My Trip to Singapore

Dec 4 2013 to 7 Dec 2014 ( 2 nights )

Arrived in Singapore on a 30 days business visa, visa is valid for a year multiple entry. They do not provide any stamping, it’s all eVisa now, you just carry your visa print out.

Arrived in Singapore Airport and took the shared bus, to Park Royal on Kitchener Road ( SGD $ 9 ). These buses only go to hotels, the cabs are $35 or so to the city. You need to prepay at the Ground Transport Desk at the airport, the bus leaves every 1 hr or so, the same for the pickup too. They pick you up from hotel and drop to airport, when returning I was alone in the bus, wow .

Hotel, the hotel was good, it had complimentary breakfast. Good spread of Indian and Local cusine. The hotel charges for any local phone calls, so be careful.

The Farrer Park metro is across the road, you can use this to station to get anywhere in Singapore. You need to purchase your tickets from a vending machine or a teller, if available at some stations. There is a website I used to calculate the fare ($1.40).

The taxi fare from Hotel to Office at CITY Hall was 15$, the traffic was high. Also, there are 2-3 types of cab fares based on the age of the taxi. Hotels have cabs plying through, so no need to call a cab.

I then went to Clarke Quay to see the tourist spot, its built over the backwaters.

Office News:

Food , Getting food was a challenge, I tried the shops that metro undergrounds, its cheap but very bland. The Soy Milk was not appreciated. I started eating at the Hawker zones OR food courts, they are full of stalls in a designated area.

Taxi, On my first day I wanted to return by taxi, I even booked a cab over phone. It did not show up, waited for 30 min. I then went to a taxi stand nearby, there was a queue and taxis were only going to selective places( against the law). I did not get a cab as no one was going to Farrer Park. Peak time is not a good time to book cabs. So I took the Metro, it was excellent.

Route back to park Royal - City Hall Station, change line at Dhobi Ghat station, to Farrer Park.

 

 

Sharjah to Abu Dhabi . SHJ to AUH

Travel from Abu Dhabi to Sharjah Airport
1) Leave Abu Dhabi Bus terminal at Al Wahda by 6.30pm bus, there is a Bay separately assigned for Sharjah buses. ( Freq = 1 hr ) . Cost 25 AED. Last bus is 10.30pm. Buses are White in colour. Sit on the right side of bus there is more leg space. Put luggage below the bus, ground security will open and close the Luggage compartment. It can get chilly with the ac draft after sun down. The drive to Jubail Bus station in Sharjah goes via Dubai. Reached at 9.30pm. 1 hr was added for the slow moving Dubai Traffic. After bus enters Sharjah emirate it makes several local stops, people alight at the famous malls.
Around 9.40pm, bus No.99 leaves for SHJ airport. It’s a small mini bus, you pay 5AED to the driver who will give you a receipt in the bus. It’s advisable to visit the loo before taking the bus to the airport. The Station loo is not very pleasant to visit, it need to be kept more clean. There is no designated place to keep luggage in the bus, so keep it close to your seat, it can be quite an obstruction to passengers boarding. luckily there were only 4 of us heading to the airport. We reached at 10.30pm , (50 min journey). The bus drops you at the Departure area, and also picks you there. There was traffic entering the Airport. You get luggage trolleys easily at the departure side.
The Departure and Arrival area is barricaded, so getting your luggage after alighting the bus to the Arrival side is tricky. Enter the Departure Right gate and slip into the arrival area inside, some people try to jump the barricade, don’t do that.
Someone told me that it cost 30 AED from Jubail Bus station to SHJ airport at 10.30pm, and 45 AED on the way back at midnight rate.
You check-in below and climb up to clear immigration. This leads you to the Duty free. Got two  1 Litre Red Labels for 160AED.
Some airline officials were checking cabin baggage weight. You can check in 30Kg to Pune
The trip to the Spice Jet plane was made by bus, flight left 1am Tue on time, it reached 5.30am IST.
At PUNE ( PNQ ) airport:
We had to clear the Ebola virus form, then proceed to immigration, another person checks your arrival stamp, then went down to collect luggage. Custom officials were harassing an ignorant traveler when passing through the metal detector, be careful of their tricks. After collecting baggage, there is a 100% scan of baggage done. I read that you can carry Rs 45000 duty free , the printed paper shows 35K ( may be outdated). You pay around 27% above duty free allowance.
6.30pm ( 1 hr later ) all formalities were complete. Visited the loo after custom clearance on the outside, else you need to use the loo at the immigration floor. Nisha parked her car and came looking for me, somehow parking was allowed that early morning. On return , at exit I took right and first left at major junction. This road is good but you hit a dead end and then take a Right to Ibis hotel where you do a U turn and head to Agha Khan Palace to home.
Travel from SHJ to Abu Dhabi.
Panchvati to PNQ airport by Rickshaw = Rs 350/- without meter. Left at 7.20pm and reached 8pm ( 40min ) . Had to place my Checkin Baggage through scanner first. I carried the pillow in cabin baggage. Again pass the police clearance , collect my scanned baggage, where an attendant will put a seal on your suitcase. Take that suitcase and Check in, take baggage tags. After check in go to the left passage way into another wing of the airport, here get your immigration done, head for security clearance, put all mobile and wallet into the handbag. Verify your baggage tag is stamped before you leave.
Go to gate 5 , top floor waiting area. Spice Jet Flight leaves 10.05 pm, 10 min late. Arrive SHJ 11.30pm local time
At SHJ , clear immigration , just give your passport with visa page displayed. They stamp it and someone verifies it. There is a scanner for hand baggage. Proceed to Baggage claim below.
Stay in Airport till 3am, take taxi to Jubail bus Station AED 45. 30min Drive open road.
4.30am , first bus leaves - Pay 30AED at counter and enter bus , the security guy takes the receipt in the bus. Got 2 hrs of good sleep here.
Reach Abu Dhabi at 6.30am. Take taxi down line to home , AED 8.25. Reach 7am. Head to work by 8am.

 

My Technical Experience

Asurion - Program in Hyderabad 

To launch a Insurance Product in India - Simply Swap

Job Description:

1) Project Coordinator between Commercial + Product + Marketing/Branding + CARE + IT + Supply Chain/Logistics + Client 

2) Pricing 5 Tiers , Collection of Monthly fee + Service Fee at time of Swap

3) Can exercise only 2 swaps in 12 month Rolling period

Challenges

1) The MSA was not getting signed - had to be persistent with Legal and Client

2) IT BRD was not shared - Provided clear Input and Output instructions - Tested at UAT

3) Hostile attitude from Client - Tata DoCoMo

4) Co-ordinate across 3 different geographies - Singapore + Delhi + Hyderabad

5) Launch date kept moving as there was not IT build - Go manual in processes , we only need the enrolment record to provide Service Delivery at time of Swap.

CONSULTING WISDOM

1. Bill 2000 hrs a year / 260 days a year / 50 weeks - 54 weeks minus 2 weeks National Holidays minus 2 weeks of paid Vacation. Rate should be 2.4 times his CTC
2. Consulting is a value business and not a rate business. If the client perceives high value returned , the rates are proportional
3. Profitability is a symptom of delivering value 
4. One thing to remember is that, as a business owner, you get paid last
5. Simply find 1000 people in this world of six billion (give or take)... and focus on finding the easiest way for them to want to pay you every month. Forget everything else.
6. or some of our customers, they retain us for knowledge on-demand, and not so much the pure output

Mubadala Project - July 2014 - Abu Dhabi

Learnings.
1) You need to know the budget cycle of the company you do work with.