Astran / Middle East Drivers

John West:
Quote - The shock was so great I was forced to go to the Marco Polo for a glass of 'Flag

No ‘Marco Polo’ to go to, or ‘flag’ to drink in Saudi. We used to buy Siddiqi (friend!) from people on the Aramco compound and also had a small supply of pure ethanol from the Military hospital - staffed by Americans.

I once smuggled brewers yeast back in my underpants on a flight into Dhahran to make wine. I also had some videos and nearly spoilt the yeast when stopped by customs - definitely bowel loosening - they actually only wanted to look at the videos and fast forwarded through them, mostly coronation street and top of the pops, then let me go. I was able to make terrific wine from grape juice, but never risked it again!

John

I always thought that the Marco Polo should have been called the Ibn Battuta because Ibn Battuta was far more adventurous, did it for longer, discovered more, was Arabic, was from Morocco. At least they named one of the ferries across the Straits of Gibraltar after him! And I certainly imbibed the odd tot on the Ibn Battuta, when de-mob happy sailing for Spain in the early hours. Robert :laughing:

robert1952:
They took me to task for speaking out against their invisible friend in the sky.

Do that nowadays Robert and next thing is you would be wearing an orange boiler suit on YouTube!! :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp:

bullitt:

robert1952:
They took me to task for speaking out against their invisible friend in the sky.

Do that nowadays Robert and next thing is you would be wearing an orange boiler suit on YouTube!! :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp:

Nah! Always take a spare head with you. It slides in neatly with your roll-mat if you squeeze the air out and flatten it first. :slight_smile: Robert

robert1952:

bullitt:

robert1952:
They took me to task for speaking out against their invisible friend in the sky.

Do that nowadays Robert and next thing is you would be wearing an orange boiler suit on YouTube!! :smiling_imp: :smiling_imp:

Nah! Always take a spare head with you. It slides in neatly with your roll-mat if you squeeze the air out and flatten it first. :slight_smile: Robert

Gulp!

So sad isn’t it. Everyone I met, with the odd exception was great. One exception was a Pakistani who had a flat in the office block - part of his job was to watch the telex over the weekend. When we came in on Saturday, the paper had run out on the Thursday afternoon. I gave him a royal chewing out.

Next thing he told Sheikh Ali that I had insulted Islam when telling him off.

Ali told him to f off and grow up! He left soon after. :slight_smile:

It’s funny how swear words in one language have a different meaning or effect in another.If you call a Dutchman a ‘‘klootzak’’ he gets quite excited yet calling an Englishman a scrotum will not have quite the same effect.
Up here when you tell someone to ‘‘dra het helvete’’ they can get quite worked up when it just means ‘‘go to hell’’[which is where most of us are destined anyway].When you speak a variety of languages and live in different countries it’s quite amusing[and sometimes dangerous]to see the different effect of swearing.If i tell my boss here to f…off they laugh as i am English and this is commonplace to hear on tv and suchlike whereas if i swear at him in Swedish he takes it more seriously.

Dead right Mike. Having the ability to swear fluently in a foreign language is indeed a joy.

I once worked on a ship with some boys from Bavaria. I felt sorry for them because they, the Germans in general, have very few swear words to use so we set about teaching them proper swearies and translating them into German - or as near as we could that is. They did not get it at all but that did not stop us for a moment.

My favourite that we came up with was Ficken miene alte Arbeitsstiefel. They really did not get that one!

David

> David Miller:
> My favourite that we came up with was Ficken miene alte Arbeitsstiefel. They really did not get that one!David

I didn’t quite get it but Google came up with: Did you mean: f*ck my old work boots.

Not to neglect the Astran thread, here’s one of my favourite pics taken by Nick Garlick, descending Bolu in Turkey. It sums up the road nicely. Robert :smiley:

Astran Bolu..PNG
Good picture Robert :wink:

Found this floating in cyberspace. R

Looks like Mr April on Ash`s Astran 2015 Calender! :laughing: :laughing: :wink:

bullitt:
Looks like Mr April on Ash`s Astran 2015 Calender! :laughing: :laughing: :wink:

I wonder how he mangaged to thread the TIR-cord through his loading notes! :open_mouth: Robert :laughing:

bullitt:
Looks like Mr April on Ash`s Astran 2015 Calender! :laughing: :laughing: :wink:

This is the first that I have heard of Ash’s calender, can I have some more info on it please. With thanks
Fred :slight_smile:

Here it is…
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=119520 :smiley:

Robert , you dummy its a rubbish bag ,saving the world collecting the junk or did you chuck yours :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
Roger

hey, 141 longliner,

Eric,

Loose-wire:
Robert , you dummy its a rubbish bag ,saving the world collecting the junk or did you chuck yours :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
Roger

I was a good boy and put all mine in that big bin in the desert: I think it was called the TAP-line. :wink: :laughing:

robert1952:
Not to neglect the Astran thread, here’s one of my favourite pics taken by Nick Garlick, descending Bolu in Turkey. It sums up the road nicely. Robert :smiley:

0

Hi Robert, that’s a great photo.
Hope he’s got his exhauster brake on…when would this photo have been taken as I don’t remember any concrete barriers on the way down bolu? a few old tonkas on the way up with one or two co pilots throwing buckets of water through the radiator would have been the usual or a row of rocks used to warn up coming trucks that a local Arbie had broken down.
all the very best.

Mick B

Loose-wire:
Robert , you dummy its a rubbish bag ,saving the world collecting the junk or did you chuck yours :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
Roger

Roger…nice to see your back on here, nothing too controversial on you recent posts…are you back from the frozen wasteland of Scandinavia for a visit or here on a permanent basis? If anyone has some photos of middle east trucking back in the day it must be you, as we seem to be a little light in the new material department any photos from 1978 …1988 that you have stashed in your shed would be great,

all the very best
Mick B

robert1952:
Not to neglect the Astran thread, here’s one of my favourite pics taken by Nick Garlick, descending Bolu in Turkey. It sums up the road nicely. Robert :smiley:

hey, Such photos Always have some thing pitty you don’t see them often, but there are things that i only like the to tthe front :slight_smile: :slight_smile:
And one I never liked to see

Eric,

PanX:

robert1952:
Not to neglect the Astran thread, here’s one of my favourite pics taken by Nick Garlick, descending Bolu in Turkey. It sums up the road nicely. Robert :smiley:

Hi Robert, that’s a great photo.
Hope he’s got his exhauster brake on…when would this photo have been taken as I don’t remember any concrete barriers on the way down bolu? a few old tonkas on the way up with one or two co pilots throwing buckets of water through the radiator would have been the usual or a row of rocks used to warn up coming trucks that a local Arbie had broken down.
all the very best.

Mick B

I must emphasise that that great photo was taken by Nick Garlick on a trip he made to Kuwait in 2004. I’m sure he’s got his exhauster on - you need that even empty down Bolu!

The last time I went down there was 2001/2 and the concrete was being put in place in the central reservation then, but not on the edge (precipice) as these photos that I took (on separate journeys) at the time verifies. Robert :slight_smile: