Borneo, East and Sth Kalimantan

[GRUMPY]

A bloke wondered into the pub yesterday with a bag that was wriggling.....a lot.

Started at 1.5 million ($150), paid him 100 k ($10)

[GRUMPY]

[GRUMPY]

Went to a site just out of Manado on Sulawesi Island last week. Flew in the dark and arrive at the mine camp at 23:00. No idea of what to expect in the morning. Got up at 05:00 for a day in the field to this.

[GRUMPY]

[natalie8]

Gorgeous! Lucky you.

[kingwilly]

Looks great, Jakarta's been getting a bit of rain lately, I think the dry season is finally breaking.

[beerlaodrinker]

whats the plan for thar snake grumpy?

[GRUMPY]

Hand bag for the missus!

We'll release him to the bush again, just get him fed up a bit and make sure he's healthy.

[beerlaodrinker]

We have smaller ones in Laos grumpy, but theres a few nasty ones about

[Sailing into trouble]

Good stuff showing a different world than most of us will ever see . Cheers. Hope they paid you well.

[beerlaodrinker]

A mate of mine recently got a job as dirt boss in a coal mine called satui, theiss are the contractor, South kalimantan i think? ever been there grumpy?

[GRUMPY]

Yeah, worked there for 2 years. Nice bar in the camp. I was a subbie looking after the Volvo truck fleet. Know a lot of the Thiess guys.

They shut down operations the other day because the principal hadn't paid the bill.

[beerlaodrinker]

That sounds ugly, Hope my mates still got a job he only started a couple of months ago, is the principal company indo?

[GRUMPY]

Back up and running again in 24 hours. Principal is Arutmin Indonesia, part of Bumi (so back to the Bakrie Bros)

They're all terrible payers and it snowballs down to the little guys.

[beerlaodrinker]

Leightons had the same problem with Phu bia mining a couple of years back , they hadnt been paid in a while so threatened to demob the gear, They got paid

[GRUMPY]

Thiess had a win at Satui and a 2nd site they work for Arutmin, Senakin. I used to work between the 2 of them. Shitty commute that was I tell you. The early pics in this thread are from down that way

[beerlaodrinker]

i used to have a beer with a bloke who was country manager for Leighton in Laos, pretty sure he wasnt bluffing when they were going to pull out and take the gear with them, That mob went owner operator shortly after that, probably decided the lost production would of been staggering, Leightons ended up pulling out of here later anyway. the last job they done was build the new aussie embassy in vientiane,
We are also going owner operator and the first bit of kit will arrive Today ( 5 dumpys) 60 new plant all up, big investment. i will grab a photo or 2 , New dewatering gears arrived to, Weiss pumps, Yeah, those early pics of the commute dont look like much fun

[GRUMPY]

Arutmin got burned big time by unions and strikes years back. They hold the leases and get non national subbies to do the digging. They'll never go back IMO.

Leighton owns Thiess and they bid for work head to head here. They both do mean business. Hardest 2 years I've done was being a subbie to Thiess.

[GRUMPY]

Lovely way to travel....

[beerlaodrinker]

Fukin hell, he makes that look so easy

[GRUMPY]

Sitting in a fooking tyre for crying out loud.

Important stuff on the inside I suppose...

[GRUMPY]

Friday arvo at the container bar...

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We did some chooks first

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Then the 15pound turkey

[GRUMPY]

Half done...looking good