A year ago today, I woke up at 4:30 am to race Challenge Roth which started shortly after sunrise. Today, I woke at 4:30 am to race a 10 km run in tropical Singapore to finish shortly after sunrise.
Running in Singapore comes with two major differences to many places in the world: Humidity and Heat: Therefore, running is recommended early in the morning and after sunset only to avoid the heat. And the humidity makes for very sweaty conditions. During today’s 10 km race, my body weight reduced by 1.1 kg…
The race was very nice: It started at 6:30 am, which is still dark in Singapore. After the start, I had to run through many slower runners or walkers. It took 2.5 km before I was able to run with runners at a similar pace to mine. The route went out to the National Stadium and back to the Marina Bay. At km 7, the course had us running along the pit lane of the Singapore F1 race course. The stretch along the paddock building and the starting line of the F1 race course is very wide and straight. This would have been the perfect location for a runners pit stop (i.e. nutrition spot), however the nutrition station was positioned on a narrow path just after we left the F1 race course. It seems that runners are not fast enough to qualify for a pit stop on the F1 track…
A year ago in Challenge Roth I was a ‘daylight finisher’ and today I was also a ‘daylight finisher’…. however today’s race was eleven and a half hours shorter! I was a happy finisher in both events.
Running in the morning humidity of 86% and a temperature of 27°C is much harder than in European locations. It felt more like a half marathon, than a 10 km race. Imagine how it feels to run a marathon in this climate!
This weekend, the Gardens by the bay celebrate their 5 year anniversary. For this, they planned a special show in the evening amongst other special events for this occasion. We went to the gardens early to enjoy some dinner there. This also allowed us to secure a good spot before the big croud of people arrives minutes before the start of the show.
The gardens by the bay are great at sunset. As it gets darker, the supertrees start to light up smoothly. The view from below with the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) hotel in the back looks spectacular. A few minutes later, the show started. The theme was about a view back over the past 5 years. It finished with a squad of drones in the sky forming the figure five.
On the other side of the MBS, the new light show in the marina bay called Spectra was introduced. As this is about 300 meters away from the gardens, we decided to walk over to enjoy this show as well. The best place for this show is at the stairs in front of the shoppes of the Marina Bay. This was a spectacular show: The show plays with water, light and laser. For many elements, they create fine spray of water that serves as a screen to project the arts:
Together with great music, the show with downtown in the background was very impressive. To my understanding, this show is presented daily at 8pm and 9pm. A must see for everyone in town.
Also on this weekend, the Marina Bay Regatta takes place from June 1-4. There are 80 dragon boat clubs from all around the world participating on this event. This is the first time, that this event takes place in the bay. A spectacle we are going to watch today. While we walked to the MRT station, a big section of the bay was blocked. The security guys explained us that the blocking of the area was necessary for the Drone show which starts in 15 minutes… They blocked the area so that drones are not flying over spectators. So we decided to wait and enjoy yet another (unplanned) show. All of a sudden, a swarm of about 50 drones showed up high in the sky. The white lights of the drones gave the impression as an invasion from mars could take place… – Over the bay, they performed a 5 minute ballet, assembling for different figures using different colors of lights as well. A nice and beautiful surprise for the end of our event-rich evening around the Marina Bay.
This is a special place in Singapore: The Kebun Baru Bird Singing Corner at And Mo Kio in the centre of the island. Located at the corner of a nice park, towering poles arise in a large area. Many of the poles have a bird cage hanging at a height of about 5 meters above ground.
Monitoring the birds…
At the side of the park, you find some sheltered areas with space for additional birds in cages. Old retirees are a common sight here – coming early in the morning and gathering for a chat and coffee as their feathered friends sing together with their fellow species.
Four species of birds socialise under this roof
The more serious hobbyists will engage in friendly competition among each other, revelling in their love for the sport. Prized birds are valued at tens of thousands of dollars, and are judged in categories such as singing ability, liveliness, stamina and beauty.
The Club at the Kebun Baru Bird Singing Corner
It was a very calm and friendly atmosphere in this place. The tweeting of the birds has a positive impact to your soul. The owners, some concentrated watching the birds, others sharing the latest with other owners seem to enjoy their Sunday morning in a relaxed atmosphere.
Men socialising while watching their birds
While we discovered the full area of the bird singing corner, an oriental pied-hornbill landed in a palm tree near the poles. As we are fascinated about these large birds (they are up to 60 cm long), we immediately moved over to this tree to see whether the hornbill is still there. And he was: As the palm tree had big fruits, the hornbill was busy eating one by one. It was fascinating, seeing how this bird with it’s long beak was able to eat these big fruits.
Hornbill eating dates
I was fascinated about the hornbill, trying to find the best position to take a nice photo from big lawn under the tree. With full concentration for the hornbill, I stepped into a 20 cm deep hole that served another animal as the entry to it’s underground home. Luckily, the fall was not severe. I had no harm and the camera did not get damaged either. This allows me to continue discovering Singapore with my camera…
Time flies; it’s already been 100 days since we arrived in Singapore in mid January 2017. Each and every one of these days has included an element of learning. Learning about the culture, the area, the huge variety of asian food, how certain things work, where to find specific items, etc. I love it.
Fifteen Robin – our home
We are fortunate to have found an apartment in a well located area, close to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. We live in a 4 year old high rise on the 6th floor where we enjoy a wonderful view over the roofs of the houses in front of us and spectacular sunsets in the evenings. As we like swimming, we both appreciate our 20 m lap pool at our compound. We have the luxury of having the pool to ourselves, most of the time. This is very different to the busy situations in public swimming pools we were used to before.
Our swimming pool
Within 10 minutes, we reach the gates of the world heritage listed Singapore Botanic Gardens. We love this proximity for jogging through the garden but also enjoy an evening walk through this calm and green area. However, it’s not only the Gardens and Parks that are green here in Singapore. 50 years ago, Singapore published their vision of becoming a Garden City. This vision has been well implemented. Everywhere you go in Singapore it is green; you find trees, bushes, nice plants, etc. Even bridges or walls are covered with plants and everything is well maintained. I often have the feeling that I walk through a giant garden…
Proximity to public transport is great for us. It takes me 4 minutes to walk from our block to the MRT station that brings me directly to the office within 13 minutes. Alternatively, there are two bus stops within a few minutes walking distance that bring us to Orchard road in a few minutes. Otherwise, taxis are on a very affordable. However, public taxi drivers often drive a special way in constantly accelerating, rolling, accelerating, rolling, etc, in the hope to use less petrol. Even if it saves a bit, one could easily get car-sick. That’s why I use Grab, whenever I can. Grab is a Singapore based startup with presence in South-East Asia running the same concept as Uber. I had a better experience with them. – Importing my car from Switzerland was not an option. Import taxes for vehicles in Singapore is 40%. Licence plates must be requested through an auction system. Such a COE (Certificate of Entitlement) currently costs more than 35’000 US$ and entitles you to drive your car for up to 10 years. This is how they encourage people to think twice about investing in a car in Singapore. In return, public transport is affordable with a good network and taxis are inexpensive.
The demand of taxis here in Singapore change quickly. As soon as it starts to rain, waiting times and prices for taxis increase immediately. Living in a tropical area (located 1° above the aequator), we have rain almost every day. Usually, this is a matter of 15-30 Minutes, short but heavy. – The day after we moved into our apartment, it rained in the morning. Being Swiss, I was used to wearing a raincoat in these conditions. Walking well protected to the MRT was ok, although the humidity didn’t make it too comfortable with an air tight raincoat. As I entered the station, I realised that the locals either carried a small umbrella or they just ran from the bus stop to the nearby building. I quickly realised, that I was the big exception wearing a rain coat. This was a immediate learning to me, that a raincoat is not required in Singapore. However, it is a good advise to always carry a small umbrella in your bag.
My office is located at the Marina Bay Financial Centre, one of the tallest towers in Singapore. During business times, this is a very busy area. I am fortunate, that my MRT station stops directly under my building. It takes me only 2 minutes from the MRT station to the 43rd floor with has a spectacular view to the Opera, the sea, as well as to the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel.
View from my office – Marina Bay & OperaView from my office – Marina Bay Sands & Marina Bay Gardens
Apart from the rain, sunshine, heat and humidity are present every day. I am slowly adapting to the humidity. However, it is hardest in the morning when the humidity is usually at it’s highest and I have to walk from my apartment to the MRT Station… From there, many places like MRT stations, offices and shops are all air-conditioned. The same goes for the MRT, buses and taxis. Sometimes too cold, so that I find myself looking forward to escaping into warmer areas…
Recently, we discovered a market, not far away from where we live. In Singapore, markets are usually split into two sections: In the dry market, you find fruits and vegetables while in the wet market, meat and fish are sold. The floors in this section are regularly cleaned with water, hence the name “wet market”. I love the variety of the fruits sold at these markets. They offer different types of mangoes, a variety of bananas, pineapples, papaya, longans, durians, coconuts, rambutans, etc. all from south east asia. As a European, I still consider these as exotic fruits. But living in Singapore this is now the other way around. Here, the exotic items are Parma ham, Mozzarella, Feta cheese, etc. So, it is all a matter of perspective… – Next to the market, there usually is a hawker centre where you find food stalls offering a huge variety of options (Chinese, Thai, Indian, etc.) in good quality at affordable prices.
There are 4 official languages in Singapore (English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil). During my first weeks, I had to get used to understanding the locals. English is most commonly used. However, the asian infused dialect is fairly different to British, Australian or American english. On top of this, there is also a local variation called Singlish. If someone says “Can”, this simply means “Yes, I can”. There is no further elaboration of what the person is referring to. And the contrary is simply “Can not”. Another example is if someone says that they are “going marketing” it simply means they are going shopping! It takes a bit of getting used to Singlish but the more you hear it the more it makes sense, and you start applying it as well.
I will be sharing more about my experiences in Singapore. So stay tuned!
First of all, the way Indian people drive in the streets is much different than what we are used in Europe. It looks chaotic, until the unwritten rules are understood. Constantly, there is someone using the horn. However, they use it different: European use the horn very modestly, either to warn about a serious danger or if one gets really angry. Indians use the horn to signal the driver in the front that someone is coming from the back indicating “please move aside, so I can overtake”. This works very well, everyone is cooperating quickly and no-one gets angry. The following video is from a normal day in the Pink City area of Jaipur. The sound you hear in this video is the norm – it never is quiet in an indian street…
The second big difference: There are rules, but most are ignored. The only rule I noticed being respected were red lights or police man ruling the traffic. Otherwise, everyone finds his way through the traffic. Sometimes, vehicles even drive on the opposite lane if this seems faster, easier or whatever other reason they have. Indian drivers are not stressed about such incidents. They just make their way wherever possible. – Many streets have no pedestrian walk. This is why you often see vehicles parked or stopped at the side or pedestrian using the same space the cars require. Indian drivers just ride around these temporary obstacles as this is normal. If there is a possibility to overtake a vehicle, it will be taken. And everyone is fine with this. I sometimes wonder, why streets have been applied with lane lines as no one cares about them. In a double lane street, cars are happily driving in the middle of the street, “using” parts of both lanes. Should there be a solid line in the middle of the street? No problem; this is considered decoration: If something needs to be overtaken, it will, no matter what the street signs indicate.
India traffic
The good side of this behaviour is that indian drivers must be very concentrated, always taking into consideration that suddenly an obstacle might occur. That’s why I barely saw any accidents in the streets. Another reason for very few accidents is that it is not possible to drive fast. The fastest speed was probably at the highway between Jaipur and Agra at nearly 90 km/h. There are always slow vehicles or animals in the street, the tar often is severely damaged through heavy rains or the street is slowed down through rough speed-bumps at junctions, around schools, hospitals or toll stations.
Indian truck driver
In Cochin, I had the opportunity to experience driving in Indian streets myself: I got a bike from the hotel. The bike was not optimal but this made the experience even more fun: The frame was too small, the saddle constantly slipped back into a steep position, the brakes were weak and the last time, the chain got oiled must have been at production time. When I drove through the streets of Cochin, I realised the concentration you require: All the participants in the traffic from all sides and on the ground for holes and speed bumps. Very quickly, I enjoyed the flexibility and tolerance in this system, e.g. to start riding on the wrong side of the street and smoothly integrate into the flow of the traffic. During these 25 km riding in the city, I always felt save as I knew that everyone respects the other one in the traffic.
India traffic – bike
Pedestrians usually have no priority. Nevertheless, it is relatively safe walking in the streets. The only time I got bumped aside was by a cow who wanted to make her way without circumventions. When a pedestrian wants to cross the street, no vehicle is stopping. As there is generally lots of traffic in the street, there is almost never an opportunity to cross the street with no vehicles in sight. Therefore, I learned that I just start walking, constantly checking the coming traffic. In all cases, vehicles drove around me, never putting me in a real dangerous situation.
Vehicles in the street
Everything is seen in the streets, in all variations and with different types of load, sometimes overload. In general, you see a lot of motorbikes. I got the impression that a middle class family can afford a motorbike but not a car. Therefore, you often see more than 2 people on a motorbike. The driver is usually a man, most times wearing a (old) helmet. The second person is usually a woman, sometimes wearing a helmet, sometimes not. Due to many women wearing sarees, they often sit sideways. The three person configuration usually includes one kid squeezed between the father and it’s mother. This must be the best way to secure them on the bike. If there are 2 kids, then the other one usually sits in front of the driver, many times holding the steering wheel. Hopefully, kids do not take too much control on the driving… – I have also seen configurations of 5 and 6 people on one motorbike. In such a situation, the mother held the kids as good as it gets… Unfortunately, I have not seen a single kid wearing a helmet. And I have seen reminders that motorbike drivers must wear a helmet. I assume that no helmets exist for kid sizes. This is sad. – As a motorbike is often the only vehicle a family owns, the bike is also used for a lot of different transports. I often saw motorbikes with up to 4 gas bottles mounted, two on each side. If the load cannot be fixed on either side of the bike, the drivers or co-drivers always find a way to transport their (sometimes bulky or long) goods.
India traffic – motor bikes
In Rajasthan, a lot of animals are seen in the streets. While people use camels or horses to transport their goods, farmers might move their heard of cows or goats across a street. Traffic stops for the time of the crossing and interestingly, no car horn is used in such an incident. This is just accepted by everyone. But there are also wild animals in the street: Cows, dogs and a few abandoned horses and donkeys make their own way through the streets. Especially the cows which are considered holy and so must be respected, show no signs of fear in the traffic. Even if the slowly walk against the traffic, they always seem to be relaxed…
India traffic – camel
Public busses are highly used. Most times there is not enough seating capacity and people must stand, often very very close to each other. I decided not to experiment such a cozy bus ride, despite the temperatures which usually were between 33°C and 38°C… – In case there is not enough space in the bus, people also climb to the roof of the bus. This was more the exception and I only have seen this on the highway between Jaipur and Agra, never in a city.
India traffic – Public busses
With the trucks, I was fascinated about their design: Every truck I saw was hand painted. The designs include a lot of details. I wonder how many hours have been spent to decorate an average indian truck. At the rear of the car, they all write “Horn please”, “Use horn”, “Blow horn” or similar. As using the horn is the norm anyway, I am surprised that this is seen on every truck as well as on every tuk-tuk.
India traffic – blow horn
Tuk Tuks are seen everywhere: They are small, flexible and usually the cheapest taxi you can get. The small size still gives an opportunity to seat (squeeze is probably the better word) up to 6 people plus driver in one single tuk-tuk. At first, every tuk-tuk looks the same. Looking closer, you notice that every tuk-tuk is individualised: It can be the decor of the seats, the design of the roof, a special print outside of the tuk-tuk, etc. One night, we rode a tuk-tuk from a restaurant back to the hotel. Big loud speakers were installed at the back of the seats. We asked the driver if we can have some music. He was proud to showcase his Tuk-Tuk Hi-Fi. He put the current India hit “Sunny, Sunny” at high volume and drove off. The four of us started to dance in the tuk-tuk. We had a lot of fun on this ride and I think the driver was the most excited as his Hi-Fi investment created happy guests…
India traffic – Tuk tuk
During my five weeks in India, I have spent quite some time in taxis. There was always something to be seen and even for long taxi rides. The longest was about 6 hours for a distance of 200 km. I was never bored as there was always something new to discover. Either the different types and shapes of vehicles, activities at the side of the street or the landscape, in the rare situations I came through non-populated areas.
My CSC project nears the end. Yesterday afternoon, we ran the official closing presentation with 18 participants from CECOEDECON, VSO and IBM. Natasja and I explained the findings we discovered in the past 3 weeks and we recommended key success factors for their next 5 year strategy plan.
In the past few years, India made huge progress in it’s industry and economy, confirming that it is an emerging country. This success is noticed world wide. While this is a good sign for the industrial and economical side of the country, international donors and charities read this signal to route donations away from India into other countries. Hence, traditional funding streams for indian NGOs are shrinking. This combined with additional moving patterns in politics, economy, social, technology and legal requires every NGO to prepare for change.
Workshop
That’s why we initiated this change process with a workshop for leading a transformation the same day after the final presentation. I had the impression that the call for change in our final presentation was understood. The workshop had a highly engaged participation. With the exercises we did, they created a lot of ideas how they personally play a role and foster a supporting climate in this process. The longer the workshop took place, the more opinions and ideas were brought up and generated more and more fun situations as well. Once more, I was very happy to see that a seat we planted did start to develop which was confirmed by their active participation.
Today, our CSC India 32 team delivered our community service day at CECOEDECON’s founding location. We were welcoming more than 120 women from rural village communities, organised in self help groups. Our agenda was about self-empowerment of women. We organised three workshops about being proud, financial well-being and setting priorities.
Welcoming with the first delegation of women
We enjoyed a very warm welcome with the first delegation of women arriving. Everyone of these guests wore a different saree. In the sunlight, these vibrant colours have a very powerful effect. Some women transformed this energy with dancing to the music and they encouraged us to participate as well… While some were still dancing, we were surprised again as all the men were given a turban. In the last few days, I got more and more fascinated about the different colours and styles of turbans I see. I developed a desire to once experience how to fold this 6 m long fabric into a turban on my head. And suddenly, this idea took place much earlier than I could have imagined. A very nice surprise!
Proper setup of a turbanCSC Team India 32 with turban
All 5 of us equipped with a turban, we were asked to move to the backyard of the building. Manish explained us that for a community service day, they would like to leave something behind. When you plant a tree, you are making the world a better place for all those generations that follow you. That’s why everyone of our 10 CSC India 32 team members was able to plant an ashoka tree. I had the honour to start this special procedure.
Planting a tree for the following generationsFirst women in the audience
Based on my observations in the first 2-3 weeks in India, I realised that people here like to be photographed. The women we invited for this community service day likely did not have a semi-professional photo of them before. That’s why I proposed to use my camera for this day, taking portrait photos of all participants. We framed this idea into the topic of being proud. While I took photos, my colleagues Ale and Mark discussed with the women the connection of body language and pride. At the end of the community service day, every participant received a print of the personal portrait.
Beneficiaries of the IBM CSC Community Service Day India 32
In the closing session, some women stood up and started singing and dancing. To me, this was a very emotional moment. The room was filled with energy. I got the impression that this was one day in their life they will remember for long.
Singing and dancing in the closing session
For this community service day, we were expecting about 60 participants. With an attendance of more than 120 people, the printing took longer than planned. Some of the women started to worry about their livestock and other duties they have to look after. Therefore, we offered those still waiting for the print to pick up the photo next week. However, everyone decided setting priority to receiving their photo. This showed us that this personal gift was of high importance to all participants. The smile and pride I saw in their faces when they received their portrait photo was a big reward to our contribution.
IBM CSC Community Service Day India 32 team with CECOEDECON and VSO
The whole team was very pleased with the outcome of this successful, memorable community service day. It was one day everyone who was there will remember for a long time!
Manish, our primary contact at CECOEDECON recently mentioned that I reminded him of Omar Abdullah, a famous politician from the Kashmir area. Since this day, team members from time to time call me Omar. And Indian people are buying in to this comparison. What do you think?
This morning, a hotel employee approached me with a big smile, while I was at the breakfast buffet. “You’re on the Newspaper, together with your friends”. I was very surprised and honoured that the hotel staff identified Natasja, Mark and myself in today’s newspaper in an article about the Jaipur by nite marathon. I was also surprised about my quote. I did not say much more than what appeared in the newspaper. Apart from the time information (we are here for a full month in total, not 4 weeks in the country already), everything else is what I said.
The Times of India – Jaipur, September 20, 2016
So this was my first media experience of my IBM Corporate Service Corps mission and a positive one.
When I prepared for my trip to India, I asked Sid, an Indian work colleague of mine about hints for running in India. He convinced me to not plan running outdoors as it would be very hot during the day (correct: today’s temperature was just about 39°C…) and the streets are too dangerous as no one expects a person running, apart from the fact that there usually are no sidewalks existing. Therefore, for my CSC assignment, I mentally prepared myself to run on treadmills during my stay to keep a minimum of sport activity.
Last week, I learned that Jaipur runs the 4th edition of the Jaipur by nite marathon. I started to investigate more about this event. It turned out that the marathon event actually only has two distances: 10k and 5k. No mention of 42.195 k… On the other hand, such short distances are doable for many. That’s why I asked the team if someone is interested to join. Over three days, the idea increased popularity and I could sign up all of our 10 team members for the race. We planned two groups: the first group will be running together, the second will be walking. The main intent was a fun and joint experience.
Team cscindia32 ready for the Jaipur by nite marathon
Information about the race on the website was little. It said that participants are expected to be at the starting point by 9 pm. Given this schedule, we arranged an early dinner at 6 pm at our hotel.
On our way to the event location, our taxi was riding on the street that was planned for the running track. Traffic on this 3-lane street was just normal and we wondered by what time they intend to block the traffic so the street is safe enough to run.
Half an hour before the event started, we arrived at the event location. We were surprised to barely see anyone around with a start number. Not much happened at this time, which confused us very much. We found someone who looked like a representative of the event. He explained us that the start of the race is around 11 pm for the 10k, and 11:30 pm for the 5k. This was some different timing than everyone of our team expected. These timings were not published anywhere. Further checks resulted in similar times, all between 10:30 and 11:30 pm… Many of our team lost confidence into the (approximate) start time; waiting for 2,5 hours or even more was a reason some were not pleased with this situation. That’s why we decided to split up: Natasja, Mark and I decided to stay, “taking the risk” for a long wait. The rest went to our drivers who drove them back to the hotel.
The three of us returned to the start area which finally began filling with people. Local bands were playing and we noticed an increasing media presence. Being non-Indian, we became a target for many photographers and video journalists. Two young guys asked us for a YouTube video interview and a journalist of the Times of India was curious to hear our story what motivated us to attend this event. These actions kept us busy and so the time to the start of our race went by quickly. At 11 pm, the 10k run started and we were asked to line-up at the start. I was surprised to see all the different gear people wore: Some turned up in running gear with shorts, the way we were dressed. Much more people were seen in a running shirt and long trainer trousers. The less usual run gear (at least for me) was a number of people in jeans with a cotton T-Shirt or shirt. I was somewhat surprised to even see some women in their spree, with a start number attached. Another woman attached her start number on her hand bag. – I have been in start lines of many races but this mix of attire was a first but refreshing to me. It showed that you do not require special gear to attend a fun run. Attending and having fun is more important than the gear.
With the start of the race, it quickly became clear that most ones in running gear had the intention to run these 5k. The majority of the people in street wear were walking or fast walking. In any case, it was supposed to be a fun run and I had the impression that everyone enjoyed the atmosphere.
Happy finisher of Jaipur by nite marathon: Natasja, Mark & Markus
The 3-lane street provided a lot of comfortable space for all runners. Yes, they managed to completely block the street in a length of 5k for this race. This must have been the most quiet time for a very long time in this street: In regular indian traffic, there is always at least one vehicle using it’s horn…
The temperature of 29°C during the race made me quickly sweating, even running at a comfortable pace. We happily finished the race together, as planned. At the finishing line, Natasja heard someone saying that she was the first women to cross the finishing line. And Mark clocked a new personal best for the 5k distance. We were all glad to “risk” waiting longer. The payback was a fun experience.
