(The so-called) Offshore Vacation

You know what, suddenly this hits me: I've never posted my offshore experience. Most of my friends, when I told them that I regularly go to offshore, they would get excited and asking so many questions. Offshore platforms are not the place you can reach even with ur international passport! It's the privillege that I enjoy at the first time, but...it gets tiring and boring after the fourth, sixth....

At Resak platform, with Mercury mask, is it really me?

My first offshore experience started with Resak platform. This platform is one of the newest platforms, so the facilities, rooms and the processing units looks new. But the bad thing about Resak is, the mercury. Whenever we are in the plant area, we have to don complete safety attire (PPE) with mercury mask. It's dangerous k. SInce we were there for a site visit and taking measurement, so we were not required to take urine test before and after the site visit. The importance of this test is to detect the mercury level in ur body. How freaky is that? The one thing that I could never forget about this first trip is...the fire drilling!! It was my first time offshore, so I never anticipated that they would plan to have that. Yeah, they sure had shown me the assembly point and the lifeboats but c'mon, I wasn't interested at all to look the point they were showing. I was more interested to the wide open sea, the unusual scenery..so breathtaking..who cares where the lifeboats are?

The view from the grating. You can actually see the fish down there. Cristal clear water

And then...my very first morning offshore, woke up very early. The meeting started at 630am, so I planned to get up at 530am..but since I was'nt really comfortable sleeping at new place (and the air-cond was sooooo cold!), I got up at 5am..taking my shower, praying..when I was about to put on my PPE, a loud ring hits me. I thought that it was meant to wake people up but it gets longer and louder. My roommate, a Petronas staff, who is used to the emergency ring quickly got up and left me alone in the room! Luckily she was wearing a long pants and t-shirt. I panicked. I have to wear my tudung, was haflway thru my PPE. I was still thinking whether to put on my safety boots but dumped the idea when my officemate knocked on my door. I still didn't put on my contact lenses that time, so I just follow the crowd. I didn't know where we were going and whether I was lost. It was a long journey to the assembly point. Luckily it was only an exercise. If it was real, I might be one of the few unfortunate people...

The question that I mostly got is : how's the food and bed? Well, to me, the food is always excellent. No doubt about it. You are fed 6th time a day (with 3 hours interval between meal to meal) and it is always being replenished. The quality of food is top notch and the varieties will make you indecisivable on what to choose. usually, I take all of it, but in small portions. So, dapatla rasa semua..hehe...It's normal for me and my mates to gain few kilos when we do works there. If you be nice to the kitchen crew, they might packed you somethinig from their kitchen. And the bed? Well, for female, it is very comfortable. We always get the VIP room. Becoz there are not so many women go there, the VIP room is always for us. We have our own ladies room (toilet laaa). Of course la, takkan nak share dengan all the guys?? The VIP room has different bedsheet, comforter and if u r lucky enuff, u might get ur own tv.


That's the story of PMO's (Peninsular Malaysia Operation)Platform. AT PMO, you have to board the chopper (helicopter) to reach the platforms. The nearest is Resak, about 180 km from the shore. But it's a different story at SKO (Sarawak Operation). Most SKO platforms are near the shore and can be reached via boat. I have one experience with one of the SKO platforms. I went to Temana last year. Used to PMO platforms, I thought it will be same with SKO. But nope! Temana is an unmanned platform. It means that the workers only come during the day and left the platform before nite. So, we didn't get the luxury of the food and the bed. But luckily we got even better bed coz we stayed at one of the best hotels there. But we have to bring our own food. By boat, Temana is about 2.5 hours journey. The boat is not that fancy,fast boat, it is a regular boat, and very hot inside. I was the only female to board it that day. To make matter worst, they actually played Inul's VCD on the whole journey. I was feeling red from head to toes. Darn all the men! When we reached temana, we were sooo relieved to know that there was a maintenance boat docked at Temana. They were having some maintenance works that day. So, we still get the luxury of good food, thanks to the maintenance people :). I could not imagine my day there without the maintenace boat. The toilet only has 4 walls with a roof and your "discharge" will straight away go into the sea. I didn't see any piping for water and I refused to ask anything on that "matter". I realllllyyyy love the maintenance boat!

Maintenance boat docked at Temana platform. I lovvveeee the boat sooo much!

Well, I think that's my few information on offshore lifestyle. And by the way, we HAVE to have passport to go there. It's called Offshore Safety Passport. Slightly more expensive than ur ordinary international passport. It costs my company more than RM1k. But it cost me nothing..hehe..Maybe should be grateful for that. Till then...daa..