not mitigate the facts that they are pathetic in content and in-reality - I don't see any need to justify this statement as everybody knows the truth anyway. They just can't accept it or need to promote such garbage in defence of their own strategy. We always knew that the banks would fail in the first place but we were blinkered. Those very same stress test creators once chanted "it is in the best interests of a company to amass large debts to progress". As a society we were all led to believe that having  debt was acceptable behaviour, the days of being shunned by society for taking a ...
More About: Bank

Upside down in Brisbane
2010-07-21 14:54:00
Upside down in Australia Got here at last! I immediately noted that the baggage carousal at the airport turns the wrong way and that Brisbane is a serious place on the move. I think it increased in size before my very eyes! Buildings are springing up alongside pretentious coffee shops faster than they can find the land to build them on - the reason why most new buildings block out the sun from the last one that was built. An example of theThe Building Spree Not many overly-large people around, also not many Mcdonalds or KFC joints to blot the horizon - in fact I think most people could have done with putting on some weight! Stress? Lots of skinny secretaries tripping behind balding and thin yet slightly macho bankers (insurance agents?) as they head off for some power lunch with an emaciated builder perhaps. A Business Power Lunch in an expensive joint with a view But Brisbane is a nice place it seems - lots of Asians kept on stopping me to ask for directions so I must have lo...

A Cheer for US airways
2010-07-12 11:23:00
You see, the plane had to land in Birmingham! No, not that large city in England but that little one in the middle of the USA! We were in Houston waiting to board the 1535pm to Charlotte but the inbound plane had a medical emergency, take all the time you want we can wait for the plane to arrive. I would be the last person in the world to think bad about situations like that! But it was what happened afterwards that had my fellow passengers and I seeing red. The plane had to land in Birmingham (Alabama did I hear somebody say?) and so us waiting passengers duly obliged the sole announcement and grabbed ourselves the third Big Mac of the afternoon, overweight helpings of sickly looking chocolate covered raisins or joined the long queue to complain volubly to some poor and very lost check-in girl who obviously knew less than we did about delayed flights. I decided to participate in one of my lifelong hobbies - that of trying to find a banana, apple or orange within the departure lo...
More About: Cheer

The Pirates and a Barbecue
2010-07-11 21:00:00
Pirates are a menace you know! As a young lad, and I?m certainly no spring chicken now although I can still show these modern-day pale faced youngsters a thing or two, I wanted to be a pirate but well, that career never passed muster. So here I am now with a story to tell from my distant past! I was the proud Master of a brand new bulk carrier recently out of China and on our maiden voyage we headed down from ?yellow peril? country where the ship had been built and with a cargo of coal bound for Genoa, Italy. We passed Indonesia and up the Malacca Straits which was certainly pirate territory but at the time of the incident we happened to be in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Our fine vessel was plodding along at about 8 knots, at least 700 miles from land and although my company and the media could never quite grasp how pirates happened to be so far from the safety of the shores believe me it was an ordeal that I would never want to repeat. Prior to the incident pirates had been h...
More About: Pirates , Barbecue

I'm Gonna Kick me some Ass
2010-06-13 23:40:00
Barack Obama "wants to kick BP's ass"! "Barack Obama would sack Tony Hayward if he worked for him?" Presidents of America should not talk like little kids and by the way, should Obama work for BP I think Tony Hayward would be sacking him not the other way around! The debacle that BP now finds itself in is no shock to myself. I went for an interview with them once-upon-a-time, in fact I had a telephone interview and then traveled far and wide to meet them face-to-face and at great expense to myself. The guy (who shall remain nameless) simply fired off questions at me without recourse to my answers and the lady (who shall also remain nameless) was too busy texting on her mobile phone. I couldn't see the phone but her head was bowed down and her arm constantly vibrated (never mind the beeps that emitted every so often) which meant that she was either 'texting' or extremely nervous. Anyway, at the end of the interview I departed with high hopes despite the opposition....

BP and that twotty kid Barack Obama
2010-06-10 23:31:00
I haven't written for a while and god forbid that it should be BP that makes me start again but this disaster in the Gulf has grown out of proportion. It niggles at me daily and whilst I am not a great fan of the likes of BP, I am less of a fan of Barack Obama who is acting like a child over this problem ("I'm gonna kick their ass" is what kids say in the play ground). Okay, so BP was at the helm when an oil well blew. It has accepted responsibility for the ecological and financial disaster that has resulted but most of all is doing everything in its power to fix the leak. The American politicians in true form are looking for a scape-goat before the disaster has even been solved, are threatening criminal charges before the dust has even settled and are basically posturing and mouthing-off; acts that scream of cover-ups and politicizing that impede BP when they need to concentrate like never before. Enough is enough. When Barack Obama mouths off the shares drop like lead weights....

Crisis Security Levels Worlwide
2010-02-09 12:40:00
A comic look at some security levels as written by some unknown author!The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorised from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.The Scots raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards" They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line in the British army for the last 300 years. The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitat...
More About: Security

Charleston, the Gem of South Carolina
2010-02-04 02:02:00
I'm in Charleston just now. I flew from Houston last week and whilst I have been here for five days or so this was the first time that I managed to get out and about.Wow, what a nice place it is. A country town with culture, history and most of all people. All those other places I've visited recently, Norfolk, Tampa, ... I could walk around all day and never meet anybody yet here in Charleston I walked around and I saw humans - walking; riding bicycles; talking; eating; - wow, I cannot quite get over the shock. I was so put off by my recent excursions elsewhere that I was in half a mind not to even bother walking around this town - but I am glad I did now.Well done ye 'ol citizens of Charleston.
More About: South , South Carolina , Carolina

Guns Versus Obesity
2010-02-03 02:59:00
I certainly don?t want to be the preacher or the wag! I am simply another human being going about his business in order to provide for his family!As the Croatian second engineer talked I realised that perhaps my shades and tinted aspect does not help me to see much at all! He talked of billions of dollars being transported in containers from A-B, proceeds of drug and gun shipments and the laundering of money on AIG failing amounts ? all carried out by respectable shipping companies. Cocaine to America in cement bags, chemicals out to help the refining process. Japanese businessmen being stopped at European borders with Swedish GDP amounts in paper notes, all wrapped innocently like a packed lunch in a dinky wee briefcase and guys who are rich beyond belief who know they will not pass forty as the next strongman makes his mark (but the thrill is worth it)! It?s another world and perhaps he was enjoying his story-telling, perhaps it is for real and I have my rose-tinted shades on, it ...
More About: Guns , Obesity , Versus

Walking the Plank Today
2010-01-31 01:57:00
As an ex-seafarer and now a Superintendent with a shipping company I have witnessed firsthand the influx of paperwork and how every single action made onboard is accounted for by a signature and a presiding rule!It was therefore unsurprising to see the above sign hanging on the plank! Even those forced to shuffle outward to their certain death, at the mercy of the ocean or a large hungry shark, have to participate in the governing charade! It would not shock me to learn that those found guilty and sentenced to walking the plank first have to fill out a work permit!Of course it wouldn?t help the poor sole ? as with all ships the forms and the signs are merely brushed aside until after the work has been completed!
More About: Today , Walking

The Evacuation of Norfolk, VA
2010-01-22 00:42:00
I am in Norfolk, Virginia. I seem to have arrived here a little early as the ship I came to visit has not arrived yet. And so, in preference to being a hotel mole I stepped out to see the sights with my camera charged and my eagerness one step ahead of me. But first I did a little research........Yahoo Travel said,After being burned by the British in 1775, and suffering naval bombardments during the Civil War, Norfolk never regained much character, and despite recent efforts to redevelop its waterfront, the modern city is little more than a supply depot for the vast naval shipyards.Not to be outdone I stepped outside into the 3 degrees (37 degrees Fahrenheit) heavily laden wind to make my own mind up! Absolutely nobody around. 11am and nothing, not even a tramp to blot the emptiness. Has the city been evacuated, have the good citizens left and forgotten to tell me? Nope, this is just another American City where people don't walk!The first signs of life - a bird!USS Wisconsin (BB-64...