Travel Tips

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The Dynamite Crew

28.05.2003 "No Dynamite"

Today the dynamite guys didn’t show up without telling us. There was a bunker site inspection by the authorities and there had been some sort of problems. Why they didn’t come to the field is still not clear. It’s every day a new story. Why can there be not an ordinary day without any problems?

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The visitor observing the drillers

29.05.2003 "Visitors, the Boss & the Persian Golf"

Some important visitors came today and the crew should give a little show for them. The management was looking for some investors and invited these bank managers, to convince them of the idea of putting money in this dead born child!
The guys should have a look at every department to get some impressions about what seismic is all about. In the morning we made some preparations and what happened? When we drove out with the Hagglunds in that we wanted to take the visitors to the “Field of Honour” one of the tracks broke and we were down another vehicle. The shooters showed up late again! Anyway we brought the guys to the field and managed to show everything to them what they were supposed to see. On our way back the Boss wanted to show them as a special bonus that these vehicles are amphibious. So he drove towards the Persian Golf and got stuck in the mud! It was the first time that I saw this big man blushing! The great Seismic hero Mr. ”I can drive every vehicle” ***ed up and got stuck in the stinking mud!!!! He tried to get out of it but made it worse and drowned the Hagglunds as deep as he could. What an embarrassing situation with all this important visitors in the cabin! At the end Juergen and me got out and took the wooden benches off the second compartment so that the gentlemen could walk with dry feet towards the dry ground, while we were covered with mud up to the waist! For this office working managers it had been like an adventurous tour, for Boss a bit embarrassing and for Juergen and me muddy and smelly

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The Smugglers of Hendijan River

30.05.2003 "The Smugglers of Hendijan River?"

At the end of line 1204 is on the banks of the river is a police station. On the opposite side are about 30 to 40 boats. These boats are importing smuggled goods. It’s a very busy place and seemed to be quite well organised! Most of the things come from Dubai, Kuwait or even Pakistan. From the boats the “parcels” were loaded onto small motorcycles and brought to Hendijan from where they go to rest of Iran. This is said to be one of the largest smuggle places in whole Iran!!!

I went to that place and asked for permission to take some pictures and everybody was happy about it. Suddenly the police appeared and I was worried that they wouldn’t like me to take pictures. My Iranian colleagues told me that there shouldn’t be a problem. We shook hands with the officers and made some more pictures. They didn’t even care about me taking pictures. It seems that everybody knows about what is going on here and is tolerating it.

At the end of our visit I was watching the guys unloading a boat. It was a relaxing atmosphere and laid back, when suddenly shouting and hectic actions began. The reason was the coming policeman. He was collecting the bribe but the guys tried to get away without paying him. Interesting place!

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Transition zone

01.06.03 "No show - no go!"

In five days we have to start in a transition zone area. But only today we found out that its not dry area anymore, because the scouting before was “hubneeste” and nothing is clear now! Five days to make “mission impossible” happen!

Nobody seems to know how deep the water is, how large the mud field is and we don’t have the right equipment for that kind of environment! Everyday there are new smacks on our heads and I wonder when it’s enough! Now my colleague is not coming back again and I have to do everything alone as good as possible.

Every morning it becomes harder and harder to get out of the bed and I’m only here for 4 weeks. I have enough!!!

Btw: Today was the hottest day so far: 51° C … and still working 15 to 17 hrs a day!

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Inspecting the bunker site

09.06.02 "They hate us!"

Today I had again problems with the shooters. The guy who was dismissed from the crew showed up again. We went to the bunker site to count what we have. When I wanted to enter the container the armed guard refused to let me in. “You can’t go in!” “Why?” “There is a problem!” “What kind of problem?” “That’s a secret!” I turned around and went back to my car when Galil followed me and told me that the Shooter told the guard not to let me in. All the helpers dislike this guy.

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The Shooters

I went to the office informed our boss about what happened and told him that I will not work any longer with that guy. I met him in the filed. He stopped and wanted to tell me the count results but I interrupted him to tell that I will not longer work with him and he could go home. “No shooting today?” “Yes, but not with you!” He drove off to the recorder. The remaining guys started to laugh and were happy about that I started to throw *** at him. Galil even kissed me, Hamid started to work with the cables to give a hand to me and they also had a prepared list of the dynamite count with them. The information was taken behind his back! Good guys!!!

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Low tide in transition zone

13.06. "Game over - the tide is too high!"

When everything goes wrong then even more unexpected things may happen! This morning the full moon was still visible when I realized that the air was very humid. The wind was blowing from the south and it looked like it could be a relaxing “normal” day. A couple of hours later I heard on the radio a guy shouting: “water is coming!” He was right: the water was coming. This happens every now and again but this time it was plenty of water. Four meters above normal! The line was under water for about 10 km. This is a shallow water project now. Unfortunately we haven’t got the right equipment for that. The salt water is doing a lot of damages to all the cables! Game over!

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In memory of Jaffa Abi

17.06.03 "Jaffa Abi"

When I went to the yard this morning I heard that Jaffa Abi died last night! I couldn’t believe it!
Jaffa was always in a good mood and reliable. He never complained about the many hours, only about the lazy Iranians. He was the only guy who came on a bicycle to work. I liked him a lot and feel sorry about his sudden death.
I went to his funeral this morning like most of the Iranian workers. At first we went to his house where his brothers and sons were. His father came and everybody expressed the deep loss about Jaffa´s death. The women were sitting in another room crying. After a short while they put the body on a kind of bed to carry him to the grave yard. Nearly all of the workers came to give honour and respect to Abi. Near the grave yard they stopped and cued up in lines to pray. After about 15 min this was finished and the body was carried to the grave. The women had to wait outside the place. For a short moment his wife was coming the dead body but went back soon after saying good bye to Jaffa.

The whole procedure was relaxed and not over flooded with emotions and feelings. Everybody could take part, like carrying the “coffin” or putting sand into the grave.

I left Hendijan two weeks later.