On Thursday I wake up just after 4am to go walking. I want to try and shock or mix-up my body so that I can sleep on the airplane and so that I have no jet lag. After walking and a shower I start the final laundry and clean up the last little things that I need to do before going on vacation. When the laundry is done I spend a bit of time trying to squeeze my clothes and gifts/souvenirs into a single piece of luggage and one carry-on bag. I manage to make it, but both bags are pretty full. The neighbor gives me a ride to the train station and each connection is just perfectly timed so that I don't wait more than 2 minutes. On the last train I see a co-worker and we talk and he says he slept in today and is very late, but at least we got to see each other. When I get to the airport I am somehow on a pre-TSA list and I keep moving to the head of every line (at TSA agent's request) and I don't even have to take my laptop out of the carry-on bag or even remove my shoes. How did this happen? As I wait for my plane I hear a notice "The flight to Chicago has been delayed" and I can just chuckle because I've been on that exact flight and in that exact situation to Chicago so many times.
I sleep sufficiently well on Friday night and go for a walk near the hotel in the morning. When I get back to my hotel I find that I have forgotten my camera cable again. Last year I had to buy a new one in Myanmar and I may have to buy another new one now. I relax a bit and grab the hotel shuttle back to the airport in order to catch the train from the airport to the Skytrain and then the Skytrain to my next hotel. On the first train it is crowded and an older Thai man gets on the train and stands. As we're coming to the first stop he's shaky and almost loses his balance. So I push through the crowd and make him take my seat. He's grateful and he speaks some English so we talk just a bit in Thai and English. When he gets off the train at my stop, it looks like he's delaying and/or looking back as if he wants to continue talking or maybe just see if I am okay. But then I lose him in the crowd. At the new hotel I go out walking some more and note that other than a new shopping mall that has opened in the area, it looks about the same.
On Sunday both Karl and I get in hour long workouts before breakfast and my friend Tree comes to visit. We chat for a while but he has worked throughout the night. So Karl and I go off to make other flight reservations while Tree sleeps. We get our flights straightened out, say goodbye to Tree as he has to fly to Hat Yai for work, and then go do some more exploring. Eventually we check out of the hotel and head for the airport. Karl and I continue to make jokes about being the only white people or non-Pakistani people lining up for the flight, but we eventually see one other white guy. I just meet everyone's stares with a smile and an "assalamualaikum" which is Urdu for "peace be upon you". We get on the flight and have a relatively smooth flight to Lahore, Pakistan. The guy next to me does not speak English but wants to be involved in my reading of The Economist as well as grabbing two health reporting sheets out of my hand that the flight attendant has given to non-Pakistani citizens. The trip through immigration goes smoothly and we get our bags. Mine gets x-rayed on the way out of the airport and Karl's does not. The x-ray man insists on a secondary screening because he thinks that I have alcohol. (Probably a big no-no going into the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, don't you think?) But I open the suitcase and show everyone a spray bottle of mosquito spray and a bottle of mouthwash (which technically contains alcohol) but now I am free to go. Leaving the hotel is an exercise in pushing and shoving as the crowd of waiting people fills every nook and cranny. But I just keep pushing ahead with a smile and an Urdu greeting and we finally leave the airport. Our driver from the hotel gets us moving but soon we are stopped again by people with automatic weapons and a passport check ensues because we are near a military installation. But we are moving again and get to the hotel. We're dragged through the hotel hallways and hotel metal detector (Yes, a metal detector to enter the hotel.) and get checked in. Two other team members meet us at the hotel lobby and after Karl and I get our rooms, we go back down to the hotel lobby for juice and discussions with the team about work mission. We end up talking until almost 1 am and now it is finally time for sleep.
We drop our bags off at our barracks and go to the work site. The team assembles after 6pm on Monday to get started with the work. We make progress with sensors and instrumentation and signal processing and eventually quit for the night. We grab dinner at the on-site facility (I'm not going to call it a mess hall.) and as dinner is finishing there are some ping pong challenges laid down. So near 10 pm we're walking over to the recreational facility and setting up the ping pong table. One of the armed guards comes over, sets his rifle against the wall, and proceeds to clean the ping pong of dust and grime with his back to the rifle the entire time. The ping pong games get started but I let other people participate because I'm tired and I soon make my way back to my room. The security guard who laid down his rifle with his back to it is accompanying me and takes me all of he way back to the room and continues to stare at me and into the room until I say "Thank you. Shu-kree-ah" and close the door. (Shu-kree-ah is Urdu for thank you.) I should note that the barracks are sufficient for this trip except for no Internet, no hot water, the very loud Muslim prayer wake-up call every morning at 4:40 am, and the immovable bars on the windows (even for the second story room that I have). Are the bars present on the windows to keep people out or to keep people in?
I expct a quiet hour or so but insead I get four visitors. Dr Chai (we call him that because he makes a super chia drink) comes to check up on me and because he wants sexual favors. I manage to get rid of him and then Samlong, our driver, comes to visit. Samlong speaks about 50 words of English, so in combination with my 3 words of Urdu, we don't get very far. But I find he has either two sons and two daughters or four daughters of ages 9, 6, 4, and 3. When I glance away from Samlong at my laptop he points at it and says, "Okay, I go now". And I see him to the door and say "We'll talk tomorrow". Just after I say this I realize how ironic and impossible that is. Soon Mr Tijuana (We call him that because his name sounds like the city of Tijuana) and an IT guy come to try to get me hooked up to the Internet, but they stay only 5 minutes and say they wll be back. A few minutes later Mr Tijuana and another guy come and try a few things but cannot get me connected to the Internet. Just as they are finishing up Karl comes back to the room but Mr Chai tags along also. So the 5 of us are in an 8 by 10 room and when Mr Chai brushed up against Karl and Karl moves away, I manage to position myself with Karl between me and Mr Chai. (I certainly hear an earfull about this move later from Karl!) But soon everyone is leaving and I deadbolt the door and turn in for sleep.
When we arrive at the work site our sensors and signals are producing clean and expected data and we are cautiously optimistic about the progress. Karl and I take pictures and get data to document the effort and we are told that a presentation has to be made to the higher ups (and lower downs). Karl makes the presentation in the early afternoon. Karl and other team members estimated that it ould be a 15 to 30 minute presentatin and I say it will be more than an hour. Nobody believes me but the presentation is made and it ends up more than an hour. After the presentation we head back to the control room and hope to close some control loops.
We've lost our armed security escort by now, but we're still in the secured area. When we get to the exit gate we are stopped and told that we will be having an armed escort for our little trip. There are three of us leaving the facility, one Pakistani and two US citizens, and we get a security vehicle and three armed security personnel following us. One has an Uzi, one has some sort of rifle, and one has a handgun. Okay, we're stuck with this ball and chain for our little outing.
We drive down towards the village with one stop along the way for photos. The security personnel step in front of the car and behind the car to block its travel as if they think we are going to make a run for it. But we get the photos and continue on to the village. It is a disappointment to not be allowed to get out of the car and walk around. As opposed to yesterday where you could feel like you were a villager even if you were a foreigner, today I am in the car and dettached from the experience. I take some pictures (which don't turn out well because we're in a moving car) and just accept the loss. We finally turn the car around and drive back to the facility with our armed securty escort in tow.
It's after 9 pm, so we go walk over to the dinner hall (or mess hall) and have some dinner. We talk about the situation as well as other fun things.
Everyone sleeps late on Thursday except me who is up at 6 am as always. We have a late breakfast and check in at the control room. We spend more time moving sensors around and re-calibrating and discussing processes with the team. And finally we have to leave. We say our goodbyes and we've exchanged gifts the day before - I brought Los Angeles-themed t-shirts and hats and Karl has brought Japanese-themed goodies. Two of the lead Pakistanis give both Karl and I a gift: very heavy candles made out of salt (because there is a large salt mine nearby). Each candle must weigh 10 pounds and Karl and I are wondering how we can carry this on the plane with us.
On Friday we arrive at Bangkok near 6 am. I slept enough on the plane to be energetic and enthusiastic. I've also exhancged email addresses with a flight attendant on the plane and look forward to new friendship. Karl, on the other hand, didn't seem to sleep on the plane and is hurting on Friday at the Suvarnabhumi airport as we wait an extended time for a flight to Chiang Mai. At one point I'm catching up on email and diary entries with some great house music playing and I'm fist pumping and shaking to the music. A Thai maintenatnce worker comes by and smiles and I can only smile back and greet her. I'm enthused about the effort in Pakistan and now it's vacation time.