Singapore trip, July 27-30, 2010

Asia Surgical Summit Meeting

Day 1, July 27, 2010

Staying at Swissotel Merchant Court Singapore (http://www.swissotel.com/EN/Destinations/Singapore/Swissotel+Merchant+Court/Hotel+Home/Hotel+Description). Very near to Clarke Quay.

Met our Vietnamese colleague.

My bed

With my Vietnam colleague (dr. Le)

Very refreshing!

Turkish Ice Cream Outlet

Turkish Ice Cream

My colleague, Ida, and the ice cream

Day 2, July 28, 2010

Attending the meeting at Regional office

Office birthday cake

Holding Singapore Flyer

Merlion and Marina Bay Sands Hotel

Dinner time!




 

Workshop in Singapore, May 10-11, 2010

Traveling to Singapore for a workshop.

Accommodation: Swissotel Stamford Hotel, rate SGD 220 ++

Marina Bay Sands from my hotel

Coming to the casino?

Going back to Jakarta (Sept 12, 2009)

It has been raining since yesterday afternoon.
We were planning to visit the only mesjid they have in Hanoi, but due to the rain, we just stayed in the hotel.
I have finished packing. I checked to the receptionist whether she has received our room payment through bank transfer.
We checked out at 11 AM. The flights went well. We enjoyed our time at Changi Airport. I checked my e-mails.
We said goodbye after getting our baggages back. Glad to be home again. Took a taxi to my sister’s place.

Weekend in Singapore, to work!

After rushing everything at work, I finally got to fly with my clients to a workshop in Singapore.
I remember my last trip to Singapore was in October 2007 for a job interview. So, it's been a long time.

We took SQ for the trip. The Jakarta-Singapore trip is in economy class (July 2, 2009). But when we go home, we'll be in business class. Yeah, thanks to peak season, we could not manage to get all economy class, so we had to combine.

We stay in Orchard Hotel, located at 442 Orchard Road.

My duty for the first night is to make sure my clients arrive safely. I had a client from Surabaya, landed in Changi Airport at 9 PM. I have arranged transportation from my clients from airport to hotel, vice versa.
For this, my Singapore colleague recommended Mr. Juergen Chua (juergen_chua at yahoo dot com dot sg).

Dinner, July 2, 2009
I and one of my client who's traveling with me took dinner My Mom Cuisine restaurant at Paragon, 10 minutes on foot from our hotel. It's Peranakan culinary.
We chose Crayfish sambal, Chicken Gung Pao, Mushroom hot plate, oyster omelet. It was too much for just the two of us.

Dinner, July 3, 2009
I and my two client went together with Malaysia colleagues and their clients. The dinner was in Seafood Paradise restaurant at Singapore Flyer. There were eight of us.
The interesting dishes were soup served in coconut shell, but the coconut meat was still intact so I can also eat it. There was Wasabi Prawn too.
Total cost around SGD 490.

Too bad it the night was late so I didn't have a chance to ride the Singapore Flyer.

Lunch on July 4, 2009 was in the hotel because the workshop was only half day.
The buffet cost SGD 45 nett per person. The cafe provides variety dishes. Too bad I always woke up late during my stay so I ended up took cereal only during breakfast.

The flight back was OK. I wished my flight wasn't that short so I can enjoy my business class seat.

Special Singapore Trip (October 17-18, 2007)

After waiting for sometime, I finally received confirmation from Sunil (my future boss) that we needed to meet in Singapore on Oct 17.

At the beginning, I planned to visit Singapore only for the meeting, so I’d be gone back on the same day cos Oct 18 we started working again after Eid holiday. But then I felt it would be tiresome. Not to mention that I planned to hand carry the shunts from Transmedic and no flight back to Jakarta on Oct 17.

So, while Sunil was paying for me, better I took 1 day early and spend the night at budget hostel and enjoy my time in Singapore. Found a place at The InnCrowd Hostel. It’s located in Little India. A mosque is near to the location.

It was a very very interesting experience for me, staying at a hostel. I didn't know that at a budget hostel, we shared room with other sex, we shared bathroom with them too. I asked the receptionist if I can change room, as I read all the names on the bunk beds were boys'. Unfortunately, the hostel was having high occupancy rate so I had to stick with my "room".

One thing for sure, I shopped and shopped, LOL. I have promised not to spend money, but I couldn’t help it! I found a nice pair of shoes at Lucky Plaza, made in Italy. Fit my feet, perfect height….. It was my most expensive shoes!

The weather was unpredictable. It was humid and rained. I had to buy umbrella. Susan asked me to find a lady handbag at Charles & Keith.

I was glad when I moved to the hotel where I and Sunil planned to meet. The next day, I checked out from the hostel and moved to our meeting location. I met his boss. We discussed lots of things. I must prepare a business plan for the new office. They will send me an offer letter in a week time, I must reply back as a confirmation. Then they will send appointment letter.

I bought chocolates for colleagues at work. I flew back to Jakarta on Oct 18 morning.

December 27, 2006: Another trip to Singapore continued to Purwokerto

After my trip to Singapore (dec 23, 2006), I needed to calm down. I reported this to my boss, informed our subdealer and the hospital. I hope the subdealer can negotiate this with hospital. I don't want us getting USD 35,000 penalty while we didn't make so much money from this project.

I checked and monitored the status of the shipment online. It turned out that it arrived at Singapore on Dec 24, 2006. Good! That means, I can pick them all around 27 Dec.
Christmas was on Monday, so must wait to book airplane ticket on Dec 26. This time I wanted everything was perfect!
Called Birkart Jakarta and Singapore, and called IndoExpress to provide the permit without GST. Nothing was left.
Because after arrived from Singapore, I and Hansen must straight away go to Purwokerto to submit the goods.

Oh yes, I reported the behaviour of Birkart's Singapore staff to their Jakarta office. I didn't ask her name, so it was difficult for them to report it to their head office. But Jakarta manager, Bu Yayu was really really upset hearing I was having a bad service.

======================
The important day. Went on Adam Air on Dec 27. They provided us a glass of mineral water and one Roti Boi. Gosh, kinda boring huh?

This time, I was able to use the free public phone! Yippie..... I stayed inside airport until I ensure everything was arranged nicely. Had some snacks, and watched CNN, then made more phone calls.
Oh God, what happened with the internet here? Changi has many internet workstation, free. I cannot login to my mail boxes, except Friendster. I need to check my e-mails!!!!!!!!

Oh well, bought a Burger King again. Went to Birkart's office. Smiled to Rose, but not that Bi**h.... At first I wanted to ask her how the movie was, going sarcastic here, haha..............But I decided not to greet her or talk to her, while everyone else was being nice to me.

I checked the goods: the ones from UK, the first shipment from US, and the second. Good, everything is here. I asked Rose to provide transportation for me and the goods to Changi airport.

Ooops, one small problem. Rose told me that one of the permit stated 2 boxes instead of only 1 box we had! Called IndoExpress and their permit agent. No good!
Then Rose tricked it. We opened the box, took out a part of the content and keep it in another box. Voila! we had two boxes now!

Got through the first custom at the freight area, I must get second chop from custom officers at Changi, otherwise they will consider me smuggling goods from Singapore. We don't want that happen, do we?

It took 3 trolleys to carry all of the goods, and I was alone. Thanks to one of the truckers, he accompanied me and helped me to push the trolleys to Custom and to check in counter.
With all the troubles moving the trolleys and check the goods in, I can relax a bit.

Had my dinner on 2nd floor. Ummm....not too nice.

Checked my e-mails again. Still couldn't access. Arrghhhhh...........what happened to the internet today?????

Had some rest on the plane. Hansen and Pak Jakri awaited me. We put all in the car and began our trip to Purwokerto.

You can imagine how tired I was. We got to hotel around 3 AM. Went to hospital at 8 AM, reported to the tender committe, and installed the machine.
Too bad dr. T was still in Hajj, otherwise we can start the training and test functions.

But.....................I felt relieved! My God.....it's been a hard time for me. Took a lot of energy and time to accomplish this project.

======================

And..... When I checked the items, I realized that Integra forgot to include the suction tubes, 6 boxes! My, my............
Must inform them to deliver it ASAP.

I will go back again to give a training to Dr. T and his team.

Later on I found out that there has been a problem with undersea fiber optic cable in Taiwan due to an earthquake. It caused interference on Internet in SEA area.

December 23, 2006: One day trip to Singapore (Airport)

I had to make decision to go to Singapore to pick up the equipments for Margono Hospital. Selvi and I have monitored the shipments for the whole week.
Integra has done some mistakes!
My concern now is that Christmas is coming, people and office will have their holiday.
Even IndoExpress, our freight forwarder is off on Friday, Jan 22. Another change of plan then.
I asked them to prepare things before their day off so when I'm in Singapore nothing's gonna go wrong.

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So,

It's time to go to Singapore, pick up the goods, and deliver them to the hospital. I couldn't sleep the whole week thinking what will happen during my trip.

Once I arrived at Changi, first thing to do was to call Birkart (our other forwarder), and check if everything is OK. I saw free public phones but (this is silly) I didn't know how to use it although I have read the instruction.

I went to exit door, found a seat, thinking what to do. Called Rose at Birkart, with my cell phone (I can imagine how much the figure on my next month bill).

I asked her the progress of the shipment. I and Selvi knew that we took a risk to come here, but I have pushed them for shipping it on time.

Rose told me that if I take the goods out of their office I must pay 5% GST. I was surprised, because my boss told me that he picked up Thermage machine from IndoExpress without paying the tax because it didn't go out of airport area.

Rose said her office is not in Change airport area.

Decided to have my lunch first, bought Burger King, I forgot the name but it was good. It has mushrooms in it. Then I took a taxi to go to Birkart's office.

It was far from airport, I thought it was in the same area. I see the situation now.

Arrived in Birkart office, looked for Rose. She was a nice lady, she's malay.

The goods worthed around EUR 20,000. I didn't have any money to pay 5% tax (although I can reclaim it at the airport). It wasn't required so office didn't give me much money.

Then I asked Rose to check status of the shipment, goods were still in Taiwan, . Yesterday night it was in Taiwan too, no progress????!!!!

Those were the most important goods I need.

While there were some disposable goods (small package) already arrived at IndoExpress office and have been delivered to Birkat office, Rose could not release it as she didn't know how to prepare the permit without me paying the GST. My goodness! I called IndoExpress in Indonesia, Rose called their Singapore office. No one there, it was 2.30 PM. All Birkart people has gone home, it was holiday season, it was Saturday. Only Rose and her colleague (she asked to) stayed.

I waited for any progress, seems nothing happened. Suddenly Rose's colleague scolded me, asked me what my company wanted them to do, etc, and what didn't make any sense that she had bought movie tickets and would be late because of me.

I was under HUGE pressure thinking about us failed to deliver, got scolded with some stupid reason given!

What the he** lady! You don't talk like that to your customer! I'm your customer, and you gave me a selfish reason: you were late to watch your movie. What a

I work in a service business, I sacrifice my personal things for my clients!

I stared at her. Didn't know what to say in English! I was sooo upset. Fortunately Rose was still helpful, I felt bad because held her at work at this time. But we didn't have any choice.

I called Selvi, said that we have done our best but we didn't get any results today.

I really want to scream loudly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How come this can be happening? It's like my nightmare come true.

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Went to Changi airport with a long face.

While waiting for my flight, I tried to enjoy Changi facilities and services.
Had some snack, yeah,....never forget my dear tummy :)
Took some pictures. They had a live music in the lobby of departure hall, playing Christmas carols.

My dinner was on 2nd floor, had Hainamese chicken and rice.

Flew home


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I went back to Jakarta empty handed. Must report to boss, to our partner, and to the hospital. We can't afford to pay huge amount of penalty, USD 35,000! It doesn't make any sense.
The key is to negotiate things.

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