tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74797714210834446992011-04-22T00:02:39.216-04:00<b>Exploring the moments that happen when you get carried away with life.</b>Chris Turnbullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853106285539072661noreply@blogger.comBlogger111100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7479771421083444699.post-82446866404415178752009-02-18T21:49:00.013-05:002009-02-18T22:16:58.047-05:00

Despite my best intentions, I wasn't able to keep up on my blog during this mission. Instead, I wound up spending my evening hours working. Still, it was a productive mission and one that introduced me to several new countries and cultures and many new people. There is a bit of irony in this trip: I started my journey a month ago in Bangkok, Thailand (Sin City, if you will) and ended it in

Chris Turnbullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853106285539072661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7479771421083444699.post-13434321556986269072008-11-27T07:10:00.000-05:002008-11-27T07:11:17.482-05:00

Dubai was a quick stop, but a fun one nonetheless. My colleague has family there and so we were able to catch up with his sister and another friend at a beach bar near where the new Palm island is – the Atlantis Resort that just spent $6 million dollars on fireworks for its opening a week or so ago. The bar was packed for a Tuesday night, but we enjoyed a few beers and dinner and then headed

Chris Turnbullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853106285539072661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7479771421083444699.post-33883413956744627282008-11-27T06:59:00.003-05:002008-11-27T07:10:04.069-05:00

Kabul is a fascinating place. This ends my second trip into the country this year and progress is apparent everywhere you look, but the security situation had deteriorated significantly during the last few months – obviously a good reason to send me, right?When you fly into a hostile environment a lot of things change about how you think and perceive. The normal maneuvering of the aircraft for

Chris Turnbullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853106285539072661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7479771421083444699.post-35558961164311943692008-11-27T06:53:00.003-05:002008-11-27T06:59:10.181-05:00

I knew this trip would be a whirlwind and it was. India was a fascinating place and I hope I have the opportunity to spend some more time there soon. Unfortunately, my first impressions left me yearning for oxygen; the capital was sooooo polluted and I could feel it in my lungs. However, I’m counting my blessings because the temperatures were fantastic – mid 70s with a light breeze. I could

Chris Turnbullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853106285539072661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7479771421083444699.post-24967399941787135132008-09-30T22:35:00.002-04:002008-09-30T22:38:34.445-04:00

For those of you who would like to see additional pictures of my trip(s), take a look at these websites:Nairobi: http://picasaweb.google.com/cturnbull/NairobiSeptember2008#Kathmandu: http://picasaweb.google.com/cturnbull/KathmanduSeptember072008#Pokhara: http://picasaweb.google.com/cturnbull/PokharaSeptember042008#Hanoi: http://picasaweb.google.com/cturnbull/HanoiVietnamAugust292008#

Chris Turnbullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853106285539072661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7479771421083444699.post-58094642600387347442008-09-29T20:15:00.002-04:002008-09-29T20:20:26.942-04:00

Well, it has certainly been a whirlwind trip of the world. I'm about five hours away from landing in Dulles, and I wanted to describe Khartoum in a few paragraphs. Sudan is a fascinating country. It is, for the most part, closed to western influence. For instance, you must take a LOT of cash with you to pay for everything. I'm not kidding – a credit card is not accepted anywhere. This made

Chris Turnbullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853106285539072661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7479771421083444699.post-72063871224374452192008-09-29T20:02:00.002-04:002008-09-29T20:15:00.202-04:00

Well, Juba was an 'interesting' experience. Juba, Sudan is on the fringe of civilization – at least in as far as I know civilization – and it represents the "wild west" for the Bank. It is the capital of Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS). Only 15,000 people live there; of them, 5,000 are from non-governmental organizations – about 87 different agencies. There's not much to see in Juba. The

Chris Turnbullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853106285539072661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7479771421083444699.post-43684974268638191702008-09-29T19:47:00.005-04:002008-09-29T20:02:57.207-04:00

This was one of the shorter stops on our adventure, and it was unique and very interesting. Coming out of South Asia and stepping into the heart of Africa was quite a change.Nairobi is a big metropolis with about 6 million people. We flew in on Wednesday and met our colleagues Frank and David here. There wasn't much room for play during this leg of our trip. We began at 9 a.m. the next day with a

Chris Turnbullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853106285539072661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7479771421083444699.post-26336825518180994922008-09-29T19:31:00.007-04:002008-09-29T19:47:20.766-04:00

What a trip this has been. I think my colleague Chris and I would agree that this stop in Nepal has been the highlight of the trip so far. I'm not sure where to begin when explaining our experience here, so I'm going to try to describe it chronologically. Our trip to Nepal was our longest stop-over during this mission. We were here for six days and they were packed to the hilt. When we flew

Chris Turnbullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853106285539072661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7479771421083444699.post-59964395827328017332008-09-29T19:24:00.003-04:002008-09-29T19:31:44.469-04:00

So this part of the trip was much more metropolitan. Jakarta has something like 15 million people living in it – it is a massive city with some of the worst traffic I've ever seen (it still doesn't beat Cairo, however). We didn't have a chance to really go site-seeing, but we had an opportunity to meet with some very interesting characters and learn more about the cultures of not only Indonesia

Chris Turnbullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853106285539072661noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7479771421083444699.post-68758407357497029702008-09-29T19:07:00.005-04:002008-09-29T19:23:58.830-04:00

Well, so far, it's been a fantastic trip. I'm healthy. We got our work done in Hanoi and I had the pleasure of experiencing the unique culture of Vietnam.I won't lie; this leg of my mission was mostly work. We ran a review course for the East Asia Pacific colleagues. It went well and we're in the midst of managing a potential situation in Thailand. That made our work here in Hanoi even more

Chris Turnbullhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04853106285539072661noreply@blogger.com0